Welcome everyone to our OER on Augmented Reality!
We all began this project with little to no experience with AR and as such we felt the best way to approach this project would be from our unique personal and professional backgrounds. We concluded that one of the primary reasons AR has taken so long to become commonplace in our respective professions, despite the rapid advancement of the technology, is due to its perceived implementation challenges. We decided our project should assist in forging avenues for those who would like to explore the possibilities of AR applications but are struggling to overcome the integration barrier.
We have divided our project into sections where we provide relevant background information on the technology before diving into various applications connected to different professional environments and then finally offering some generalized, research-based suggestions for how you could implement AR technology in your personal/professional life.
There is quite a bit of information and several applications included in the project and, while we would encourage you to explore every facet of our project, we would also like to respect your time. On that note, you will find several activities embedded in the project. Please do not feel obligated to engage in all of them (though you are certainly welcome to do so). Instead, we hope that you will find your way to a particular project or application that resonates with you so that you may explore and share your experiences.
There are several discussion questions on the “Final Thoughts” page that we would encourage you to respond to in the comment section below if you are feeling comfortable enough to do so. Our group members will be facilitating discussions in the comment section throughout the week and would love to hear your thoughts, experience, and feedback.
With all that said, let’s jump in!
This link will take you to our home page and from there you are free to explore at your own pace:
https://sites.google.com/view/etec523-a2-augmented-reality/what-to-expect?authuser=0
We look forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback!
Enjoy!
AR Group: Sally Bourque, Sheena Chan, Joëlle Ferlatte, Sarah Ng, Ben Coulombe
The praise you’re getting for your project is well-deserved; as mentioned by our peers, it’s engaging, intelligent and informative. I like how you stressed that good effective AR doesn’t have to be complex or expensive as that’s something I think puts off possibles users. Being a foodie, I downloaded MenuAR but the only restaurants they were partnered with were in Hong Kong so that was a little disappointing! This is also an issue with the app we’re designing in our team whose effectiveness is limited by the need to access very specific kinds of external data. The introduction of AR into retail has the potential to really value-up the process. The customer knowing exactly what he/she should be getting puts pressure on the vendor to deliver.
Hi AR team, this is a great project, and I really enjoy it. The site is straightforward to follow with very organized content and was visually stunning. To answer the two questions: Are you inspired to introduce or rework AR into your current practice? How do you think it will add value? From a personal trainer perspective, AR and fitness could be a perfect collaboration that users could experience different platforms of personal training. It will add value to the fitness industry that personal trainers could help more clients globally anytime and anywhere. With the development of AR technology, more people will enjoy fitness in various environments without the limitation of particular locations and equipment. However, the AR technology may replace the traditional gym and personal trainers, as the existing implementations of fitness apps and AI personal trainers on the market.
Hi Steve,
Coming from someone who works out alone in the basement, I can see how AR and fitness can be a perfect collaboration. For instance, having a trainer guiding me through a workout and making sure I have good form from my own home would be extremely valuable (something AI personal trainers and fitness apps wouldn’t be able to accomplish!). Additionally, I think AR could enhance motivation, something that is not a given when working out in your own home!
What a great job you all did with this website! It was extremely engaging and user-friendly with excellent visuals. For the questions “are you inspired to introduce or rework AR into your current practice? How do you think it will add value?” I am absolutely inspired to use AR! I am a social studies teacher for grades 8-10, and I was quickly imagining ways of integrating AR while going through your website. It can add value in that AR can make historical figures and objects “real” and students can have fun with the content. Just like how students like to mess around with snapchat filters that use AR, I can imagine that some would get a similar kick out of adding Joseph Stalin to the room with them. It’s a very easy entry point for students who otherwise have no interest in history to perhaps pique their interest a little. For the next question “how do you think you might be using it in 5 or 10 years’ time?” I think it depends a lot on the development and portability of VR. If VR were to become much more practical to use in classrooms, it may be the more immersive option than AR. Instead of seeing Stalin in the room, students could instead find themselves in Moscow with him. For now however, AR is the much more affordable and convenient way to bring some fun immersive content to students’ phones.
Hi Liam!
I am a social studies teacher as well and share the same excitement towards AR that you have demonstrated! Sometimes it is difficult to engage our students with the subject we teach. However, with the integration of AR, there are so many ways we can create fun and interesting lessons! As you mentioned, AR is a convenient and affordable technology to introduce into our high school classrooms. With the help of these applications, we can definitely make history come alive for our students!
What a great project! I have been thinking of AR for a project in my workplace, however I have been thinking in extremely complex terms. I love how you’ve been able to take me back to the basics (and in the process managed to make me rethink my wordcloud!)
I was so inspired that I decided to check out some apps I can use with my daughter (3.5 yrs old). She loves to draw, so we tried out Quiver. You can download free image packs from quivervision.com that you can print out and color with your child. Once you’re done, you use the Quiver app, aim it at the colored page and watch the image come to life with animations and special effects.
Thanks for making me think outside my sandbox and for inspiring my exploration. My daughter thoroughly enjoyed my homework time!
Hi Megan,
Thank you for sharing the resource! I am going to check Quiver out this week. You touched on something very important that we as a group realized as we started the project; AR does not need to be very complicated. The most basic apps are often just as effective as the complex ones especially when looking at children’s learning.
Fantastic work on this resource. It is always tough being out of the gate.
In response to the questions: I don’t think my perspective changed from the start to end of this resource; I put fun, mindbending, and novel. This technology is very cool and I suspect will continue to develop until it hits a tipping point and becomes mainstream the way smartphones are.
In my current practice we began the process of implementing some of these concepts an Virtual Reality, not Augmented Reality prior to the pandemic with dipping our toes into AutoDesk’s Synthesis application which would have allowed our competitive robotics teams to create their robot in CAD before simulating driving it with a headset (from the same location as they would drive in competition).
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ifoYFhf7hW9keiVfQwur60Vf0N96t0sh
I’m working on my A1 project right now specifically talking about the hardware aspect of this so stay tuned as I think that a couple of advances in the hardware side of AR will be the aforementioned tipping point for this phenomenon.
Hi Mitchell!
It was definitely intimidating being first!
What an exciting way to experiment with VR! The pictures you shared makes me want to attend a robotics competition! Hopefully your teams will get back to simulating with the help of VR post-pandemic. Your experience with VR really demonstrates how this type of technology can be used in so many different ways. Can’t wait to see what they come up with next!
Thank you for your detailed review and suggestions for different AR applications. This is a valuable resource that I will refer to when discussing AR with teachers and students that are being introduced to this technology.
