Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

While these emerging technologies may offer many benefits for students and professors, institutions will need to address ethical and safety concerns.

Lately, I have been spending quite a bit of time digging into research and academic writing about the development and evolution of many of the educational technologies that are common in schools today. Last week I read through Augmented Reality: An Overview and Five Directions for AR in Education authored by Steve Chi-Yin Yuen, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong, and Erik Johnson and published in June of 2011 by the Journal of Educational Technology and Exchange. While I was reading I started to think about how far augmented reality has come in the last eight years. What follows is my commentary on those directions given the benefit of the last eight years of development of AR.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user's view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. What you may not know is that you can implement augmented reality in libraries, archives, and museums for free in less than five minutes.

With AR, I didn’t truly ‘get it’ until I experienced it in its early days – a decade ago. Sadly, I’ve been predicting AR would take off for years, but in 2018 it did. My first experience was on the top of a Boulder Colorado hotel giving a speech on ILL value at a conference. I had this new AR app on my phone and decided to use it over coffee break. Visible from the window was the wonderful mountain view—and I opened the app and pointed my smartphone at it, and lo-and-behold the names of the mountains were overlaid on them as well as a few ski trails and tourist routes. Amazing! You’d think one Rocky looks pretty much the same as any other.

A new application makes it possible for students to explore delicate historical artifacts without ever laying a finger on them.

The Augmented Archives project, started through a partnership between the Washington College Archives and Washington College’s Academic Technology Department, brings artifacts to life “using augmented reality technology to make rare documents, fragile artifacts and curator commentary videos accessible to exhibit visitors.”

“I see this as a great way for us to change the way we are engaging with our artifacts” says Heather Calloway, archivist and special collections librarian at Washington College in a video on the project. “We could take something out and digitize it in various ways.”

When looking towards the future of education and instruction, hardware will not be the catalyst for change. The people behind the technology will be the ones who transform student learning. Media specialists operating within the demands of 21st-century innovation find themselves tasked with the responsibility not only to be as tech-savvy as possible, but to tap into their creativity to create an inspiring library learning environment. The 4 C’s (collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity) will drive our pioneering approach to developing the libraries of the future.

Virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, haptic feedback; the line between these and many other technological realities is becoming blurred and they are beginning to be grouped under one umbrella term: artificial reality. But what is artificial reality and how can it be used effectively in the classroom?

According to Webster's Dictionary, augmented reality is "an enhanced version of reality created by the use of technology to overlay digital information on an image of something being viewed through a device (as a smartphone camera); also :  the technology used to create augmented reality."  Think of it as a type of virtual reality, using the computer to copy your world. You are probably familiar with a tool created by Google which falls into this category: Google Glass. Although augmented reality has existed for a long time, we as teachers are only now grasping how to use it in the classroom.

K-12 schools are beginning to see the educational value of virtual and augmented reality and are investing in these technologies even though price points are still aimed at higher-end markets.

Augmented reality-based apps infuse more engagement into learning exercises, and students often grasp complex concepts quickly with interactive content, said Peterson, referencing Drew Minock, an advocate for augmented reality in the classroom and outreach manager at augmented reality company Daqri. “If you can captivate those kids when you introduce the lesson, you know they’re going to pay attention throughout the lesson,” Peterson said. “This is a great way to grab kids and get them involved.” Relevant educational uses include using augmented reality during a visit to a museum or historical location, seeing science concepts in motion, looking at math from new visual perspectives, watching books come to life, and animating art.

This morning I received an email from a reader who was wondering what the terms AR and VR mean. I get that question on a fairly regular basis these days. That's why earlier this year I recorded a video and posted a short slideshow that outlines the differences between augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality.

Things are about to get very interesting. These four disruptive digital technologies aren't mainstream, but they will change the very fabric of learning.

When I read Camillia Matuk’s The Learning Affordances of Augmented Reality For Museum Exhibits on Human Health, I knew I wanted to speak with her about AR and learning. Camillia is assistant professor of educational communication and technology at New York University (with a Ph.D. in the learning sciences from Northwestern University, an MSc in biomedical communications from the University of Toronto, and a BSc in biological sciences from the University of Windsor.)

No doubt you’ll have seen countless people walking the streets with their heads down, using their phones to locate their next catch, or congregating together in areas of interest to battle at Pokémon gyms. Perhaps you’re even a top trainer yourself.

As a futures senior innovation developer at Jisc, you might expect that I’d be jumping for joy at seeing augmented reality (AR) make its way into the mainstream. But if I’m honest, I’ve struggled to get excited.