Creativity and Augmented Reality Across the Curriculum

Purpose & objective

From our point of view, augmented reality is going to be the next big thing in education. Not only does it let students experience the contents in way that is incredibly closer to reality, but it is a huge step forward as far as creativity and communication are concerned. Augmented reality allows students to create and animate their own 3D models with just an iPad and apps such as ARMakr or Reality Composer. At our school, we were reluctant to use augmented reality when the first material appeared, as they were just a new way to consume the contents, but we wanted something else. So, we decided to carry out a pilot experience and students worked on a project called Augmented Biographies, in which they studied the lives of characters such as the Wright brothers or Marie Curie and brought scenes from their lives and achievements to the real world by using Reality Composer. This experience was so successful that we have now fully integrated AR into our curriculum. Students have written brief novels and animated some scenes in the real world, they have redesigned spaces at school or they have become owners of their own commerces thanks to AR, among many other things. The possibilities are almost limitless and we would like to share all we have done with the attendees.

Outline

In our presentation we will provide the attendees with an insight into augmented reality, so they get to know the advantages of this tool both in general and and at School. Then, we will tell them our journey as far as AR is concerned, from the moment when the first materials appeared to the present day, when we have fully integrated into our curriculum. At first, we thought that AR was a new way to consume contents, and we were reluctant to use it, as we needed something else. However, after some time we could start using it as a way for students to create and animate their own 3D models and bring them to the real world, so they developed their creativity, their communicative skills, their critical thinking and they also acquired a deeper knowledge on the topics they were dealing with. We have plenty of examples on the way we have implemented AR at our School. One of these projects is Augmented Biographies, a project in which students carried out a research on the lives of characters such as Ada Lovelace or the Lumière brothers and brought their own 3D animations to the real world. Besides this, we will also

Our presentation will be divided into four main parts, which will have the same duration: the first part will be the presentation itself, the second will be devoted to a workshop, in the third one we will show some videos with our students working on the projects and the result of their work and the last part will be a debate with the audience in which we will deal with possible applications of AR in education and in their lessons.

In order to engage the audience, our presentation will include some videos in which we will show the students working on some projects and others in whcih we show the final results and we will include a brief workshop in we will show the audience how to create a model and animate it. In this workshop we will recreate a scene from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. At the end of the presentation, we will address the audience directly in order for them to apply what they have learned

Supporting research

Chen P., Liu X., Cheng W., Huang R. (2017) A review of using Augmented Reality in Education from 2011 to 2016. In: Popescu E. et al. (eds) Innovations in Smart Learning. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2419-1_2

Hsin-Kai Wu, Silvia Wen-Yu Lee, Hsin-Yi Chang, Jyh-Chong Liang,
Current status, opportunities and challenges of augmented reality in education,
Computers & Education, Volume 62, 2013, Pages 41-49.

Lee, K. Augmented Reality in Education and Training. TECHTRENDS TECH TRENDS 56, 13–21 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-012-0559-3

Matt Bower, Cathie Howe, Nerida McCredie, Austin Robinson & David Grover (2014) Augmented Reality in education – cases, places and potentials, Educational Media International, 51:1, 1-15, DOI: 10.1080/09523987.2014.889400