I have tried several AR applications in my own practice. I like the ones that add information, bring some things to life like stories and on of the most successful has been the show the scale of things. These are all basic consumption-type uses of AR without much user imput or creativity. I have not had great success with the creative side of AR applications. In general, the devices and computing power have yet to meet the needs of AR. The intuitiveness of the creative apps is still a bit finicky and requires too much scanning and intricate actions to be of great value. The flow and excitement often gets lost in these moments.
VR has come a long way on these fronts and is a forecast of what we will likely see with AR in the coming years. We use some Oculus Quests in our district to provide students with immersive experiences or creative applications. In just two years, they have already begun moving away from controllers with some applications implementing hand tracking features. It is very easy to see that there will be a generation of these headsets in the very near future that is more like Microsoft’s Hololens, but at the consumer level, where the user is able to game, create and interact with AR while still being aware and in the context of their true environment.
As for other tools. I have used EyeJack to create AR content. I was able to combine the the content marker/trigger with an animation that I made with another GIF creation app (Flip-A-Clip) that came to life through the lens when scanned. EyeJack’s services continue to move more behind the paywall but it does work well and they do have a free service without a time restriction so it can be set up and used for a while.
Hi! Thank you for your positive feedback. I agree, as soon as an application gets complicated and finicky, the excitement of using a new technology gets lost in the process and frustration takes over! Our team also reached the same conclusion, this is why we decided to select user-friendly applications for our web platform. Thank you for sharing EyeJack! It sounds like a great tool that I will definitely be trying out!
Many thanks to the AR team for this fantastic introduction to AR. I have very limited knowledge of AR, and so I found your presentation of the opportunities, strengths and limitations of AR very helpful. Of course, I can’t help but respond to the second discussion prompt: Are you inspired to introduce or rework AR into your current practice? How do you think it will add value? I most certainly am, as the value in terms of thinking through innovative approaches to ‘space’ and ‘place’, not to mention connected learning, is evident. My hurdle is one that is mentioned in varying ways, throughout this thread: financial and logistical. To what my peer-colleagues have already mentioned, and certainly connected to this, is that of organizational culture – that is, the potential barriers related to an organizational mindset that precludes the implementation. In the educational contexts from which I hail, there may be hurdles in convincing certain departments and faculty that this technology adds enough value to spend the money to train faculty and staff in its use and integration. Of course, certain subject-matter lends itself clearly to AR, but other disciplines certainly do as well – as is mentioned by the AR Group in their discussion of Arloopa and its potential for history classrooms (Erica has also written extensively on AR’s application in the context of Natural and Cultural History). As a historian turned instructional designer, I would be thrilled to see history departments work to purposefully and strategically integrate AR into their course offerings. All too often, as was mentioned in Planning and Managing Learning Tech in Higher Ed I just took, integration of ed tech is left up to individual instructors with interest, rather than integrated into eLearning rationales, planning and implementation plans.
How wonderful would it be if department heads undertook strategic reviews to identify courses with subject-matter conducive to AR integration, and then work with DES teams/IDS to create training workshops to implement? A Canadian History course, for example, that focusses on the history of Toronto and already integrates walking tour field trips, could absolutely make use of this technology in a purposeful way that allows for, as the AR group mentioned, students to ‘re-write’ history! To do what we do as historians, which is read against the grain and apply postcolonial critiques to the traditional history textbook approach, using AR.
As a tangent, I delve into the Arloops project examples provided by the group, and looked at the AR App Armenian National Costume. I couldn’t help but immediately think about how the Bata show museum could benefit from the creation of something similar. How cool would it be for learners to enter the space and ‘try on’ shoes from a particular period, and perhaps even try to replicate popular ‘dances’ from the specific period the exhibition focusses on. Learners could then enter their video submission into a classroom ‘contest’ where their peers can ‘vote’ for the best rendition. From a public history perspective, the possibilities are endless, but in both higher ed and public history contexts, we need buy-in from the top.
Hi Jessica!
As a fellow history teacher, I found your post quite interesting! AR can be such a valuable tool for this subject. When students walk in a history class, they often come with this preconceived notion of heavy note taking and memorization. However, history is so much more than just a series of chronological events. I believe AR can definitely be used to reshape the box students tend to put this subject in! As you mentioned, the financial aspect of AR has been a topic of discussion in a lot of the comments. I think that AR does not have to be this intimidating technology that educators need to sell to their school. I think there is this misconception that AR means expensive and complicated equipment. It doesn’t have to be, a simple mobile device can be used for AR applications. I am aware that mobile devices can still be costly. However, these tools are not strictly reserved for AR and can be used for so many different things! Thank you for your comment!
Hi AR team you guys did such a great job on providing information and resources on how to incorporate AR as an educational tool in diverse learning settings. The website is well organized and easy to flow. My first AR experience was with Pokémon Go and I still remember how amazed I was when I saw these little creatures in the real-life environment on my screen. I have always thought of AR as a fun and engaging way for entertainment but now my impression has changed since I see the potential of it being an instructional tool. I love how AR allows the student to combine their creative design with reality and how AR makes it possible to bring in virtual objects that are difficult to find in our classrooms. I am very interested in introducing Makr AR to my students and teach them how to create their own stories. This would inspire young learners to further use their imagination in their storytelling and encourage students who are limited by their not-so-confident drawing skills to engage more. My only concern is the accessibility to devices in class because it really depends on school fundings but I believe that as technology continues to develop its importance in our life devices will become more essential and affordable.
Hi Trista!
I agree, Makr Ar is a great way for students to develop their confidence when it comes to their own creativity. As you mentioned, accessibility to devices is not the same for every school. I am in a fortunate position where most students have a mobile phone in high school, however it is definitely not the case in the lower cycles! Hopefully in the future, schools will be able to have the necessary funds to invest in mobile devices since technology is ever more present in the classroom!
Hi Week 5 Team,
Great work on this project! it really inspired me to reflect on my own professional practise. I think oftentimes in the workplace (especially my workplace) we can become so busy with the taste at hand and creating good quality content that it can be hard to innovate and add in new tools like the different AR softwares that you explained throughout your site. However, after seeing all you amazing ideas and lists of new programs for different learning contexts, it reminds me that actually innovating does not (or should not) have to take a crazy amount of time or resources to commit to. in fact, at the end of the day, those innovative practises have great returns in terms of engagement. The program that caught my eye in particular was the Google AR Mindmapping App. I think this could cater to many people’s visual/spatial learning styles. I would love to bring this app to my students and see how it helps them to lay out and solidify their thoughts – especially at the brainstorm stage of their large individual projects.
