The Future of Education: Augmented Reality

Educators are always on the lookout for newer ways to engage students. Engagement is a crucial element in the classroom. Some might argue, one of the most crucial elements. An engaged learner absorbs and retains material better than a disengaged one. I used to view learning as a monotonous and tedious process that I had to do in order to achieve “success”. Or so my parents said. I could never imagine learning as being ‘fun’! But, I stand corrected now. Learning should be fun. It should be fun and engaging.  So how can we make learning more engaging?

Enter Augmented Reality! Defining AR is easier in pictures than words:

Basically, AR allows us to project machine generated audio-visual elements into our reality, let’s the reality we see through our phone camera lens. When you point your phone camera towards your TV, you see the TV on your mobile screen. But what if we add a computer generated monkey dangling from the TV? The monkey does not exist in reality but we can see it on our phone screen. Thus, we have effectively changed and augmented our reality.

The logical next question to ask is: how can we use AR to make learning more effective? I can think of two ways:

• AR makes learning more engaging: AR let’s you alter your reality. In my books, that is a superpower! There is an app called Elements 4D that lets you visualize chemical compounds as a 3D object which seems to be coming out of the floor or the desk (wherever you are point your phone/tablet at). Remember all the angles between the chemical bonds? Now you don’t have to. You can rotate the compound and see it for yourself! AR allows us to interact with our studying materials, which forces us to use more of our senses: we are not just reading the words from the textbook, but visualizing elements and interacting with them.

• Customization: AR allows us to customize our curriculum for different group of students. An free app called Metaverse allows teachers and students to create their own AR world. Their tagline is ‘Create magic in your classroom’, and it truly is magic! You can create different AR worlds based on your classes’ or particular student’s needs. This customization allows us to tailor materials better, which enhances learning for particular students or groups of students.