Augmented Reality: The New Simulation
In a great conversation with Professor Patrick O'Shea, who has worked on the Handheld Augmented Reality Project with Harvard School of Education Professor Chris Dede, I learned the reality of augmented curriculum today. The interview was set up by the great folks at Qualcomm. Three years ago, I had written a story about Qualcomm's Project K-Nect classrooms, which used smartphones to enhance curriculum and engage student collaboration in a safe way. At that time, Qualcomm was a pioneer in use of cell phones in schools. But this meeting, while it does involve mobile broadband, was about Augmented Reality or AR and student learning.
When Dr. O'Shea asked how much I knew about Augmented Reality, I said that what I knew was more game related, mostly avatar manipulation for science and math. So, in reality, I knew very little about what was new. Rather than using AR mapping techniques of the past, O'Shea's model is designed to have students interact and manipulate their virtual environment. Much of that is helped by the development of better handheld devices and connectivity today. Students can really get involve virtually to solve problems and complete tasks using their avatars—in a fun, game-related way.
On April 21, San Diego's Balboa Park, which already offers students hands on, School in the Park learning programs, will be the site of a pilot for just the augmented reality curriculum Patrick has worked and hope for. Students will work and problem solve their way through an AR lesson based on a Chinese folktale about paper cranes. The story involves kindness to a stranger by a restaurant owner, and the repayment of that kindness by the stranger, which makes the restaurant famous and successful. For more on the folktale, check the picture book The Paper Crane by Molly Bang for her version.
For those educators who think augmented reality and avatars are just for games and science fiction, think of these as new tools for what teachers have always done with students in simulation experiences. Today, with mobile broadband, and any mobile device, students don't have to sit in a group with a large piece of oak tag and colored markers anymore. Instead, students can be away from their desks, using avatars to represent them, as they move through and complete simulated tasks in a more realistic way. Students can become the stranger, or the restaurant owner, in the crane scenario, but imagine the other implications in science, history, or math. This is discovery beyond the walls of classroom.
"We wanted this to be for the general public as well, and we wanted it to be free, so the School in the Park, with its museum connections was a perfect venue," says O' Shea.
