Augmented Reality

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The following are 5 reasons AR might promote learning in new ways:

1. First AR will capture the attention of your audience! Imagine going over the skeletal system and in class you have a live skeleton. You walk over to the skeleton and point your tablet at the skeleton and all of a sudden the muscles of the skeleton show up on screen. You have the students attention. 
2. Student participation will increase as each student would be able to pull out their device and also access the skeletal system on their device. Instead of simply watching you have all of the fun, they get to participate in the action. 
3. Using AR gives you access to portable and less expensive live models. Imagine how expensive it would be to have 3 different skeletal models. One showing the bones, another the muscular system, and yet another the organs. Using AR student can access all of these 3D models right from their device. 
4. Students may retain more knowledge as AR connects students to multiple learning objects. For example, a scan of the skeletal system might result in the heart showing up with a link to web page about the heart followed by a video of open heart surgery. Instead of looking at a photo and talking about it, student will retain more knowledge by interacting and engaging with the content and connecting the educational dots of the topic through multimedia. 
5. Finally, all of this facilitates intellectual curiosity. As a student explores the various aspects of the the AR skeletal system and the corresponding media they will be inclined to interact with all of the various parts of the model (Augment, 2015).

The following are 3 ways that companies are creating AR products for use in educational settings:

1. A company named Curiscope is using AR in conjunction with T-shirt designs so that when when the student points the device at the person wearing the shirt, they can see inside the human body and learn about how it works. This is beneficial because it combines visual and kinisthetic learning styles.  
2. Popar is a company that uses AR to bring books and charts to life. As a child is viewing a map of the solar system on his wall, he can point his device at the map and see the solar system come to life as the planets orbit the sun. The goal is to actively engage students in the learning process
3. Quiver Vision is the AR company that brings coloring books to life. Perfect for art teachers and artist in general. Students will color a page and then point the device at the page to see their colorful creation come to life in 3D. (Burch, 2016).

One criticism of AR is that students and teachers will need modern technology that is not cheap to obtain and will need to be updated and maintained. This makes AR less than ideal for a large amount of people especially those in a less affluent school.  Another criticism of AR is that since it's still in it's infancy, users will have to deal with a lot of glitches and hang ups in the systems which can disrupt the flow of education. If AR is not seamless, it can potentially become more of a distraction than a solution.  

Describe pedagogical contributions of AR, challenges of using AR in the classroom, and two areas for further research in AR

According to the research study, "Advantages and challenges associated with augmented reality for education: A systematic review of the literature," the following pedagogical contributions of AR were identified: AR enhanced enjoyment of the learning activities, increased engagement and interest, enabled more collaborative opportunities, promoted self-learning and experiential learning. Additionally AR is student-centered technology that enables multi-sensory learning that enables learners to quickly receive information. The most notable advantage was enhanced learning achievement and the biggest challenges of using AR included usability issues and technical problems such as GPS errors, camera, internet, etc (Akçayır, M., & Akçayır, G., 2017). When using new technology that requires a lot of variables to work, one often runs into problems. For example, does the wifi work? Does the camera work? Is the device charged? Though AR offers a variety of benefits the technology involved is far from friction-less.

The article indicated that further research is needed in the area of AR and special needs because very few technologies are designed for students with special needs. Additionally further studies need to be conducted to uncover whether a novelty factor played a large part in the student experiences with AR.

References:

Aaron Burch (14 Oct. 2016.). 12 Companies Working on AR Technology for Kids - Touchstone Research. Touchstone Research. Retrieved from https://touchstoneresearch.com/12-companies-working-on-ar-technology-for-kids/

Akçayır, M., & Akçayır, G. (2017). Advantages and challenges associated with augmented reality for education: A systematic review of the literature. Educational Research Review, 20, 1-11.

Augment (13 Feb. 2015.). 5 reasons to use Augmented Reality in Education - Augment News. Augment News. Retrieved from https://www.augment.com/blog/5-reasons-use-augmented-reality-education/