Matthew Ramirez, University of Manchester
Prezi: http://prezi.com/k4rkzzlqgvkt/augmented-reality-in-education-event-2012/
Blog: http://teamscarlet.wordpress.com/
Wiki: scarlet.mimas.ac.uk/mediawiki – this contains lots of useful info and links
Project scarlet uses computer graphics to add a layer of information to the real world. As part of their course, students need to consult books within controlled conditions within library study rooms. In these rooms, objects are isolated from secondary resources and digital resources. AR helps students to look at primary sources surrounded by contextual materials. The experience is led by an academic and built into the aims and objectives of the module. It required a multidisciplinary team, a special collections manager, student voice, academics and developers.
They worked with ten key editions of Dante and with the oldest surviving fragment of the Gospel of St John. Around the fragment, the project provides its original context in the document, a peer-reviewed video, the English translation, and a mobile-optimised page with information links and bibliography. With the Dante you get a commentary by the academic, and can link to a mobile-optimised set of resources. Students were able to book out ipads in order to view the content, and could also view it elsewhere on a standard computer.
They used junaio – glue-based recognition http://www.junaio.com/develop/docs/glue/
A problem for AR is that there are no ratified standards, so there is no code base on which to build AR. The upside of this is that competing companies are driving innovation.
Students liked going to the library, seeing the artefacts and having all the information gathered together. It could be used not only for content delivery but also to get students to develop content themselves. The project was also a way of surfacing library content not only to students but also to academics and the wider public, [providing access to underused resources.
The first year students found it a good way of establishing basic knowledge. It enthused them and encouraged them. Final year students found the basic content less relevant, but liked the video introductions to specific objects, and liked having a central reference point they could use for the initial planning of essays.
It is important that students are immersed in the activities; otherwise they ask why they can’t just view the material in the VLE.
Use of AR needs to be contextual, closely linked to both the objective and to the learning. It shouldn’t be a generic resource. Important not to underestimate the time needed to create it.
For the future, they are looking at the possibilities for medical learning or for hairdresser training. AR works very well in situational learning, where you don’t have access to computers but you do have access to mobile devices. For example, you could link to a video on how to cut a certain style.
They also do a service called Land Map that allows you to access topographical data from across the UK http://www.landmap.ac.uk/index.php/About/ This could be used, for example, to create 3D models showing the type of housing in an area, and these models could then be linked to 3D printers.
The Team Scarlet wiki gives you access to a toolkit that helps you to align augmented reality, technology and pedagogy with specific aims and objectives.
They are currently working with the University of Sussex and the University of the Creative Arts. They have a video of an interview with Lucy Robinson at the University of Sussex who is leading a project on the eighties, and is excited that you can take objects and ephemera and set them in their wider context, the world that they spoke from and that they spoke to.
You can put Google Analytics on to AR resources in order to monitor how many times resources are accessed.