Interactive Classrooms: Augmented Reality in Education
What is augmented reality?
Augmented reality superimposes sounds, videos, and graphics
onto an existing environment. It uses four main components to superimpose
images on current environments: cameras and sensors, processing, projection,
and reflection.
Each of these components provides an individual function. For example, cameras and sensors can detect an image’s depth or calculate the distance between two objects before superimposing digital content atop the user’s view. Projection and reflection add virtual information over what a user sees; for example, a method known as projection mapping enables AR apps to digitally overlay video onto any physical surface.
Benefits of augmented reality in education
AR is increasingly being adopted in educational settings, often to help students with complicated subjects. For example, students struggling with geometry can use AR to see and manipulate 3D geometric forms. Another application of augmented reality in education includes teaching global perspectives through virtual field trips, enabling students to interactively engage with other cultures.
While AR and similar technologies such as VR are becoming more popular in education, less than 10% of schools currently use augmented reality in the classroom, according to Project Tomorrow. Some reasons cited for the slow adoption of AR in education include:
- The bulkiness of AR equipment
- Quality of AR educational content
- Concerns over its academic value
- Lack of proper funding
AR creates opportunities for teachers to help students grasp abstract concepts. By using the interaction and experimentation that AR technologies offer, teachers can enhance classroom experiences, teach new skills, inspire student minds and get students excited about exploring new academic interests.
AR technology can help improve the following: student
engagement and interest, learning environment, content understanding,
collaboration, memory, sensory development, and cost-effectiveness.
AR technology can help improve the following: student engagement and interest, learning environment, content understanding, collaboration, memory, sensory development, and cost-effectiveness.
Benefits of AR
AR can have a significant impact on learning environments:
Student engagement and interest: Student interest
skyrockets with the opportunity to engage in creating educational content. AR
technologies can allow them to add to curriculum content, create virtual
worlds, and explore new interests.
Learning environment: Classes that incorporate AR can
help students become more involved. An interactive learning environment
provides opportunities to implement hands-on learning approaches that can
increase engagement, enhance the learning experience, and get students to learn
and practice new skills.
Content understanding: Lack of quality content focused
on education, rather than entertainment, is a noted concern among teachers
hesitant to use augmented reality in education. However, existing AR technology
enables teachers to create immersive educational experiences on their own to
help ensure their students understand curriculum content.
Collaboration: As AR content is digital, it is easily
shared. For example, a group of teachers can work with their students to
continually refine the content. A collaborative learning environment provides
students with increased motivation to learn because they are actively engaged
in the educational content creation process.
Memory: AR is an excellent tool for bringing lessons to
life and helping students remember essential details. For example, instead of
just presenting photographs on a projector showcasing life in Colonial America,
a teacher can use AR technology to create memorable interactive stories.
Sensory development: AR technology can help teachers
create lesson plans with multisensory experiences. Students benefit from
immersive virtual content that incorporates an experiential learning style in
which students carry out physical activities instead of watching a
demonstration. This approach can help with sensory development.
Cost-effectiveness: The cost of AR equipment is often
cited as a barrier to adoption. However, as smartphone use continues to rise
among young Americans, and since smartphones are already equipped with the
hardware needed to run AR apps, augmented reality in education is increasingly
more cost-effective to implement. Additionally, AR can lower educational costs
by replacing expensive textbooks.
AR brings lessons to life through simulations. Examples
include history: reconstructions of the past; theater: stage design
visualization; science and engineering: laboratory experiments; medicine:
medical procedures.
Augmented reality in higher education
In higher education, augmented reality is used for a wide
range of applications. Faculty use AR platforms to incorporate gamification into
curricula and create educational material. Through AR technology, teachers can
materialize abstract concepts to help students visualize and understand
challenging subjects. Consider these examples of how universities use augmented
reality in higher education.
Theater: With theaters embracing technologies such as the ARShow platform, which allows producers to add AR elements into live performances, university drama departments are incorporating augmented reality into their curricula. For example, one college developed an AR app to visualize stage design and allow virtual walk-throughs before set construction.
