Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have come a
long way from the old school View-Master! I loved exploring new places and
other topics through the lens of a View-master as a kid. I learned a lot and
visited many places while staying put in my classroom or living room.
Fast forward to the 21st Century! Much like the old View-Master, students can take a trip back in time, into the human body, a museum, or around the world through AR and VR.
One of our teachers was gifted two Oculus Go headsets through Donors Choose. STEM Learners in the one Social Studies classroom visited Versailles en 360, as one of their literacy stations. See how one student reacted to his personalized AR tour at https://business.facebook.com/ashley.holtsizer/videos/3501262753232167/
To take a peak at what the students saw through the Oculus Go, check out the video below.
To take a peak at what the students saw through the Oculus Go, check out the video below.
These Oculus Go headsets have sound and a hand controller. The 64 gig
headsets cost approximately $249. With that price, our school would not be able
to afford many headsets unless we secured a grant, or until our Title I academic needs and funding are approved for the following school year.
In contrast to VR, augmented reality (AR) would be a quick
and affordable way to incorporate this technology in the library or classroom. Our
school currently owns three class sets of iPads, which would allow at least ninety
students to participate in AR lessons at the same time, or allow several
students throughout the campus to participate in a library maker space and
several classroom literacy stations.
One of the maker stations that I’ve had in the library and set
up at our STEM Literacy Parent and Student Night, was a book purchased at our
school book fair, My Perfect Puppy by
Kay Woodward, which supports augmented reality.
As students read the book, they learn how to take care of
and train a virtual puppy. To activate the VR app, aim the mobile device camera
at the puppy graphic in the round frame on select pages. The reader selects and
personalizes their own puppy using the free My
Perfect Puppy app. Students can see the dog run or walk, stroke the dog’s
head or belly, feed the dog, and even take it out to do its business!
Another new AR favorite of mine is Quiver. My husband
couldn’t believe I was coloring at home one evening. Afterward, I had him use
the iPad to view my coloring page of the continents. Using the Quiver app and
the camera on the mobile device, he was able to scan the image and change the
settings to view the map of the earth in different formats from night, day,
borders, and even rotate the spherical earth that started out as a flat colored
map. Quiver has a free 3D coloring book app, mask, and fashion app. The
education app is $7.99 and allows downloads of the color pages that have a fee.
Visit http://www.quivervision.com/apps/
for the apps and color pages that are downloadable and printable. Quiver will be a good AR introductory activity for the
library since the app is easy to use. Students can complete some of these activities using Quiver
color pages:
- Label and color parts of a plant and animal cell, and then study the parts of the cell for mastery.
- Read the Dot book for International Dot Day and color the Dot coloring sheet.
- Design their own flag or color flags from around the world.
- Participate in Pi Day using color pages.
J2 Training has a great on-line newsletter to learn about AR
and VR and how to integrate this technology in your classroom library. Visit https://www.smore.com/g2acm-augmented-reality
Other augmented reality apps to check out include Teach
Thought Staff’s 32 Augmented Reality Apps for the Classroom at https://www.teachthought.com/technology/32-augmented-reality-apps-for-the-classroom-from-edshelf/
Sources:
Augmented and
Virtual Reality by J2 training. Retrieved from https://www.smore.com/g2acm-augmented-reality
Goerner,
P. (2016). Augmented reality. What’s next? School
Library Journal, vol. 62, no. 9, Sept. 2016, pp. 19–20. Retrieved from
EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eue&AN=117871035&site=ehost-live
Meyer, L.
(2017). Virtually there: Kids are using VR to explore worlds and create new
ones. School Library Journal.
Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=virtually-kids-using-vr-explore-worlds-create-new-ones
Summer, A. H. (2019). Facebook video post. Retrieved
from https://business.facebook.com/ashley.holtsizer/videos/3501262753232167/
Teach
Thought Staff. (2019).
32 Augmented reality apps for the classroom. Retrieved from https://www.teachthought.com/technology/32-augmented-reality-apps-for-the-classroom-from-edshelf/
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI am a tactile learner, and often struggled with units were I couldn't touch or play with the material we were covering. I wish that the Rifts were around when I was in school! That would have given me the ability to see and play with those "untouchable" topics. Thanks for sharing!
Catherine
I love everything that you said. I read another blog about Quiver and thought it sounded amazing. I thing using that technology to celebrate Dot Day would be so fun. Using the headsets to read books that support VR would be great too. My students love anything dealing with technology. They want to use phones and tablets for everything. I think they would love being able to use those headsets during reading time.
ReplyDeleteKennita,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the informative details that you have provided in your blog. It is great that you mentioned that the tools were affordable and made comparisons to see what the best product would be for your students. As librarians, we must research to determine the best and sometimes affordable product for our students. The AR tool of Quiver is new to me but it is certainly a resource that I hope to use with my students.
Loved the videos that you shared of the students. In this week's reading I learned of the quiver app and am very interested in doing further research into it. It looks almost like what a merge cube does, but my frustration with the cube is that you have to download a lot of apps in order to use it. I love the fact that you have included your personal experience with it.
ReplyDeleteDana DeLavan
ReplyDeleteI love Donors CHose and how you were able to get this through them. There are so many great free things out. I love all the details that were given in your blog.