Welcome to Week 6’s Movable Feast!
Please join us on the journey exploring augmented reality (AR) in education. We encourage you to navigate this content on your mobile device. That way you can look at it anywhere, anytime!
https://ksneiser.wixsite.com/aretec523
Overview of the interactivities:
– Metaverse Survey – download the app to complete the AR survey
– Follow the AR Twitter page (optional)
– Share your experiences with AR throughout the Padlets on the site (4 Padlets total – one optional)
– What direction do you see AR going in the future? – FlipGrid response
We encourage you to explore and post your initial thoughts, questions, and activities early on in the week and check back throughout the week to respond to others.
Please remember to write your name on the Padlet posts as it often posts as anonymous!
Enjoy exploring! Please feel free to comment below or ask any questions you may have while navigating through the site.
Thanks and have fun!
Juliano, Kylie, Linda, Michael, Tyler
People apologizing for late comments on the 21st and then I swoop in like, OH YEAH?!
My favourite bit of the site was the Future Outlook page – it highlighted some really interesting ideas that we’ll likely start to see. The Google Glass was obviously a massive flop, but it was also ugly. A more fashion forward approach will help with that. And the contact lenses you mentioned – that’s almost frightening. It’s hard enough right now to get people to put down their phones and look you in the eye – imagine when they’re looking at their phone WHILE looking you in the eye. Yeesh!
I also really appreciated that your team introduction was on the first page. I’ve always saved it to the end, but I like that you spoke almost immediately about your various backgrounds and expertise. And the Flipgrid is great too. Obviously a few teams have employed that method and I’m a big fan – it’s getting me thinking on how I can incorporate it into my classroom practice.
Thank you for checking out our OER! We appreciate your interest and comments! I really like your comment regarding the contact lenses. While it has interesting applications, the screen time issue could definitely be worsened. Although one of the advantages of AR/VR technology is its engagement value, but would it grab too much of our attention? It would be interesting to see how this technology develops and unfolds!
Apologies for the late feedback, team, but thank you for your OER on AR. You provided us with a number of apps to test out and a context for how to use them in the classroom. I’m finding that my older phone really struggles with AR and it completely drains my battery – something I am certain newer phones do better with and that will be fixed when we find a solution for longer battery life in mobile devices or use separate devices such as wearables to interact with more AR content.
I did want to say that the Padlets didn’t function well for me on mobile. On a smaller screen they are difficult to read, but my issue was with interacting with it to be able to create a post. I just kept clicking around until finally, it worked, but it was frustrating.
Hi Mel, thank you for your insights! I definitely noticed the problem with battery life with my phone as well, especially when running resource intensive applications that involve AR and camera. Hopefully, this problem will be solved with the advancement of battery technology as well as the improvements in AR technology itself. If the algorithms and programs can be more efficient and effective at creating AR overlays, it can reduce its power requirements as well!
We also noticed the problem with the Padlets, but sadly, we weren’t able to figure out a solution. We’ll keep this in mind for future projects and try to find better engagement tools!
Hello AR team,
Thanks for such a nice presentation. I really enjoyed the AR on the education page. I have not used AR a lot. I have had some experience with VR though. Going through the apps you mentioned, I am already downloading some just to try them. 3D bear did not work very well for me, I am glad that CoSpace Edu did. I would like to try AR or even VR in my classes, just not sure how well this will work. I am on the search for a nice AR tool for my classes now. Thank you for sharing the info.
Guys! That was AMAZING! Super engaging and honestly very interesting. The flow was really great, I like that there was a variety of ways to learn. One comment I would make is whether there is something other than padlet to provide feedback. I was happy to see flipgrid at the end because it makes for a more interesting feedback method. Having said that I was very impressed with this whole project. Great design.
In terms of AR, my main concern in the field of education is always HOW will it be used? HOW will it enhance students ability to achieve learning outcomes. You guys did a great job of providing examples, I hope that there is quality Professional Development for classroom teachers as well.
Thanks again. Well done!