In answer the second prompt: I think my original choice of words would be considered basic. Now I would like to consider AR as a kind of “real-world brought virtual” – we do our best learning when the implications are brought to our surroundings or even just to a secondary visual space. I would also add the word “Possibilities” because, as became apparent on your site, the possibilities are nearly endless and still growing.
What a great introduction to this tech. Thanks guys!
Sage
Hi Sage,
Thank you for comments/feedback. We also thought “time” was one of the biggest barriers to AR integration/adoption (and one of the most valuable assets educators – indeed, everyone?- has) and so, we wanted to explore lower-barrier entry points. I really liked the 3D mind-mapping tool too. Partially because part of me wants to dismiss it – I mean, it’s just a mind-map, how different can it be from just using Mindmeister or another digital 2D tool….WELL, I’m still not sure! lol. But it IS different, and neat…and I think it really does has potential to nudge people to think differently. Also, as you eloquently state it “… could cater to many people’s visual/spatial learning styles.”
Hi AR team! Thank you for such a well-thought out and organized OER that definitely sparked an interest with me. The school I teach at very recently invested in creating an innovation hub with the newest hands-on tools for teaching, specifically with robotics and game design, and one of the focuses was with VR and AR. We actually used AR in the classroom before when we were doing a lesson on animals; Google has a neat trick where if you Google the name of an animal on the mobile Google app, a lot of times it’ll give you the option to see a 3D model of the animal through AR, giving some idea to the size and dimensions of the animal and it was quite fun to incorporate it in the classroom that definitely helped with engagement! I can see AR being especially useful in elementary school classes, given that children at that age are much more visual of learners and engage well with new, innovative ways of learning.
Hi Tasneem,
Thanks for the google tip! 🙂 I just googled “cat” on my phone’s chrome app and, sure enough, I scrolled down a little and saw “Meet a life sized American short hair- View in 3D” and then you can “Wiew in your own space”. SO Integrated and SO easy! It makes me wonder whether the mobile internet we experience today will be recognizable in 10 years – will it all be augmented, animated, integrated and intuiting what we’re looking for? I’m honestly not sure how I feel about that – hah!
Reflection Question 4: One AR experience that I thought was particularly cool and fun, and reframed the art gallery experience was ReBlink at the AGO in Toronto. You can discover a little bit about it here: https://ago.ca/exhibitions/reblink
Hi Erica,
Thank you for sharing ReBlink – LOVE IT! I’m incredibly excited for the ongoing evolution of AR in arts and culture.
Also, your constructive feedback related to limitations/barriers that exist for AR are both appreciated and duly noted. (below) Further, excellent point about the virtual backgrounds, one must consider their audience (ie: one good friend/colleague vs. a different context) and be careful, intentional and considerate of diverse experiences. We will update our OER accordingly. I noticed google hangouts has animated backgrounds too, which would require further (careful) consideration in different contexts.
Yeah, those are areas of AR that really excite me too.
Re: the virtual meeting backgrounds, often people won’t saying anything if the background is triggering sensitivities or symptoms in them, as they’ll just focus on managing their symptoms for the duration on the meeting. So unless you know the person well, I’d air on the side of the relaxing / calming backgrounds that are not too busy.
Reflection Question 2: ‘Are you inspired to introduce or rework AR into your current practice? How do you think it will add value?’ I’ve actually been developing, pitching, and problem solving around the development of an AR Storytelling App for Natural and Cultural History. While there are hurdles that I am still working through, like financing and finding solutions to minimise load times of the app and a huge data dump, the process excites me and has me considering purchasing a Rokoko suit and building some sample AR installations on my own. We also have real interest in the project from potential sponsors. For anyone curious, here the basic concept: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xeWjBWYcAI In terms of the value that this will add, is it will essentially allow people to eperience and discover a place at different time periods in history, simultaneously.
I really enjoyed this experience that your OER provided. It gave an interesting and diverse overview of different ways that one can approach AR in learning environments. I am going to link to it from the AR section of an open course that my group and I built on Immersive Experiences in Natural and Cultural History Education (https://storytogo.ca/classroom/course/immersive-experiences-in-natural-and-cultural-history/) in Ventures in EdTech. A couple of thoughts as you do the final tightening up of this before submitting your final reflections to David … Re: your conclusion that “one of the primary reasons AR has taken so long to become commonplace in our respective professions, despite the rapid advancement of the technology, is due to its perceived implementation challenges”. There are more than perceived challenges with AR at present with mobile technologies, but rather very real ones. With AR apps, they tend to take up a lot of space on are device and have high load times. This is often what leads to the glitchiness in the apps function that you mention throughout your OER. For this reason, many companies are now building utilising Web AR, but this unto itself can present problems for people with limited or poor wifi, and can utilise a fair chunk of your data. Solving these problems will go a long way in making AR more user friendly and as a result more mainstream. One thing I’d caution people about in the section on AR Meeting Backgrounds is that certain backgrounds can spark adverse symptoms in people who get migraines, light sensitivity, motion sensitivity or have a head injury. The second AR background for example spark such adverse symptoms in me. Finally, while I loved and very much appreciated the audio option in the Food and Hospitality Section, I kept encountering issues in playing it. I wonder if uploading it to SoundCloud and then embedding it from there would eliminate that issue?
Thank you for letting me know that the audio isn’t working well! I think that I uploaded had an error with it and I uploaded a new audio clip to replace. I hope it works now.
I’ll look into SoundCloud and see how we can embed that into Google Sites.
Hi AR Team! Thanks for providing a very informative and well-thought-out dive into AR. Currently, my company uses AR to enhance students’ online classroom experience; however, generally, teachers use it primarily as a reward function (For example, students can change their face into a bunny face or the video background to a star-filled sky) rather than integrating it into the actual learning objectives and content. One issue that consistently arises when trying to implement AR functions more deeply into the learning process is the constant changing of the curriculum and learning objectives and the pace at which technology is improving. For example, when we first implemented AR functions to face and background swap, these features were new, students were drawn to them. They were also generic and could be used across a wide range of lesson subject matter. However, in just a few years, this sort of technology is prevalent. Students no longer find it interesting as they can do this with many applications using their own phones. As Saeid stated about his organization, I have similar experiences in a private education company. This sort of technology must be developed and can be very time-consuming and expensive. With technology changing rapidly, it is difficult to maintain and upgrade to match current marketplace capabilities. However, your group has provided many excellent resources that are perhaps more cost-effective. I look forward to exploring them even further, especially regarding pathways and applications for AR use in remote and distance learning environments. One area I was immediately drawn to was the discussion about changing the video background. I agree wholeheartedly that backgrounds can convey different emotions and set the tone for meetings or online lessons. From my perspective, work culture is another aspect that could be conveyed through AR. The pandemic saw a massive shift in remote work. However, in cultures with less flat organizational hierarchies and from my own experience, remote work was frowned upon and discontinued as fast as possible. From my perspective here in China, you typically find many layers and levels within a Chinese workplace and power structures are much more rigid. Perhaps, AR such as video backgrounds, could make these power structures more visible and make companies and management more open to remote work settings.
