For those people that have seen Mark Zuckerberg’s presentation at the recent F8 conference, Facebook sees Augmented Reality as key to their future strategy. Facebook is already investing in Virtual Reality with the acquisition of Oculus Rift a few years ago. But VR still hasn’t exploded out of the gaming industry into other sectors. Augmented reality, on the other hand, has a lot of potential for businesses in design, presentation, retail and service. It’s why Zuckerberg sees AR as a more relevant opportunity right now. Check out the below video with the highlights of Zuckerberg’s AR presentation:
So what is Augmented Reality? AR is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. Unlike virtual reality, which creates a totally artificial environment, augmented reality uses the existing environment and overlays new information on top of it. Best example today is Pokemon Go. The game utilises the player’s mobile device’s GPS ability to locate, capture, battle, and train virtual creatures, called Pokémon, which appear on the screen as if they were at the same real-world location as the player. A huge hit bringing AR to the masses.
Obviously, this can bring tremendous advantage to the way we present and learn in the classroom. Here are just a few of the benefits you get when you use AR in education:
More motivated students – AR technology can transform the classroom into an exciting learning environment. Keeping students interested and motivated to participate and finding out how their reality will be transformed. Every classroom session can be a new journey where students can discover a new AR world with hidden content.
More interaction – AR can help students become more engaged. It can offer new ways of content presentation and enhancing collaboration. It can help them to connect with the content at a deeper level and AR can guide them in this journey. Imagine an AR-enhanced gallery where students just have to look at an artwork and through their mobile phone they will see all the information related to it about its history and the artist who created it. A good example is an app called Blippar. Just point your phone’s camera to any object and you will get additional information about that object.
Faster learning – More engaged and motivated students will learn faster. Their attention and energy is concentrated on the learning material throughout the learning processs. AR technology can help keep students concentrated by making the learning materials more interesting and engaging.
Augmented Reality has many benefits, the biggest one is having students that are engaged, students who are participating. And we know that when people engage, they will learn. By using new technologies (AR) in a familiar environment (the classroom), using familiar devices, we trigger imagination and curiosity. And aren’t these the things we want to keep alive in every student so the future can become more and more exciting?
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