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Trying new technologies and finding ways to incorporate them meaningfully in the teaching process has been a goal and focus of mine all year as School Technology Leader. As so, I've been flirting with Augmented Reality and it's application with elementary students for a while now and recently took the plunge with a school-wide introduction to the technology and it's use in engaging elementary instruction.
What Augmented Reality does, basically, is takes a static image and overlays or superimposes additional information - video content, photo content, weblinks, and/or just about any other digital content, including scanned images and original videos. The technology itself presents limitless possibilities for projects in all curriculum areas.
I introduced the technology to students with HeartCam, a free iPad app that uses Augmented Reality technology to allow users to "see" into the body and watch a virtual heart pumping. I chose this app because as an introduction, it allows students to see the end product. It opens the door to discussing how the technology actually works and to how it can be applied to projects in the classroom.
My goal was simple... I wanted even the youngest students to be aware of the technology, be able to recognize it when they see it used, and to be able to give it a name.
When you create an original Augmented Reality project, you use an Augmented Reality app (such as Aurasma) to scan in a static image - a photo, drawing, graphic, or in some cases, a special AR Mat. The technology uses that static image as a trigger. Once the image is scanned, you then link the related content.
When the end user scans the original trigger image with the Augmented Reality app, the additional content (video, animation, photo, weblinks, etc.) is displayed over the image - similar to the way QR (Quick Response) Codes are scanned to direct your browser to a specific destination or webpage.
The difference between QR codes and Augmented Reality technology is that with Augmented Reality, the overlaid information appears hovering or superimposed over the original static image. You aren't simply scanning an image and being taken to a predetermined weblink.
The possibilities for technology rich projects within any standards-based curriculum unit are nearly infinite. Students conduct the research and locate or create the content - both static images and digital content. They learn the technology application, create a traditional display with the trigger images, and then overlay the related content.
Viewers can view the project as a traditional, static bulletin board/mind-mapping type display or they can be given iPads loaded with the Augmented Reality app and literally be able to participate in the learning process through the technology! They can be shown video content, directed to informational websites, taken to scanned writing work authored by students, or invited to join in interviews conducted by students with local project-related community leaders. If you are really courageous, you can even link an image in the display to live streaming content - presentations, interviews, performances, etc.
Basically, you can do as much or as little as you like. Media related lessons for such collaborative projects include research skills, note-taking tips, source citations, teaching the actual Augmented Reality technology, and of course, preparation and completion of the technology content.
Augmented Reality is not a new technology but it is emerging and changing in application. Just as QR codes are vastly more prevalent now than they were 5 years ago, Augmented Reality will become more and more the same, growing in it's use and daily application. Because of this, I wanted all of my students - kindergarten through 5th grade - to be exposed to it, to explore it, and to be aware of it for future projects
To demonstrate how Augmented Reality works within the HeartCam application, I gave each student a small HeartCam trigger image with tape on the back and asked them to place it on their chests where their heart is located. Before I had them try the app, I asked for a student volunteer and had them come up in front of the class and scan the HeartCam image I was wearing to see what happened. Their reactions were absolutely priceless! They were amazed that they could "see" inside my chest and watch my heart beating.
After the demonstration, I asked students to work with a friend to scan each other's HeartCam image. It got a little loud with their "oohs" and "ahhs", but it accomplished exactly what I wanted to accomplish, without fail. Every class wanted to know exactly how it worked.
Door open. Let the learning begin.
Admittedly, I was a bit hesitant to use this lesson with kindergarten for fear of frightening them with the computer animated heart video. But with appropriate preparation prior to using the app, kindergartners actually handled and understood the technology better than some of my older students. They understood it wasn't a real heart, or their partner's heart, they were seeing. They understood that it was computer animation and not real.
I prefaced each of the lessons with a short talk about Augmented Reality and how it works - very basically for kindergarten through 3rd grades and a little more in-depth for 4th grade. My 5th graders are getting ready to start collaborative Science and Social Studies based Augmented Reality projects, so I covered the technology in more detail with them. After viewing the HeartCam app, we began brainstorming our project and how we could use the technology to tell our story.
We just started research for those projects last week and I am super excited to see what they will come up with because what I have learned with every level of student I teach is that if they are engaged and excited about the end product, they will do everything in their power to learn what they need to know - curriculum and technology-wise - to present their very best work.
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