This is an academic paper I prepared as part of my Masters in Education - ICT

1. Augmented Reality Apps for Education
Wes Warner
Genesis Christian College, Bray Park, Queensland, 4500
Abstract to ‘see’ when they do their recon of the proposed site.
When the students arrive at their destination, they will be
developers this suggestion as I think this would be a great
benefit to have as it would tie in my other online activities.
Wireless mobile devices such as the iPhone and Google able to view their teachers Air Tags and comment on the Once you have registered your details, you are then
Android phones are increasingly using GPS technology and Air Tags they ‘see’. provided with the LiveView. LiveView displays all of the
their applications offer education a great deal of promise.
Initially, Augmented Reality required unwieldy headsets and The Learning Curve AirTags posted in your location. Depending on your
location, the LiveView screen can be a bit busy, however this
kept users largely tethered to their desktop computers I have been interested in Augmented Reality in education is where the Filter will help.
(2010 Horizon Report. The camera, electronic compass and for a while however these applications were difficult to use AirTags (Photos, notes, or Audio) look like a floating picture
GPS units that are embedded in these phones now serve as and embed into everyday teaching as they used commercial f ra m e o n y o u r s c re e n .
the means to combine real world data with virtual data; software which has a steep learning curve, which is not AirTags will also appear to
Augmented Reality applications can pinpoint where the conducive for a mass uptake of the software . Technology move as you roam along. As
mobile’s camera is pointing and overlay relevant information should enhance the teaching process, not dictate it the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4
at appropriate points on the screen. (Sigafoos, J 2007:3). With the introduction of smart phones have a built-in compass, the
Currently, many augmented reality efforts are focused on and the vast array of intuitive applications in the App Store, position of the tags change
entertainment, social networking and marketing, but technology is not longer a hindrance or dictator of the when you change the
according to the the 2010 Horizon Report, these will spill teaching process. direction of the device. At
into other areas as the technology matures and becomes I regularly trawl through the App Store to find interesting the top of the screen they
even more simplified. applications that could be used for education. I tend to stay have W N E S which
Sekai Camera is a mobile Augmented Reality application for a way from the Education category a nd focus on
the iPhone and Google Android devices. It allows the users Productivity, Navigation, Utilities, and Social Networking as
represent the compass rose.
of these devices to GeoTag: I see affordances in many of these applications for education
As Air Tags are posted, dots
A photo and tag it with text that the developers have yet to see.
indicating where they are
An audio recording and tag it with text The first time opening up the application Sekai Camera on appear on the compass. It
my iPhone, I saw the following screen: does take some getting used
A transcript or
to, especially when you have
Combine all three together in one AirTag created a lot of AirTags, or
Before I could use the application I had to register with the
that the application is quite
Introduction company who developed the software. This is one
drawback with living in a digital age - every company wants
popular where you are.
The concept of blending (augmenting) virtual data — your data. As I was learning this application in the view of As I became more
information, rich media, and even live action — with what using it with my students and to showcase it to my accustomed to using Sekai Camera, I noticed several
we see in the real world, for the purpose of enhancing the colleagues, I had decided to use my official title, Mr_Warner. buttons on the bottom beside the Post icon. These buttons/
experience and information we can perceive with our senses icons were Filter, Pocket, Game, and Life.
is a powerful one. I believe that no other technology has Filter, I found out through experimentation, is exactly what
had the potential to radically revolutionize education. is says - it filters the air tags around you. This would be
Augmented Reality will transform education from a text great in any education situation where you would want to
based system to a safe, practical application of the theory limit the students to see certain AirTags. The Filter will
students learn by giving students access to more allow the teacher to show AirTags by:
information in a more interactive way and helping them find
different events and places of interest more easily (Speller Their age - 1Day to 1 Month old AirTags
2009) Their distance - 50 metres to 300 metres from where they
were created.
The ability to see in real life what they have read about in In addition to this I found
class is a great learning tool. Sekai Camera brings about As you can see from the figure to the right, the data you out via the website that you
this experience but with the added opportunity for students need to supply for your profile (which can follow others and when
to collaborate and comment on what their peers and Sekai Camera call your Air Profile) is you select the List icon in the
teacher have said. an email address and username. I did Filter menu, Sekai Camera
experiment with using a different will only show the AirTags by
When a decision to include an excursion as part of the those you follow. This
curriculum is made, it is good professional practice to go to email address. I was hoping that if I
entered my Posterous or Evernote option I feel would be a great
the site and identify the learning experiences that the selling point to educators
students will need to see to make the excursion worthwhile email address that every time I
created an AirTag, this AirTag would who may worry over privacy
and educational. In addition to this, the teacher would also issues or students seeing
do a risk assessment of the area. be sent to either my Posterous or
Evernote account. Unfortunately this unwanted AirTags.