This was great AR Team – This was my second choice behind video primary, if I ever had to do a project on AR and VR. Having done a research paper few years ago using SWOT analysis on VR hardware, you guys have further exemplified the uses of AR/VR in the education with the apps and tools. I think we will be seeing more robust technologies from power players like apple/google/ compared to the FB/xbox/PS4 hardware which is more cumbersome today to handle and focuses on games. I think developers need to be provided the tools to focus more on VR apps and guidance on design thinking for education.
Good job!
Hey all,
Sorry for the very late comment, it’s been a crazy week!
I really enjoyed your week’s presentation. I’ve always been (and continue to be) one of the VR/AR sceptics. As much as I see the potentials, I see the detriments and until it is able to concretely offer all the aspects of it we celebrate in anticipation I am likely going to remain hesitant. Particularly because I see it as a fun technological novelty but struggle to see how it extends or drastically improves educational outcomes in constrast to some of the techniques we already have now. But, we do need to follow the evolution of AR before this can be confirmed or denied.
That said, I can see the sparks and places where it could really make a difference and your moveable feast highlighted that for me. I also was brought to recognise all the things that already use AR that I wasn’t aware of, which was my favourite part of this all! I’m saving your infographics because I found them very informative, and appreciated your selection of Youtube videos as well. The activities were great because they integrated a lot of the software and information you had provided, giving a deeper and more immersive learning experience for all of us.
Hi AR Team,
Thanks for putting this week’s OER together. I wasn’t aware that Geogebra worked with AR, and I enjoyed playing around with that a bit and imagining how I could use it in my classroom, and I really liked the Minecraft video – I’m curious to explore that more now. I did have a few little issues relating to layout and mobility, though. Can you link the QR code for the Metaverse quiz so that it’s linked to the actual quiz? I ended up needing to take a screenshot of my laptop using my phone which wasn’t ideal. Also, I’d suggest looking at changing the formatting on the padlets, as they required scrolling within scrolling within scrolling and made it difficult to read other people’s responses.
Hi Juliano, Kylie, Linda, Michael, and Tyler: I enjoyed the activities and the variety offered! From padlets to taking selfies in the Metaverse app, they were self-contained, relevant to your topic and reminded me of micro-assessments (small efforts providing insight).
Before going through your presentation, I often made the mistake of confusing AR and VR technologies. The resources you shared helped clarify their unique differences. I mentioned in the Padlets that I’ve only tried AR for tourism-related experiences (amusement parks, museums and galleries). Never have I attempted to create one myself, so trying out the different apps was a new experience for me. I didn’t realize that there were a number of free apps readily available for this either. Seeing as it’s still a ‘frontier’ technology, I wonder if there will be universally recognized specs/criteria to evaluate which AR apps are here to stay, as an effective education tool.
I enjoyed trying out a few apps which I may use in a class. I still find it pretty gimmicky, but AR seems to be improving rather quickly and it will certainly become more useful as time passes. I tried Assemblr, 3d Bear, and found one of my own: Solar System Scope. I think it’d be fun to start a space unit using this in my class!
Thank you, AR team! What a wonderful site for information and resources! I was able to easily navigate through your site on both my mobile and my laptop. I really liked using the Metaverse app to answer your survey questions and kept thinking about how I could incorporate it into my classroom with my students.
Do you have any lessons or strategies that you currently use with your students? My students are in grades 4 and 5 and we would be using our school iPads.
I was thinking a scavenger hunt of information or some sort? Or? It would be amazing to have students experience a destination or teach about history if they had AR visuals for that. Can you imagine AR field trips?!
A great site with lots of information that has been cleared up for me as a newbie to AR-Thank you.
Kat
Hi Kat,
I haven’t used metaverse in my class yet, but I have used other experiences, such as Google Expeditions. Personally, I think that would be a great way to introduce them to AR and VR. I have only done VR with the younger students (grade 3), but that was because it fit their curriculum better and with Expeditions, they are similarly layed out. I do like your idea of a scavenger hunt, as me and my grade team do an Amazing Race, and we are always looking for new activities.