In terms of AR’s future, I look forward to AR being used to break down how things happen by providing the context and steps involved in the manufacturing or creation of something. For example, a painting. Using AR to show the process of making the painting come to life. I originally saw something like this in an advertisement for an application called ROAR. I think such AR could have a huge impact on education. Here is a link to the ROAR video I saw: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CMKIKB7Vmc
Hi Graham,
Your statement that: “With technology changing rapidly, it is difficult to maintain and upgrade to match current marketplace capabilities.” really resonated with me. AR technology is at an interesting phase of development where certain (integrated and simplistic?) aspects have become prevalent (face and background swap) but other aspects (custom apps., ability to design and produce content) continue to be limited by hardware/processing limitations combined with cost and/or high learning curves. I continue to be intrigued by the low-cost/ no-cost AR technologies because I think, sometimes, when technology becomes prevalent ( and less “interesting”) another way of looking at it is that it has ‘faded into the background’, and when that happens, that’s when the magic really starts to happen. So, I love that you’re pondering whether video backgrounds might improve/enhance/change work culture – I’d love to know more about what you’re thinking specifically here. I’m reminded now that one of our Tech trainers started one of his virtual training sessions last year with a face-swap on (I can’t remember what it was…something silly!) and it was a really cute and fun way to start the session. Just a small thing – but an important thing – setting the tone, communicating personality – humility, sense of humour…all these things, communicated by a 30 second face-swap at the start of session.
Team AR, thank you for such a thoughtfully designed and educational investigation of AR.
Until reviewing your submission and looking at the projects to learn about the potential ways of utilizing AR, the only experience I had was with Pokémon Go and interactive exhibits at museums. Not having a great deal of experience or understanding of how AR could be included in classrooms, I included innovative, limitless, and intriguing as my top-3 words and I still feel the same after completing my review. As we continue to delve into our course, limitless is what I am coming to feel are the opportunities for mobile and open learning. The abundance of technology and opportunities to design and engage students of all ages in learning is limitless. Innovative, I think is obvious in that as educators and designers we need to constantly push ourselves to improve upon what we are doing and look for new technology or ways to include those with learning disabilities. Intriguing is what I think of AR. I love how objects or animals can come to life before your eyes and the ability to interact. The example of how AR can be used for hospitals and food orders has so many opportunities to improve patient outcomes. We eat with our eyes. The ability to see the food may help not just with ensuring people are not disappointed by what they ordered but may also aid those who are not feeling well to want to eat when they may have passed the opportunity up.
From a corporate training perspective, I think there are several ways that AR could be incorporated into the development and implementation of training and onboarding. For example, location-based AR like the Pokémon GO concept where the user could hover over an object that then displays information could be used for training purposes within healthcare facilities for housekeeping staff to support identification of high touch objects that require detailed cleaning and disinfection, including the products and process to use. AR could also be used for new product introduction using marker-based applications to show 3D renderings rather than 2D images. From a school curriculum design perspective, I can absolutely see where the possibilities of using AR could be limitless and increase the engagement of students. In the corporate world, engineers and architects would be able to utilize AR to have their designs and drawings come to life and could potentially replace the need to create prototypes or models. Initially, I was not certain if I would contemplate using AR in any programs I design, but thanks to your project I realize I need to reassess my initial assumption.
Hi Nicole !
I believe Pokémon Go was the first experience with AR for many of us without really being aware of the type of technology we were using. As you mentioned, the same technology used in this app can be replicated in so many other contexts: classrooms, hospitals, training and onboarding, corporate. The list goes on! I think this is what makes AR such an interesting technology. Enhancing our environment with the help of our mobile devices can facilitate the learning process for so many of us! As you stated, AR can be limitless. I am happy to hear you have reassessed your initial assumptions and are open to the idea of integrating AR in the future!
Hi Week 5 team. Thank you for the interesting OER on AR technology. I appreciate the time and effort you invested in organizing the information and presenting it in a structured manner. I tried downloading and operating on many apps that you mentioned, and most of them are quite impressive. Sadly, I could not download the iOS ones because I have an Andriod device. I liked how you started your presentation by discussing the marker-based and marker-less AR types, and I believe there are other types to be added such as non-specific digital augmentation (swap the fly) and triggered complex AR (Google glass).
You mentioned the quote “When applied to learning, AR creates a more integrated learning environment, thus providing more opportunities for young learners to collaborate.” (Lu & Liu, 2015). I wonder what collaboration opportunities can augmentation provide for students? Does it facilitate group work or autonomy? However, I cannot ignore the significant potential of Art Projector and Pocket Gallery on influencing the students’ attitude to learning and promoting engagement in history and art classes. In other words, allowing the students to experience artifacts on their walls is definitely more immersive than studying it through books or photographs. AR can support knowledge acquisition, motivation, engagement, spatial ability and practical skills in science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) learning (Cheng and Tsai 2013; Ibáñez and Delgado-Kloos 2018; Lee 2012)
AR technology is clearly used in our everyday life perhaps when applying filters to our videos on social media or changing backgrounds, choosing the fitting setting for video conferencing. With the shift to online education, the race to present online features to enhance the virtual meeting experience is perpetually evident. Prezi video was a huge step of design for better communication with the audience, but that does not seem to take the cake anymore. Prezi is working on integrating AR technology in preparation for the next step: Prezi Next, which is expected to further empower the online market. Interestingly, WebRTC has also presented a practical use of AR technology by investing in remote assistance and virtual manuals to enable two parties to share problems and solutions. See the demo here https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=76&v=11NiyGoKOrk&feature=emb_logo&ab_channel=MobiDev.
However, seeing your AR model of connecting ideas, I have mixed thoughts about that approach. On the one hand, it looks cool and interesting, but how practical it is to design such a model using AR compared to traditional on paper/screen modelling? I was also excited to try ARLoopa and check the markers on the screen but the app did not work, and a message showed “contact the owner.” I tried downloading three other AR scanners but no cigar. Most of them were scanning for a QR code.