With Sekai Camera, the teacher will be able to take photos, is not the case. I have emailed the
write up points of interest and record audio for the students

2. The icon, Pocket, I found out allowed me to ‘collect’ AirTags Health and Physical Education - Recording Sports Day with
and save them. This I see as invaluable if I was to be using Sekai Camera would be great cross referencing with
this with my students on an excursion as evidence the previous sports day. Records and competitors would be able
students visited all the areas of interest. to have AirTags created on the day. The next time the Glossary
The Game icon perplexed me. The website supplies the sports day is run, these tags would be visible. AirTag: A Geotagged photograph, audio file, or text file.
following information on the game Ka-Boom. Geography - Urban Planning is a major topic for the Senior Air Profile: A users online profile which contains their
Ka-boom! is a social and a multi-player game. You can blow Geography syllabus. I can imagine that using this username and email address.
up your friends or the entire world! When you run into a application on the same
area over time will show Augmented Reality
bomb belonging to another player, you can either try to
defuse it or try to escape. Defusing a bomb might be a students exactly how the Posterous: Posterous is a simple blogging platform started
challenge, but only real cowards would run away. urban landscape has in May, 2009 funded by Y Combinator. It boasts integrated
changed over the years. It is and automatic posting to other social media tools such as
possible to collect older Flickr, Twitter, and Facebook, a built-in Google Analytics
I had attempted to play the games, Ka-boom, and Sekai photographs from package, and custom themes.
Hero without success. I think this could be put down to textbooks and AirTag them Evernote: Evernote is a collection of software and services
either my age and/or the cultural difference between Japan in the correct geographic that allows users to collect, sort, tag and annotate notes and
and Australia. area as well. other miscellaneous information.
Another button on the bottom on the screen was Life. Life A g ri c u l t u ra l S c i e n c e - LiveView: The view a user of Sekai Camera sees on their
was a button I could see myself using quite a bit. Life Growing Crops, and Animal phone.
Husbandry would allow the students to keep an Augmented
Reality journal of what has happened with their crops and/
or animals throughout the season.
Eng lish/Dra ma - Ca pturing AirTa gs throughout a
performance to review at a latter stage.
References
allowed you to see a timeline of all your AirTags, reply to
other AirTags, and follow other users (a bit like twitter) In fact there are so many ways to integrate this application
into the curriculum. What does remain is how I would teach Johnson, L., Levine, A., Smith, R., & Stone, S. (2010). The
Results this application to my students. With the rather limited 2010 Horizon Report. Austin, Texas: The New Media
resources available, I would provide the class with the Consortium.
Learning a new technology in a non structured manner is
what I have always done. I have not attended any opportunity to use their smart phone to find some AirTags http://support.sekaicamera.com/enhttp://itacitus.org/
workshops to learn traditional or Web 2.0 software. Instead that I have created. The very first AirTag would be found in
S p e l l e r, L 2 0 0 9 h t t p : / / c o r d i s . e u r o p a . e u / f e t c h ?
I rely on my Personal Learning Network (email list-serves, the classroom and it would show them how to use Pocket, so
CALLER=PROJ_ICT&ACTION=D&DOC=1&CAT=PROJ&QUE
twitter and teaching colleagues) and my students, who I they can collect each AirTag I have created so they will have
RY=012217b2fe68:f187:491dfc2b&RCN=80182
admire so much for their humble attitude when they show a summary of how to use the application.
me something I did not know. According to Stanton and
Stammers, there is no significant difference in the training Conclusion Sigafoos, J and Green, V (Editors) 2007. USING
time between the two conditions (structured and Working with Augmented Reality is a lot of fun. Mobile COMPUTERS TO PROMOTE LITERACY DEVELOPMENT.
unstructured training). However, the difference between the devices are increasingly driving this technology into the Nova Science Publishers, Inc. http://eprints.utas.edu.au/
transfer and retention performance between the two mobile space where the applications offer a great deal of 1330/1/5-Le-P.pdf
a p p ro a c h e s s i g n i fi c a n c e w i t h b e t t e r o p e r a t i o n a l promise (Johnson. L et al 2010:21). Applications that convey
performance in the unstructured condition. information about a place open the door to discovery-based Sta nton, N a nd Sta mmers, R.A COMPARISON OF
Learning in this manner is not for everyone and in many learning. An application currently in development by the STRUCTURED AND UNSTRUCTURED NAVIGATION
cases I have often reflected through my journal and my EU-funded iTacitus project (http://itacitus.org/) will allow THROUGH A CBT PACKAGE. http://bura.brunel.ac.uk/
AudioBoo entries on how I could have done things better, visitors to pan across a location — the Coliseum, say — and b i t s t re a m / 2 4 3 8 / 2 8 2 7 / 1 / A % 2 0 C o m p a ri s o n % 2 0 o f
more efficient. This reflection is used when I want or need see what it looked like during an historical event, complete %20Structured%20and%20Unstructured%20Navigation
to teach a new skill to my students or when they teach me with cheering spectators and competing athletes. If users %20through%20a%20CBT%20package.pdf
something new. Holmes, Byrne and Garner (2006, p. 99) get onboard with the application Sekai Camera and the
believe that as learners we need to continually self-assess AirTags are saved and archived, I cannot see no reason why
and reflect as these cognitive processes are crucial in order this application cannot achieve this purpose.
for the learner to be able to guide themselves in
determining “where they are” in their learning and what the
next steps should be. Learning Sekai Camera was not
difficult which is probably why you cannot find any tutorials
except for their website.
I have focused on excursions as to where you would use this
application, however there are many more areas in which it
could be used. These include:
History - Archaeological digs could be set up and recorded
using Sekai Camera with GeoTagged photos, interviews and
notes of the event which can be referred to in a report the
students would write up at a later stage.