Science, technology, engineering, and math: AR in higher education is gaining traction in science, technology, engineering, and math departments across the U.S. For example, a hands-on, collaborative lab enables students to use AR technology to operate a chemical plant and experiment with different chemical reactions.
Medicine: AR is transforming medical training. It can provide medical students with opportunities to watch live surgeries taking place in real-time. AR applications can also help medical students learn about human anatomy through simulations and models. One innovative app allows surgeons to take a walk-through of a patient’s organs before performing a procedure.
History: Students and faculty enhanced the experience of a digitized history project highlighting the events of a World War II Japanese-American internment camp. They used drone image capture technology and AR to create a 3D reconstruction of events during this significant moment in U.S. history.
Augmented reality apps for education
Schools and colleges, both on-campus and remote, use augmented reality to supplement current curricula and add interactivity. Below is a list of augmented reality apps for education:
Complete Anatomy 2021: Getting Started
Holo-Human — This AR app provides users with a collaborative environment to explore human anatomy models, including internal and 360-degree views. Teachers can also create lesson plans.
HoloAnatomy app helps medical students learn anatomy
VR Frog Dissection: Ribbit-ing Discoveries — In
biology classes everywhere, students dissect frogs to learn about bodies.
Through a fully immersive experience, this app substitutes this practice to
allow teachers and students to study the anatomy of a frog through virtual
dissection.
VictoryVR & VR Frog Dissection: Ribbit-ing Discoveries |
Viveport Developer Stories
GeoGebra
Augmented Reality — From geometry and algebra to statistics and
calculus, this interactive tool supports science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (STEM) education through AR features that allow students to explore
shapes and 3D functions, use critical thinking skills, and more.
Construct a Circumscribed circle with Geogebra
Expeditions —
With hundreds of AR tours, this versatile app enables teachers and students to
create and explore interactive, virtual environments.
Google Expeditions Walk Through
Exoplanet —
This app, developed by a professional astronomer, provides an interactive
catalog of known planets orbiting stars in the Milky Way.
Using the Exoplanet app to explore our galaxy.
Star Walk — Users of this AR app can see and identify
constellations and stars in real-time and learn about interesting astronomy
facts and daily statistics.
BEST Way to view the stars, Star Walk 2
Touch Surgery — Doctors and surgeons can use this app
to prepare for surgical cases and learn about different procedures.
Touch Surgery - Immersive Training
4D
Interactive Anatomy — Students can test their knowledge and faculty
can create custom quizzes using this 4D interactive anatomy app.
4D Interactive Anatomy
zSpace — This AR platform allows faculty to create immersive academic experiences and create content for a wide range of courses.
The New zSpace for Education
Transform education with augmented reality
According to XR Association’s “2019 Augmented and Virtual Reality Survey Report,” the
education market is a top-three promising areas of development for AR and VR
technology. With the power of augmented reality, the classrooms of the future
may not look much like the classrooms of the past.
Share your views with us in the comment section below!
Resources
Learn more about the benefits of augmented reality in
education:
EdSurge, “Five Ways Teachers Can Use — and Create — Augmented
Reality Experiences” — Innovative ways teachers are using AR in the
classroom
EdTech, “Here Is What the Right Tools for Mixed Reality in the
Classroom Look Like” — Insights on maximizing augmented reality in
education investments
Interesting Engineering, “Augmented Reality: The Future of
Education” — AR strategies, tools, and platforms that can help
accelerate STEM and coding learning
The Tech Edvocate, “4 Benefits of Using Augmented Reality in
the Classroom” — Key benefits of AR in teaching
ViewSonic, “6 Benefits and 5 Examples of Augmented Reality in Education“ — A discussion of how AR improves student outcomes
Campus Technology, “9 Amazing Uses for VR and AR in College Classrooms” — Examples of AR uses in college classrooms
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