I think the use of AR technology is very versatile and open to many opportunities in the future. I imagine trying on dresses or checking a new car from the comfort of our homes. Even AR in the medical field is expanding horizons. Surgeries and operations are starting to take place using AR technologies. (check this spine fusion surgery here: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/articles/johns-hopkins-performs-its-first-augmented-reality-surgeries-in-patients) However, although the future of AR is promising to bring affordances that are incredibly useful, the technology might face the risk of social rejection, in addition to the limitation of a single-user experience.
My three keywords to describe AR were: immersive, futuristic, and fun. I think your OER has ascertained my choice through the insights provided. When I think of the future of this technology, I think of it transcending mobile devices to smart glasses and probably lenses, and devices everywhere to connect with these wearables and enhance our experiences around. There will be a huge investment in AR in the advertisement domain. How authentic those experiences will be? How dangerous can AR will be when combined with Adaptive AI?
Hi Feras,
Thank you for your feedback and for taking the time to share links to other AR projects going on. It must have been frustrating trying out four different AR apps with no success, the markers should be working now. Sorry for the inconvenience. While the current AR mindmap is a bit clunky, I think there’s potential. If it can be made into projection-based AR, it could encourage students to develop their ideas beyond what fits on one page. Some mindmaps have lots of great ideas, but they’re shrunk to fit onto a screen, with a projection-based AR mindmap, it’d be easier to see the whole mindmap. And imagine what could happen if it were combined with Adaptive AI. The ideas on your mindmap could be linked to other relevant ideas or people for further investigation and collaboration, which as you pointed out could be dangerous, like the problems we currently face with algorithms on social media. If advertisers heavily invest in AR, how authentic will those experiences be? I think they will be as authentic as people expect them to be. For example, if a clothing shop uses AR for people to try on the clothes before purchasing and the AR experience does not match what arrives in the mail, the technology will have to make enough progress to meet people’s expectations or the technology will have to be scrapped.
Thank you, Sheena, for addressing the main points. I watched one of the Black Mirror episodes and the subject matter of that episode was how far can AR technology take us with an immersive experience where the individual cannot actually tell the difference between what’s real and what’s augmented. Adaptive AI can be combined with AR technology to create visuals that are more personalized based on what the machine learns about our past, preferences, and relationships. Imagine an educational app using AR technology to produce differentiated educative visuals for each and every learner in the class (based on the degree of difficulty, readiness, interests, aptitudes, or even mood!) I remember the first time I used AR through the “swat the fly” feature of the Nokia 6600 in 2003. That’s almost 20 years ago. Back then, it was mesmerizing! I hope the technology of AR does not cause humans to create lazy thinking habits or be more artificial.
Thanks for the discussion.
Hi AR group,
Thank you for sharing all this great information. Your website was well laid-out, and easy to navigate. I have been meaning to explore some AR apps, and I am happy this finally gave me the push to do so. I appreciate that you gave multiple resources for various interests and uses; I decided to dive into Google Arts & Culture. I had lots of fun playing around with the different tools, the art selfie being my favorite – how cool! Although very fun, being a science and math teacher, it is difficult to see exactly where google arts & culture would fit into the curriculum. I am glad you included a link to the google and arts website though, because there I found an advertisement for Big Bang AR app. This app is perfect for a grade 10 science class! Students can learn about the history of the universe, create a supernova, and explore the nebula. As an added bonus, the app is free. If I ever begin teaching grade 10, I will definitely make an activity using this app. Thank you for the great resource. Well done, group 1.
Hi Katherine,
Thank you for sharing Big Bang AR app – I’m definitely going to check it out. I just read the description on this website (https://home.cern/resources/document/physics/big-bang-ar-app-background-information) and it sounds incredible. Listed as the first “Exciting Topic” that the app answers: “What happened at the beginning of space and time?” – Wow – please tell me more! There’s a lovely astronomy AR app some of our classmates have mentioned (in other discussions) and my brother uses called “Star Walk 2 Free” (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitotechnology.StarWalk2Free&hl=en_US&gl=US) that can help identify stars, nebulas, planets, constellations, etc. in your very own night sky. Could be a neat complement to Big Bang AR?
Hey team AR! Well done on making a clean and well-organized site for a very exciting technology! Regarding your “final thoughts” questions:
2. Are you inspired to introduce or rework AR into your current practice? How do you think it will add value?
I am certainly intrigued and I have used AR for chemistry before, though I want to rework the experience to become more interactive or “gamified” in time. I loved being able to project Neil Armstrong’s suit for some real-life perspective in Google Arts and Culture, and this presence is certainly not possible with other technologies, so it represents a genuinely novel way to present content to students. “Grib” also presents some interesting alternative creation solutions to CAD software, though I’m not sure if this would necessarily move beyond “substitution” in the SAMR model of technology integration; the 2D to 3D sketch certainly makes it more approachable!
3. We didn’t explore the future of AR much in this resource but if you implement some basic AR apps and strategies today, how do you think you might be using it in 5 or 10 years’ time?
I think AR will ultimately become more interactive; seeing a model is great for visualization and description, but I think understanding necessitates an element of interactivity. As mentioned previously, I think “Grib” is more in that category at present, as pen and paper are certainly more intuitive than desktop CAD software, and I love the potential of being able to use designs on 3D printers to make models real. I also think that real-time data collection AR will become more prevalent, as machine learning apps will become more capable of recognizing not just people, but plants, animals and other aspects of our environment.
Hi Brendan, Projecting Neil Armstrong’s suite into the classroom sounds really fun and informative! I’m so appreciative to see everyone’s perspective, because the enthusiasm and description of possibilities has piqued my interested more too, particularly for Grib3D. Thank you for the description of how Grib3D interacts with ‘pen and paper’ – this reframe of information I (thought I) already knew truly helped to understand what is meant by “interaction” and “integration” –words that get touted A LOT in the AR industry, but frequently without detailed explanation or analysis. The possibility of designing with pen and paper (or stylus and tablet), then converting into a 3D augmented reality by an app. that might be used for 3D printing provides a detailed example/glimpse of the interactive possibility. And yes, as the AI recognition increases, I think apps like Grib3D will become increasingly user friendly for creators. I’m not personally familiar with CAD software but I’ve glimpsed it a few times supporting instructors in other capacities – the learning curve appears high. It would be incredible to give (amateurs, young students, hobbyists?) a bridge to more complex design apps like CAD through something like Grib3D. Honestly, I don’t think I added much value to your original comment, but I appreciate your perspective and hope to have underscored some of your thoughtful contributions.
