Learning through AR & VR technologies can be a very effective educational methodology, able to engage the students and make content more attractive to them. The entire process can become more interactive and fun. In the field of education and training there are application tools that can help to improve the teaching-learning process by making it more connected with the surrounding environment; learning can become a more collaborative journey through the creation of interactive spaces that can encourage greater student involvement.
Through augmented reality, teachers can engage students by capturing their attention, making them have a great time: they will be able to remember the proposed topics more easily, even the most difficult ones will be more understandable. We believe that AR & VR for learning can become an essential component of the educational process, helping schools and teachers to meet the needs and habits of the new generations.
For those who have kids in school age, the last couple of months have been quite a revelation.
Used to kiss them goodbye in the morning and see them again only many hours later, whatever happened all day long inside the classroom was largely a guessing game, with the sole prop of clues that were either sporadic (the interaction with the teachers) or outright poor (the recounts of the usually reticent pupils).
But when suddenly home-schooling became the new normal, it was as if the fourth wall collapsed, allowing us to take a glimpse at what happens routinely behind the scenes.
A somewhat displacing experience, the one thing it did was giving us a better understanding of both the benefits and the limitations of digital and traditional means to deliver education.
There is no doubt that a physical interaction with teachers and peers is crucial, not only for learning purposes, but also for a healthy social development; on the other hand, the increased adoption of communication technologies that are already part of the youngsters’ lives plays a role in engaging them more and better in the learning process.
As such, we suddenly found ourselves at a crossroads where we must solve the dilemma and obtain the best of both worlds: by blending real world and digitally constructed contents, immersive technologies can be the answer.
Let’s be clear about this: the pandemic did not raise the question from nowhere; it simply put it right at the top of the agenda. The case for mixed reality was already there well before the outbreak, and it rests on a set of reasons that we can schematically summarise as follows.
The Benefits of Augmented Reality for Education
Improve students’ engagement
This is arguably the most powerful driver, as the interactive nature of AR & VR for learning helps raise attention’s levels on any subject.
Think about a maths lesson where pupils learn proportions by designing a building and then seeing it digitally erected: if their calculations are wrong, the result will be evidently disastrous! Not only that, but they will be extra-motivated to understand the theory better in order to improve the outcome. In addition, AR &VR enable students to study and learn more effectively, without distractions, they can improve their understanding of topics and have a better information retention over time.
Increase knowledge retention
Research on the topic is extensive and unequivocal: by pulling contents through their own discovery, users recollect more memories – and more vividly – than they do when they are at the receiving end of a “passive” teaching approach.
Augmented Reality is the perfect vehicle at this respect: one thing is to learn chemistry on a book; a totally different experience is to so by conducting experiments virtually, thus – by the way – without the need to equip an expensive lab. Augmented and virtual reality are kinaesthetic learning, a system that helps students learn things better through direct practice instead of listening to lectures orally.
Gamification of Learning with AR & VR
How to apply the dynamics of video games to stimulate learning in schools?
Gamification is the use of game elements in contexts other than gaming, such as in education. Through challenges, exciting quizzes, based on the video games model, students are able to obtain a higher motivation as well as increased interest and creativity.
Learners will be more motivated and will eventually achieve better results. It is also motivating for teachers to be able to use innovative teaching strategies and tools in order to connect better with the new generations.
Seek cost-effectiveness in Education
The “virtual lab” example has introduced the idea, but there is more to add in respect to costs saving.
Sure, immersive technologies entail upfront investments that, especially in the case of public institutions, might initially be seen as a stumbling block.
A couple of things however must be taken into account: first of all, applications of this kind increasingly run on hardware that is already in the students’ hands (their own mobile devices); and in the mid-run, the flexibility and the ease in updating the contents reduces the costs for designing and renewing the lessons.
In short: while acquisition costs are decreasing, cost savings are getting more and more conspicuous.
AR-Media included in the i-pear toolkit of educational AR & VR platforms
The AR-Media platform has been selected to be featured on the iPear network (Inclusive Peer Learning with Augmented Reality Apps) project by the AETMA Lab of IHU University, Greece. The iPEAR project brings together the expertise of technology-enhanced learning researchers, computer scientists and educators to build a strategic partnership to optimize the adoption of Augmented Reality (AR) technology in education. The project will create innovative, accessible training resources for teachers that help implement and integrate active and collaborative learning pedagogical approaches supported by AR.
Technological advances have influenced every aspect of our lifestyle: from communication, to the world of work, to social life. The school and educational context has also opened up to technology and digital teaching innovations to ensure that schools keep up with the times.
AR-media believes in the importance of integrating education with Augmented and Virtual Reality by providing its users with diversified plans created to meet different needs. Recently we made available dedicated educations plans for Students, Teachers, Classrooms, Schools and even a custom Academy plan with more personalization options.
We aim to offer the most competitive prices on the market, to let everyone work and study with Augmented Reality tools. AR-media for Education offers exclusive features such as the possibility to create tests and quizzes, send assignments to the Students and give them a feedback/mark and much more.
