Augmented Reality is the Real Game Changer in Education

I think we have heard a million times about hot topics in educational technology, such as  MOOCs, big data, and ebooks at a plethora of educational conference over the last two years.  I wish we started to hear more about a truly engaging technology known as augmented reality. Augmented reality (AR) is just for more than trendy marketing departments and apps for weird over-sized wearable technology goggles.

Daqri has a few educational focused apps that take in design elements built into certain objects to bring them to life.

Anatomy 4D

Imagine being able to bring the entire anatomy structure of a man or woman to life with various options to turn off/on a variety of anatomic features to explore the human body. Anatomy 4D by Daqri brings exploring the anatomy to life by scanning a graphic that activates the augmented reality features in the app.

Elements 4D

Learning the elements can be a little boring when you are just looking at the periodic table but bringing the elements to life using little square box can be lots of fun for all ages. Elements 4D’s interactivity and unique combination of educational and scientific information in a fun and engaging form is very exciting to educators everywhere.

Beaming the app’s viewfinder onto the blocks instantly transforms them into 4D representations of that element. When you put two blocks together, they create a new chemical compound. You can print our your own paper template to build your own blocks to give the app a try.

Enchantium 

Enchantium is a 4D platform that uses augmented reality and cutting edge technology to connect games and toys with interactive experiences.

Paired with Enchantium-powered games, the Enchantium app allows you to:

• Pit Pugilistic Professionals against each other in the game of Fisticuffs
• Play Musical Strings, a mystical musical instrument that you can design anew each time you play it (shown below)
• Learn about the physics of strings when you move the Musical Strings cards further apart or closer together
• Move 360° around each game and its players, seeing the action from all sides in 4D

Layar for Glass

Layar, the world’s number one provider of Augmented Reality (AR) and Interactive Print products and services, shows how augmentative reality could just become a part of live, especially with smart eye wear technology because more mainstream. Layar announced the availability of its industry leading mobile app on Google Glass. Glass users can go to Layar.com/Glass to download the app and see instructions for how to install it. By just saying “Ok Glass, scan this,” users can easily experience any of the platform’s over 200,000 Interactive Print pages and 6,000 location-based Geo Layers. Imagine how streamlined augmented reality

What are some of your favorite augmented reality platforms or examples in education?