I agree with you Brendan that Grib presents an extension to CAD software. I also think that AR will gradually replace 2D sketches and especially in domains like architecture, archeology, and fashion. The connection between big data and AR will help to create something completely new and innovative in the future. I cannot help but think about integrating digital markers to be sensed by AR readers in the streets, restaurants, schools, and hospitals. You don’t see much around with your eyes but perhaps some ‘smart glasses’ will show you the markers as you walk around, giving you more details about items or services. It is not mainstream yet, but it is definitely coming.
I really enjoyed this project, great job everybody! My three words were futuristic, immersive, altered reality and I would say they have changed now that I have had the opportunity to further explore what I feel that it is much more accessible than I realized. I don’t have any experience with AR and thought it was always far too expensive and beyond my scope to try to tackle in a school setting so it was refreshing to see the different ways it can be used and that it is not as vast and complicated as I thought. I do think it is still primarily a tool that could be used in the private sector versus the public sector of education but I did like the apps you included and I think it is a great jumping off point to start learning how to use AR and then build a network of educators that could start to try to introduce this into school settings as I think students would really enjoy using it. I agree with what Miguel said in his post that it hasn’t become mainstream yet but has a lot of potential in the future and I also agreed with what he said about Olivia’s idea about using the marks for sharing Indigenous history and information is great and I would start even smaller than around the city, why not try to create this within your school to share with students? It’s another way to create learning spaces in your school that incorporate equity and technology which is great – loved this project!
Hi Asha,
Thank you for your response! I love your idea about starting with the school because, as you said, it would create more learning spaces for the students and it would be a great way to take parents/guardians on a tour of their child’s learning. Even though AR hasn’t become mainstream yet, how would you incorporate equity and technology through AR?
It’s a great question and I think part of what can be overwhelming to educators about equity work is not knowing how or where to start and I think this offers a great opportunity to share information with students using the geographical markers as you could tour anywhere and talk about the importance of the connection culturally to a place and it’s history and people. I often think this about the land acknowledgements we do here in Ontario and how to make them more meaningful for students to try understand where they are and what we are acknowledging and I think this offers a lot of different ways to connect this history with our students school experiences.
This was an incredible project, good job! I am going to answer question 2 from your website below.
2. Are you inspired to introduce or rework AR into your current practice? How do you think it will add value?
After reviewing your project and all the vast ways in which AR can be utilized across different area’s, I am eager to incorporate these apps and technology into my class learning environment . I see this as a step towards explorations when we are bound to the classroom. As a language teaching this could also include activities of cross cultural learning while allowing students to learn and explore. I feel that this technology will increase exponentially within the next few years and be seen less as a novelty and accessory towards offering incredible value or learning. Currently, i do feel as though this has not become mainstream yet, however promising the technology is.
I especially feel value will be added by creating environments of learning that aim at exploration or place and culture within AR technology. This will allow students the opportunity to navigate themselves and lead their own learning.
I really like the comment Olivia added from above about markers being used to add Indigenous history content to markers around our city. This is a fantastic idea and one I can see many educators promoting within their classrooms.
Thanks again, I really enjoyed your project.
Hi Miguel,
Thank you for your comment! I love that you feel inspired to try this out in your classroom; that was hope of our OER. I think now is the best time to experiment with the technology, as it is still fairly new, thus making it a bit easier to implement before the technology really takes off. Lately, I have been speaking with a few colleagues about our recent transitions to and from online learning and I see some commonalities between the integration of computer technology and now AR. Those educators who were reluctant to adapt to the influence of computers in the classroom really struggled with the transition to online and blended learning. I wonder if we will see a similar pattern with those who are hesitant to implement AR or VR technologies into the classroom. I personally do not see AR as completely reshaping a classroom learning environment in the way personal computer devices and online learning have, but maybe I am repeating exactly what those earlier educators said when computers became more mainstream. To put it simply, if the recent pandemic has caught us anything, it is that we need to stay ahead of the curve!
Hi Team AR!
Thank you SO much for sharing your project! It was so well done; I can’t believe you put this all together so quickly!
My 3 words for the Word Cloud were complicated, unsure, and future. I have worked with many different kinds of programs and apps with my students, however, I’ve avoided AR because it seemed like something too challenging to integrate into my practice. I am normally a person who loves to try new things but AR has scared me, but that’s mostly because I really didn’t take the time to research or play with it. However, AR is definitely going to become more prevalent and mainstream in education. Just playing around with it tonight and reading through your presentation has given me more confidence to experiment with it in the classroom.
I need to try AR Makr on my iPad at school (I don’t have a personal one here), however, I think it would be great to use this to help bring our writing to life! I also want to think about ways I could integrate it into other subjects like science and social studies as well. I really enjoyed playing with the Shapes 3D AR app! I can absolutely see how I could integrate this into my math program for my grade 2s with them learning about 2D shapes and 3D solids.
Finally, I can’t express enough how much I LOVED your “Final Thoughts” section on your site. As I read each one I was either nodding or smiling or saying, “Heck yeah!”. I feel like these are all such powerful ideas that make one feel more motivated and confident to try something new like AR. I want to share this advice with my own staff!
Hi Kendall!
Thank you so much for your response! We honestly had a great team that worked so well together to make it happen in so little time. I’m not sure if you noticed, but in our “Meet the authors” section, we all put “None” beside our AR experience. We all thought it was pretty funny since here we are putting together a website about AR. But that’s exactly why we decided to create this type of resource in the first place! We wanted to share simple AR applications that can be easily integrated in different contexts. This brings me back to the three words you chose for the World Cloud: complicated, unsure and future. Those are probably the exact words I would have used to describe AR before starting this project. By playing around with the different applications, I can definitely say I feel so much more confident in incorporating these apps in my classroom! I’m so happy to hear that this is how you feel as well!
Well done AR group! The factor that inspired/forced me to introduce AR in to my current practice is actually COVID-19. As an elementary teacher, I was dismayed by the fact that I could no longer take students on many of the field trips that I used to be able to take them to. Therefore, AR provided an alternative for me to show the students as a substitute to what the real thing could have been like. For example, I might be showing them 2-D/3-D tours of a museum instead of going to the actual museum itself. The most important value that AR adds to learning is that layer of experience which helps students connect their learning to their personal experience. If I started implementing AR into the classroom, I don’t see how much difference I would be using it in 5-10 years time that is drastically different from now. Granted I may be better equipped with AR resources but they provide supplements for my teaching, they cannot not be used as teachers. Especially at the elementary level, there are many other kinds of learning that we do apart from academic subjects such as proper behaviour, navigating relationships with others, establish a good learning routine. Thus, I see the role of AR in teach as a good resource, nothing more, nothing less.