Hello, AR team. Thank you for sharing the riched resources and thoughts. I liked the video of Minecraft Earth because it presents how AR + Mobile may look like. The research and the technology of AR per se are still so young. However, I believe mobile devices and wearing devices are the platforms where AR can make a difference indeed. I would like to see more of the content that specifically links the mobility and AR together. One of the most challenging issues for education today is the gap between the subject knowledge and the real situation. AR has the potential to narrow this gap.
Hi Yi! Thank you for your comments on mobility and showing real-life applications of what students learn! I just saw your A1 on Pokemon Go, and the idea of using mobile AR for education has great potential! A Taiwanese study by Chiang et el (2014) used mobile AR to teach students about aquatic plants around their school. When they get to a location with a certain type of plant, AR overlay with more information about the plant will pop up. The system they used also allowed students to take pictures, make notes and have discussions with other students. The study concluded that the mobile AR system helped improve student learning. I thought this was an interesting example to share about using mobile AR to encourage learning outside a classroom!
Thank you guys for putting together this educational resource. There’s definitely a lot to read and discover about AR and VR. As I mentioned on your website, I would love for UBC to incorporate VR for online and distance courses. This would be an amazing tool for us to collaborate and to work on different group projects.
Hi AR Team! I enjoyed the various activities and apps that you have presented. The applications of AR in education, especially senior level courses, do not seem to be very abundant or significant. It does have potential, and a great entertainment factor, however, I’m wondering about its educational value for the mainstream. Do you think that AR is still very young?
Hi Binal! Thank you for your comments! From our research, a number of papers concluded that AR can improve student learning and increase their motivation and attitudes, but some raised questions regarding its effectiveness. Other than entertainment values, I think that AR can students visualize “invisible” or hard to see processes and concepts such as the inside of a volcano or an atomic view of a chemical reaction. Some of these can be explored in sample lessons on apps we shared such as CoSpaces and Assemblr. AR has been tested in more technical courses such as those in medicine.
I personally think that AR is still young in terms of adoption in education. While AR has entertained us in daily lives for a while now, we haven’t seen too much use of AR in education, perhaps due to its relative novelty, lack of experience with it, and technology requirements. I think that further research is needed on how to effectively integrate AR and some technical limitations need to be addressed. Hopefully we’ll see more AR in education soon!
Great discussion here! I agree with Binal… currently I see more of a novel effect and the entertaining aspect of AR, but thank you Linda for further explaining the possibilities of using AR, especially in those STEM courses.
Hi Binal and Linda,
Thank you for raising this point. I was also thinking along the same lines as both of you. AR has some great possibilities to entertain us in our daily lives, but I am having trouble envisioning it into education in its current form. I am very interested to see where it goes. Do you think that instead of having to use our phones, that perhaps people will have visors like the pilots, or even more out there…like wearing contact lenses with AR capabilities? That would be an exciting experience. But then, how do you control student engagement in the classroom, if you are not able to see what AR they are participating in. Would it be distracting?
Thank you for this discussion and for allowing me to dive into the possibilities of what AR can look like in future classrooms.
Hi there,
Some very thought provoking questions for sure. To respond to Binal’s initial question and in addition to what Linda stated, yes it is definitely in its infancy. In looking at the research though, one thing I was surprised with was the number of studies I found that were specific to subject areas. Honestly, I struggled at times to find studies that encompassed education as a whole. This got me thinking that although it may be new to education, it has been around long enough to have more specific research. Kristin, I have used AR in my classroom a few times. Personally, I have found the students to be quite engaged, and the activities allowed me to bring in inventions of Da Vinci, without actually bringing in the objects. I do like the idea of wearing contacts, I have been thinking about that for a while too. There are so many possibilities, especially in regards to education.
