Hello and welcome to my blog! It seems that new technologies are popping up every day. Advances in technology have grown exponentially in the past twenty years. Devices that appeared in sci-fi movies in the 50s and 60s are now a part of our everyday lives. As educators, it is our job to integrate these new technologies into our classrooms. One such technology is augmented reality.
The Horizon Report 2011 defines augmented reality as the layering of information over a view or representation of the normal world (Johnson, Smith, Willis, Levine & Haywood, 2011). Basically, augmented reality uses computers and other digital devices like iPhones to project images, videos, or sound over a real object.
Some people think augmented reality is very similar to virtual reality, but instead of creating a simulation of reality, augmented reality take a real object or space as the backdrop and incorporates technologies that add contextual information to deepen a person's understanding of the subject. Augmented reality can add digital images, audio commentary, location data, historical context, or other information to a pre-existing object or location in order to make a user's experience more meaningful ("Seven things you," 2005).
Augmented reality is a Web 2.0 technology because it allows people to collaborate and share information. Most A.R. technology is shared using Apps that have been created and shared on databases for the iPhone and other such devices. These Apps are the result of collaboration and networking. Even after Apps and programs using A.R. have been released, people who use them blog and communicate with the creators and the Apps and programs are updated frequently.
Some people think augmented reality is very similar to virtual reality, but instead of creating a simulation of reality, augmented reality take a real object or space as the backdrop and incorporates technologies that add contextual information to deepen a person's understanding of the subject. Augmented reality can add digital images, audio commentary, location data, historical context, or other information to a pre-existing object or location in order to make a user's experience more meaningful ("Seven things you," 2005).
Augmented reality is a Web 2.0 technology because it allows people to collaborate and share information. Most A.R. technology is shared using Apps that have been created and shared on databases for the iPhone and other such devices. These Apps are the result of collaboration and networking. Even after Apps and programs using A.R. have been released, people who use them blog and communicate with the creators and the Apps and programs are updated frequently.
The video below showcases augmented reality:
One of the coolest examples of using augmented reality is a free iPhone app called Streetmuseum that was created by the Museum of London. The app leads people to various locations around London. Once you've arrived at a location, you click a button, and the app overlays a historical photograph over the live video feed of the real world (Zhang, 2010).
Here are some pictures showing this app in action!
I am going to look at Streetmuseum! What a great idea for an app!!
ReplyDeleteI already tried to download it, but it only works in London! I am hoping someone will develop one that can be used in the United States. I would love to walk around Philly with the app. It would be so cool!
DeleteHow very interesting. This could have amazing applications in social studies classes.
ReplyDeleteThere were so many cool things I saw while researching this topic. When I was in grade school we took a trip to Washington D.C. and Philadelphia and I kept thinking how cool it would be to use augmented reality while walking through the streets. Instead of just listening to someone talk about the Continental Congress, you could watch a video of it happening right in the room where it happened. It is almost like being in your own little digital world.
Deletefun but scary, the video above. can you make one of those 3-d books or graphic? i can't. i don't have the expertise, the hard/software, the time or the team for it. will school districts/universities soon bypass us and just buy a single virtual teaching program from a company that sells the same system everywhere (they'll do it to keep up with the tech and to cut costs)leaving local individual teachers mere guards and janitors? see http://6020hj.blogspot.com/2012/03/borders-and-u.html
ReplyDeleteFrom what I've read, I think the general idea for using this technology in the classroom would be to use pre-existing programs. I think the creation of most of these things is way beyond the expertise of any classroom teacher. I also think that all of this technology we researched will never trump the need for teachers to guide students along. Technology is not an end, but a means.
Deletei hope you are right. learning seems still to be best effected by first letting students 'drive solo', letting them get a bit off course before guiding them back right. humans still do that better than machines.
Deletebut i think the only reason machines won't be doing that instead of us any time soon is that we are, for the time being, cheaper. look at who you work for, do they equate better and cheaper?
I agree that in the near future, school districts will be using technology to teach certain subjects and hire non certified teachers to "babysit" the students. Scary to think about this. Most school districts main thoughts are to the $$$ and this would be a way of savings.
DeleteIt has happened already to journalism. as soon as it was technically possible,news was processed regionally then served locally, fast-food style. Just because it was cheaper. No reason to think school district are different. The only way not to be replaced by a baby sitter is to learn the technology.
DeleteI do agree with the last statement that the only way to not be replaced is to learn the technology, but I don't think all teachers will eventually be replaced by babysitters. I definitely think technology is changing the way we teach, but students will always need an adult behind them to guide them along the way.
DeleteIf by adult you mean some one who knows more than the student about the task at hand (and knows how to teach!) I agree. but that person, given the rapidly changing content of technology need not be older -- old knowledge can block new knowledge. Nor, given the rapidly changing methods of delivery of technology, need they even be in the same room.
DeleteWhen I was younger, I always had a hard time believing some of the concepts/ideas that I was being taught in my history classes. For me, it was that I had to see it to believe it, but they couldn't do that for me. With this technology, you can actually do that. It is absolutely amazing!
ReplyDeleteI agree! Reading about a battle in the Civil War is much different then sitting on an actual battlefield and watching video of the fighting actually taking place in front of you!
DeleteIf we had these technology advances when I was in school, I can safely say, I would have done much better.
DeleteThis technology here is just a preview to what is to come and it is going to transform the classroom without a doubt. It has the potential to change normal classroom material such as textbooks into engaging activities that bring the learning to life...literally.
ReplyDelete