Hi!
I completely agree, when we were not leaving the classroom during the pandemic, I really felt like my students were missing out on so much. AR applications like Google Arts & Culture are such great solutions for students to get to experience tours of museums, even those that are located in different countries! As a history teacher, presenting historical artifacts through AR allows the students to have a better grasp their size and details. It makes for a very engaging lesson! As you mentioned, AR has the potential to be used in a variety of learning scenarios, not just strictly for academic subjects. I am sure applications of the sort are going to start popping in the near future!
Hi AR Team! Thank you for your very thoughtful (and useful/practical) approach to your OER on Augmented Reality. I really enjoyed browsing Google Arts & Culture in more detail (and with more guidance) than I have been able to do in the past. Thinking about your first question, one way that your OER has changed my attitude towards the use of AR/VR/MR in the classroom is that it doesn’t need to happen all at once and be a complete overhaul. I really appreacite that you touched on the notion of microlearning, and that jumping in despite not “having it all figured out” can still have some very positive effects on student learning. With regards to your last question, one interesting AR app that isn’t related to classroom education, but that I have heard a lot about and would like to try out personally, is called Houzz (https://www.houzz.com/). Houzz is an AR-based app for designing, building, re-modelling and decorating living spaces. I have used some similar apps, like IKEA’s Place which allows you to “try out” their furniture virtually using AR, which are an incredibly accessible and practical use of AR for consumers.
Hi Alexis,
Thank you for the kind feedback. I think our team was pleasantly surprised by how fun and engaging basic/simple AR apps can be. One of my biggest take-aways from this project is the value of downloading apps and trying them out. I still have 10 installed on my phone right now! (Definitely going to be running out of space soon) It bears repeating (I think) how incredibly valuable experimenting and playing with the AR is. Turns out it’s pretty fun too! 🙂 Thank you for sharing Houzz! I just installed it and was poking around – It gives me the impression of pinterest + a marketplace (+experts?). Interior design seems to lend itself neatly to AR, and I expect to continue to see innovation in this space. This could lend itself to designing work-from-home offices and classrooms in the future.
I enjoyed your presentation, AR Team! You explored the subject matter and provided vast resources, which I find helpful for teaching and learning purposes. My perception has changed to recognize the impact AR has on the business industry such as Hospitality and Food Industry. I was aware of AR implementation in other industries but did not know the intricacies within a restaurant or hospital setting. Moving forward, I will need to consider how this innovative technology impacts all professions. For example, the automotive industry has used AR for driving purposes, but there is a shift to include car maintenance. The following article explains Mercedes AR approach (Mercedes-Benz Technicians in the US will now Use Microsoft HoloLens 2 and Augmented Reality to Fix Cars): https://www.relaycars.com/blog/augmented-reality-to-fix-cars
After viewing your presentation, I think in 5-10 years, AR will be integrated across many fields. Society will be comfortable using AR in various facets such as banking, automotive, or, as your presentation pointed, hospitality and food. For instance, AR is highly utilized in real estate, fashion, and teaching and learning. Furthermore, usage will continue to increase, whereby it will be a regular app on mobiles.
Hi Anna,
Thank you for sharing the information about Mercedes-Benz implementing AR to help streamline and improve car repairs. The article you shared quotes each headset for the initiative at $3,500 each (USD, I assume) – so not cheap, and obviously there is massive value expected for return on investment. Though not explicit in the article, it sounds like part of the app. they’ve implemented connects expert-technicians to the AR experience in real time; this is something I also ran across when I searching and playing with apps. Vuforia Chalk (https://www.ptc.com/en/products/vuforia/vuforia-chalk) works in a similar way – by offering real-time remote assistance from and between technicians. Understandably, this app. was not free to try/use. Another way the automotive industry is using AR is with Heads Up Display (HUD) (https://www.carwindshields.info/best-heads-up-display) which is when data is projected onto the windshield glass of the car, rather than an instrument panel. This leads me back to your example with Mercedes-Benz, which has partnered with Microsoft’s Hololens, and the important point that the tools (ie: headset, glasses, etc) through which he access AR are beginning to move away from our mobile phones. Earlier in the ‘knowledgemill’ someone in our class references the importance of AR glasses to the continued proliferation of this technology, and after playing with apps quite a bit for a few weeks, I would definitely prefer to have a set of glasses to wear for many of the activities.
Great presentation Group AR! I really appreciated the structure of the site and its functionality. The tools and integration of them into applied settings was very usage.
2. Are you inspired to introduce or rework AR into your current practice? How do you think it will add value?
As luck would have it, I am in the midst of project that incorporates immersive video and AR to provide a remote tour for an accreditation review committee. Since all of the reviewers will be remote, AR along with the immersive video will proactively address questions during the tour and hopefully making the virtual visit more efficient.
3. We didn’t explore the future of AR much in this resource but if you implement some basic AR apps and strategies today, how do you think you might be using it in 5 or 10 years’ time?
I think expansion upon a number of the applications you highlighted including the Grid3D, Google Arts & Culture, and the Food application (is already or) will be available in the next 5 to 10 years. Already, you can check out how a new Ikea couch or bookcase would like in your home without doing any measurements or bringing it home. How cool would it be to have a 3D printer, and use Grid3D to replace a broken lid or lens cap?
From a teaching and learning perspective, I hope these technologies will enable educators and learners to be more creative. If you don’t have to measure twice or even cut once, maybe you can take that time to really work out functionality or usage.
You referenced risk in your introduction, but I didn’t see a lot of reference to it in the rest of the site. Did you identify some key risks users should consider when using AR?
Hi Sam! Glad you liked our webpage. I think the biggest hinderance of implementing AR in corporate settings is for senior management team to see the benefits of using AR. Yes, all of these AR applications are available, but often times the time that it takes to accept an application to implementing the application takes way too long. By the time the application is implemented, it is already not the newest, best thing. I think we can start influencing senior management slowly now and hopefully AR will be more common in the corporate setting.
Hi Sam,
That’s a good question. There’s the risk that AR could create another platform for cyberbullying. I imagine in the future AR will become more common and people will use AR to create and display messages in public spaces. For example, students could create AR markers using students’ yearbook photos or artwork so it opens to hurtful content. Location-based markers could also be created with the same intentions. At the moment apps like ARLoopa will review AR content before it is published for public viewing, but what happens when millions of people are creating and uploading AR content? Even if companies manage to keep up with reviewing all the AR content created, what kind of rules and regulations should be implemented? This ties in with media literacy and Internet etiquette, so perhaps this could be just added into the existing curriculum.