Great questions! I think that AR is definitely in its infancy especially in terms of making its way into education. With that said, I have found that AR has been helpful in giving students the opportunity to see abstract concepts in action. Kristin, in terms of how we can control student engagement or monitor their activities, I think something needs to be developed to allow us to do that that is similar to how we monitor computer use in school computer labs. Teachers can see what all their students are doing on the computers, lock the screens of their students, share their own screen with everyone, etc. Something similar could be created for AR where when students connect to a network to get access to AR content at school, the teacher can monitor what they’re doing from a device.
Just wanted to add to Juliano and Michael – EON Reality, a supplier of AR and VR products, has partnered with the University of Siena to create academic AR and VR content with its AVR platform. EON Reality’s AVR platform allows educators to create interactive AR and VR online lessons without needing any coding or advanced technological knowledge.
https://eonreality.com/platform/
Perhaps when companies like EON invest in resources for education, great things can happen! Educational institutions, now more than ever, need to employ technology such as AR as I think VR might be on the sidelines for a bit, due to the most people have nauseating effects, and it’s not a one size fit all solution.
Did no one else here grow up on Star Trek TNG? Geordi’s visor was a great example of AR as it could be used in different ways depending on the scenario. AR that can change depending on what you’re doing or what you want sounds like it could be amazing!
I did! TNG was my favourite show. 🙂
Hi AR team, thank you so much for a very well thought-out presentation. I found it to be informative, interactive and very easy to navigate on both mobile and desktop! One of my big takeaways was how much AR has already become part of my day to day life without realizing it. At first I approached the subject as a new technology I wasn’t familiar with but as I worked through the material I realized just how much experience with AR I already have- SnapChat filters, measuring apps, Pokemon Go, etc. Crazy to think how embedded this tech has already become in our work and leisure in such a short amount of time.
Some feedback- while it was great to see you ask for input and ideas regarding the use of AR tech, I noticed that in most cases the question posed in the context of a classroom or teaching environment. While I’ve worked in Education for some time, I’m personally not a teacher/instructor, my work is in administration and student support, so I found those parts of the presentation a bit tough to engage with.
That said, the whole thing was excellent! I really enjoyed it and felt that I learned a lot. Thanks again!
Hello Augmented Reality Team!
You have certainly put together a great resource. Not only was your site easy to navigate, it was very informative on the topic of Augmented Reality. I have been quite interested in Augmented Reality and all that it has to offer. I think there is so much potential with AR and how it can be used to enhance our teaching practices. I found the interactive activities to be engaging and it made me reflect on my own practice and what I can do with my own students in the future.
Hi Team AR! I worked through your OER and I learned some new things. I liked how the Youtube videos explained things simply and nicely. I did have some trouble getting Metaverse to work on my phone; I think the problem is with my phone. Overall, nice website.
Thanks, AR team! Your presentation has definitely deepened my understanding of AR and its potential in mobile education. I particularly appreciate the infographic on the differences and similarities between AI and AR. Like many others, I barely used AR in my context. I see great potential in using AR in geometry, science and biology etc., and wonder how AR can benefit my students. One of the research findings you mentioned really inspired me – AR led to better reading comprehension scores and retention of ideas compared to the students in the control group who read without AR (Bursali & Yilmaz, 2019).
I also enjoyed the “”Make Your Own AR” activity. Super fun playing with the apps you recommended. I show cased a few of my AR creations at my department meeting yesterday and all the linguists in my department were excited and wanted to try using AR pictures as writing prompts next school year.
Bravo, team!
That’s great to hear Ceci! I love the idea of using AR pictures as writing prompts! They do add an extra dimension to things. In terms of language learning, AR can also provide another fun method for students to express themselves or practice storytelling! There are a few lesson plans in 3DBear that I thought looked super fun for kids.
Thank you, Linda! Will definitely check 3D Bear out 🙂
Thanks, team! I mentioned in my responses that I’m often frustrated by the awkwardness of using AR through a mobile device camera but after going through your presentation I feel more excited about future developments with AR. As you mentioned, AR is really in its infancy, and when a technological innovation is in its infancy, it’s more important to look at what it can potentially do with some development versus what you can accomplish with it right now.