Technology enjoys a stalwart presence in today's age. There's so much innovation happening on a daily basis that it's hard to keep up with updates unless one is actively trying to do so. Various industries regularly dip their toes into a new technological concept that helps catapult their business model forward.
We have examples of smart cars, robotic surgeries, and now, tech is even helping teach! Creating a more immersive experience for students not only helps them retain what they learn but also contributes to a lasting attention span.
In this article, we'll be delving deep into how Augmented Reality or AR can help break barriers of teaching and provide students with an experience that is interactive as well as plausible. The reach of AR is virtually unlimited but in order to avail the best of it, you do need to have an active internet connection. This is so that the system that is used to project said AR could regularly update. An internet service provider such as AT&T may be the only solution you'd need due to its reliable connection and snappy results.
Check out AT&T availability and make sure to get yourself hooked up if you haven't already with an internet that runs mano a mano with some of the top ISPs in America! Now, without further ado, let's go ahead and behold the awesomeness of AR in education:
No Extra Equipment Required
Augmented Reality keeps things simple by only needing a compatible device like a mobile phone. Since students normally carry a phone with them, getting them AR applicable is an easy task. This bypasses the requirement to buy expensive devices just to empower students with augmented reality.
Higher Student Engagement
Various studies have proven that vibrant colors, interactive sessions, and tactile feedback automatically engage children’s attention. By providing a means to interact with a virtual system, say, a mechanical model of a pulley, students can be shown how physics works to bring up water from a well. This naturally makes a child curious as they learn a new concept by seeing, “touching” and hearing. And that’s what AR is all about. To bring the person to the subject in a manner where they can go beyond just reading or seeing it.
Practical Learning
Apart from providing an exceptional means for education, AR can help with practical learning as well. This doesn’t apply just to early years. Graduate medical students can benefit from advancements in augmented reality by using their mobile devices or tablet to view an AR image of the anatomy of bone.
AR allows the student to spin the structure to view it from a 360-degree angle and come to a decisive conclusion. In observing a structure from all angles not only do they bypass the need to physically hold a bone and take it apart but also the student can do this countless times, adding in their own research as they do so.
Safe and Efficient
It’s not always possible to place a student in the same space as the subject being studied. Consider turbine motors for a dam. Or a chemical plant when studying petroleum engineering. Such places are dangerous and even though protective gear is heavily enforced, there’s always a hazard risk at hand. Using AR to explain/display the various concepts is a much safer way for teachers to engage students and make them more adept at understanding structural junctions.
The same point applies to when medical students have to perform in the field. Operating on the human body is a daunting task no matter how you look at it. Students are pushed to take good care but human error can pop up at any time. A company could be looking to lose millions of dollars just because of a wrong move. Lives could be lost. A lot of wrongs could occur. AR helps minimize all of this by giving a much safer, digital solution. It makes sense. For the most part, anyway.
AR Apps & Examples
Multitudes of AR apps exist in 2023 that offer quality learning through the help of augmented reality. Said apps include but are not limited to:
- Catchy Words AR: Similar to Pokémon Go, the Catchy Words app lets students use a mobile device to roam around their class or school premises and catch letters to guess the right word.
- Narrator AR: This app functions like a stylus and tracing paper. Students aged 3-5 are encouraged to write in a certain manner that not only helps them learn to write but also earn early mastery in cursive or block writing.
- Quiver Masks: Quiver Masks lets kids unfurl their creativity to create colorful masks and read stories. This helps kids grow an avid interest in reading books, drawing, and telling compelling stories.
Conclusion
That’s a wrap on our insight into education and how it can be augmented by AR. As the years’ years progress, students are looking to grasp new concepts that pertain to their generation. Tech can help bridge this gap and augmented reality is a lead candidate for doing so.
