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This discussion is based on the following reading:
H-K Wu, S. Lee, H-Y Chang, J-C Liang. "Current status, opportunities and challenges of augmented reality in education." Computers & Education 62 (2013) 41-49.
F. Liarokapis, N. Mourkoussis, M. White, J. Darcy, M. Sifniotis, P. Petridis, A. Basu, P. F. Lister. "Web3D and Augmented Reality to support Engineering Education." World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education© 2004 UICEE Vol.3, No.1, 2004.
E. Klopfer and K. Squire. "Environmental Detectives—the development of an augmented reality platform for environmental simulations." Education Tech Research Dev. (2008) 56:203–228 DOI 10.1007/s11423-007-9037-6
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This week we discuss the merits, implications, and challenges surrounding augmented reality (AR) in the classroom. Wu, et al. adopt the definition of AR as "augmenting natural feedback to the operator with simulate cues" and conceive AR as a concept rather than being grounded in technology itself. They discuss several features and affordances AR provides including
- learning content in 3D
- ubiquitous, collaborative, situated learning
- presence, immediacy, and immersion,
- visualizing the invisible, and,
- bridging formal and informal learning.
The largest advantage of AR is indeed immersive learning that allows the students to connect classroom concepts with real-life contexts, which may prove to be a motivation for further developing collaborative and inquiry-based skills. Indeed there have been many studies that have shown that students across all ages can gain additional enthusiasm and insight into issues in their environment.
The one affordance that struck my attention was bridging the formal and informal learning. I find this link to be less explored than the others.More specifically, the ability to go back to formal learning. While it is more apparent how to incorporate collaboration through roles, context and immediacy through location, and visualization, it is difficult to connect it back to formal learning. The current paradigm of formal learning includes lectures, textbook reading, and in-class demonstrations. I feel this is an important aspect to consider when designing AR media. That is, the ability to breakdown the dense text in textbooks. There is a surprising amount of knowledge and intuition in older textbooks that will be lost if future generations do not take the time to decipher them. It is also a skill that takes patience and persistence, and was not something I started learning until reaching graduate school.
True, reading a math textbook is dry and soporific, but the ability to traverse between abstract and concrete is an important skill and is a common theme in science and math. In fact, something that is not apparent early in education or in general public and not emphasized enough is that a large part of science and math is the ability abstract a concrete problem and establish assumptions (or conjectures, axioms, etc. in mathematics). That is, identifying and defining the problem may be said to be more important than the solution itself because it frames the types of solutions that arise. Furthermore, the ability to establish to assumptions is critical because it can simplify a problem and clarify the thinking process. Nearly everything in science begins with a complex problem distilled into a simple model with a set of assumptions that are gradually relaxed. Although I am not sure how viable this would be in an AR environment, I think it an aspect worth investigating.
The importance of old knowledge also holds true in the research world. There are a number of examples in which what is supposed to be cutting-edge research in high-end journals has actually been fleshed out with greater physical intuition a few decades ago. This is partially because not as much technology was available, so one had to to choose carefully how to approach a problem while considering the physics. In other words, the lack of technology and other resources spurred creative and carefully thought out hypotheses.
This is made difficult through the shear volume of information that gets generated now. The analysis of the implementation of AR in the classroom described that Klopfer and Squire present provides useful insight into possible challenges and solutions to overcome them. In addition to listing numerous existing classroom software for AR learning, they listed several challenges on all levels of development for a environmental based game. These included technical problems with the accuracy of the GPS and the solution-driven instead of inquiry-based work of several student groups. Klopfer and Squire offer insightful solutions such as allowing the usage of Google, setting a time limit, having a time-dependence on the non-player characters, and cascading events. I think this is working in the correct direction to foster the ability to sift through constantly changing and generated information, and critically think about their validity with peers. This is indeed something that is lost on the textbook level where often only well-established knowledge passes.
A final thought on AR mentioned by Klopfer and Squire is the importance of the learning culture and teacher in the classroom. That is, one must keep in mind that AR is an additional tool and the full potential of AR depends on how the teacher presents the material. Klopfer and Squire note that the how the teacher frames the collaboration or competition greatly affects the depth to which students evaluate their solutions. And this is perhaps the most important and most difficult challenge: How does the teacher understand and perceive the classroom material? How does this translate into student learning? While developing classroom tools for students is important, there must also be emphasis on the teachers. Perhaps AR can offer an opportunity in this area for training teachers.
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