Page 19 - THE Journal, April/May 2017

to build [something] and realize you can’t put on the last board because there’s no place to turn the torque wrench.”
In the same way, he suggested, students could also be put into scenarios where they’re allowed to perform physical activities in virtual formats to begin building “muscle memory” that carries over into real life. That’s why the use of VR in sports and mili- tary training has become so popular.
Augmenting Reality
Although these examples primarily empha- size VR, AR in education shows promise too. In fact, currently, it far exceeds VR for student content creation because, aside from a smartphone and the right kind of software, there are no special gadgets required to make it work.
Aurasma is the big name here “because it’s free and easy to use,” Davidson said.
The AR company’s platform allows users to create augmented reality that links to images in books and magazines (making it a darling of marketers who want to “engage” potential customers in their products). To experience
the AR, you hold your phone camera over the image or a QR code and watch to see what happens.
Davidson has seen applications where teachers have worked with students to add interactivity to books they’re reading. They take a video of themselves, and then when another student or a parent runs the app, the student appears on the page to explain some- thing. Or schools have used the software to add interactivity to their yearbooks. “Out of the cover of the book comes the yearbook staff, and the yearbook teacher is saying, ‘Hey this is the yearbook staff, and we hope you really like it,’ then music plays and you walk through the hallways of the school.”
Augmenting Learning
As VR camera prices drop, the urge to create VR content as well is sure to rise, and that could be a draw that pulls teachers into the VR force field and keeps them there. “In virtual reality there’s still a lot of looking around,” acknowledged Davidson. The free choice, Google’s Cardboard Camera app (available for Android and iOS), is literally
that — a way to record a near-360-degree pan- oramic image and view it with Cardboard.
However, more adept cameras that can capture whole experiences on the move have come way down in cost — just a few hundred dollars in some cases — allowing users to create VR headset-worthy movies.
From there, with an app like ThingLink users can add notes, audio, additional video or other multimedia on top of the VR experience, enabling teachers to customize the content for a specific lesson or students to extend the material as proof of their own learning. The result: a form of mixed reality experience in which the virtual reality is augmented.
“Stuff like that,” observed Davidson, “isn’t just a viewing experience. It can be a meaningful instructional experience too, which is what we’re going for.”
Dian Schaffhauser is senior contributing editor for THE Journal and Campus Technology magazines.
How To Get Started
Google Cardboard is the obvious place to test out VR in the classroom. You can buy these corrugated cardboard headsets online for around $15 or construct your own from pizza boxes and other supplies with free templates. Their purpose: to serve as stable housing for the phone and provide two eyeholes outfitted with small lenses.
If you don’t have access to smartphones for student use, Davidson suggested hitting up colleagues and families for their legacy smart devices. Those “may not have a plan, but they will still connect to WiFi,” he said. Just download the app and expeditions you want from Google Play or Apple App Store, get on the wireless network, slide the phone into the headset and explore.
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