Hi Sheena,
I agree with your comments that as AR becomes more commonplace that people will find ways of using it in ways it was not intended. That’s always a disappointing aspect of our society. Ultimately, if the good outways the bad then I think AR or any other future technology will have a place in society. It then comes down to parents teaching their kids to respect others and as you also indicated media literacy and internet etiquette.
Hello AR Team,
I am definitely excited about the possibility of introducing AR into my practice. As I was reading about Grib3D I became excited by the possibilities this app could have for my Grade 8 Humanities students. We have just finished a unit on animal adaptations and the students created a fictional desert animal based on traits researched from other desert animals. As part of the project, they drew a 2D representation of their fictional desert animal in which they featured the selected traits identified from their researched animals. I wondered if it would be possible to bring these drawings into 3D form as I could see benefits in doing so. I noticed when students presented their animals it became clear that some had inadequately sized features (such as small wings) in relation to the body size of the animal. I wondered if they had created the animal in 3D form if this flaw would be more obvious? This would likely bring using AR out of the novelty realm (as discussed by Alalwan et al., 2020) and add real pedagogical value. The only hesitation I have is the learning curve. I downloaded the app and tried to bring a sample 2D drawing into 3D form but it wasn’t as intuitive and easy to master as I hoped it would be. I am likely still going to try it with my students as even if we don’t get it to work exactly the way it is meant to in the time we have we can at least still discuss portion and scale which is valuable to the task.
If I were to start implementing some basic AR apps and strategies today I think there would be the real possibility of building a community of learners on campus who could expand, explore and hopefully share back their knowledge as they learn. I could see in 5 years’ time if this summative still existed there would likely be growth in the quality of the 3D creations as skills grew, but likely also supported by technology evolving as well. Either way, their presentations would be more engaging as a result.
Thank you for the great resource.
Hi,
Thank you so much for trying out Grib3D! It is great to read about how the website encouraged you to try out augmented reality and reflect on how you can implement it in your classroom in the future. When playing around with the application myself, I always found it easier to draw with a thick black marker. Also, building my creation in steps by adding different shapes and playing around with colour allowed me to get the results I wanted. It is definitely not perfect! However, it is a strong start. As you mentioned, if we start by implementing AR apps today, we can definitely participate in the effort of developing our knowledge together. Who knows in 5 years time how these apps will have evolved! I can not wait to see!
Thank you for the suggestion. I will give it a try.
Wow! I thought you all did a great job on this project! The website flowed in a logical order that was easy to follow and helped to scaffold my knowledge around AR. I also really appreciate learning how you all personally experienced and played with AR. Adding that personal touch encourages me to experiment with AR. Am I inspired to introduce AR into my current practice? YES! Right now I am not working but I can see the potential in AR in all kinds of settings. I am really drawn to the AR that can give geographical information. I think it would be useful when working with ELL students or for team building activities among staff. I used to chair the sustainability committee in the office and I could imagine having markers around the office which highlights some of the sustainability practices in the office. I think place based markers that showed connections and information about Indigenous history in our cities would be a powerful and engaging way to enact some of the calls to action listed by the TRC. My 3 words for the word cloud were fun, mixing, and Pokemon Go. I would keep the word fun because AR provides a novel learning experience that is memorable. I would also keep Pokemon Go because it provides a simple example of AR that many people have seen or experienced themselves. I would change the word mixing (I was referring of the mix of something real with something made up) and replace it with infinite as I now believe that AR has infinite possibilities in education and other domains. I’d also like to say that I appreciated learning through your website that I already use AI when I change my background on Zoom calls or use filters in Snapchat. I didn’t realize I was already using and experiencing AR in my life on a weekly basis!
Hi Olivia,
Thank you for the comments and feedback! 🙂
LOVE your ideas. One of the first examples of AR I ever heard about was during a 2018/19 conference and the speaker worked for a hospital and described how she used marker-based AR to create a new staff orientation-scavenger hunt that was almost too successful because it resulted in participants running around the hospital (there was an element of competition) trying to find the next clue. If I recall correctly, I think she recorded videos for executives and other busy positions, and linked those to markers near their offices so new hires could “meet” them. I’ve always thought this was an incredibly fun (and simple) way to use AR. (Shout-out to Saeid’s reference to “onboarding”!) I think sustainability markers would be wonderful – and maybe harnessing the power of ‘gamification’ could help too? I would definitely be more inclined to scan and learn if I was collecting and ‘unlocking’ at the same time. GREAT reflection on your 3-words. Your point about Pokemon Go being a good example is astute; I guess that really was when AR broke into the mainstream and it will likely be a memorable milestone for a while yet. I wonder when (and what) the next historical/memorable breakthrough will be.
Hi Sally, Sheena, Joëlle, Sarah, and Ben,
Amazing work, well done.
This was visually stunning; the content was clear and encouraged me to engage in the activities. I also found the link to your individual and professional contexts a nice touch. Thank you for including the three (3) guiding questions, most projects fail to establish what guides the exploration.
Here is my response to the two (2) questions:
1: Are you inspired to introduce or rework AR into your current practice? How do you think it will add value?
As a project manager, I find AR truly fascinating and have no doubt that it can add value to the corporations that I have worked with over the past ten years. Having said this, cost and logistical hurdles would make it expensive to implement, in particular when it comes to mega-billion-dollar projects that last only 3-4 years from initiation to closeout. I think once the hardware becomes mainstream, it would be easier to get leadership buy-in and implement AR.
2- We didn’t explore the future of AR much in this resource but if you implement some basic AR apps and strategies today, how do you think you might be using it in 5 or 10 years’ time?
This ties to my previous response, I don’t currently use AR, but envision that in ten years, it can certainly be used in corporate safety trainings, new hire onboarding, heavy equipment training, and etc.
Thank you,
Hi Saeid,
Thank you very much for your comment. In response to your comment about the financial and logistical hurdles, this was something we had discussed at length as group as one of the many barriers that are preventing AR technologies from becoming more common in our lives. With the primary goal of our OER being to provide a pathway around those perceived barriers, many of the applications we recommended are low-cost, low-learning curve apps that we feel could make an impact in the environment they are used in. The truly exciting part of AR technologies, and something you alluded to, is the potential of big, well-funded AR projects. We were able to explore and implement a few basic AR applications in a couple of weeks, imagine what could be possible with substantial funding and experienced research teams. The future of AR is definitely something to be excited for!