Tuesday, July 1, 2014

Augmented Reality





Image result for aurasma logoAugmented Reality has so many possibilities! I have loved playing around with this technology, and thinking about what it could mean for school use.  I didn't know that this type of technology was available for cell phones. I had only thought of it as being more advanced devices like Google Glass. Augmented Reality is taking an image and overlaying it with a video so that your video comes to life on the image you have scanned. Matt Mills' TED Talk explains and demonstrates it wonderfully. Aurasma is an awesome site for creating these video overlays, or "Auras," that can be simply scanned and viewed after others subscribe to your channel.


I am definitely going to be creating some book talks and share them this way. Then students can scan some books in my classroom library and see my book talk about it. I am also going to have students do book talks this way, so that students in other classes can see them too. I really wish our school had devices for students to check out to use this technology. This will have to be a technology day activity, where we have a BYOD day to work on it. Students who are technologically advanced could probably do this at home as a book project to share with their classmates. If we had devices in our library that had this capability, we could have book trailers linked to books in the library (student-created, of course!). It could become such a great tool in the school. 

I also love the idea of having Augmented Bulletin Boards, as mentioned on the Kleinspiration blog. When we have our Talent Showcase at school this year, I am definitely going to incorporate this into our displays! Students can explain their work without having to be hovering over what they have made; they can record a presentation to share. I could do these with my own phone or students could record with our school Flip Video cameras and I could add the Aura through my Aurasma account later.

Displayed here is a QR code to easily subscribe to my Aurasma channel (you must have the Aurasma app to do so).  For those of you in my LIBS 602 class, I overlayed my PowToon video from last week onto our book, Presentation Zen Design, if you want to check out my first created Aura. I also added the video to an image of the rug in my school's library, which has a reading emblem and "GSMS Library" on it. I haven't had the chance to test that one yet, but will try it when I go to the school. I'm excited about this technology and exploring its use at my school.

4 comments:

  1. Are you referring to your art class work when you talk about the augmented bulletin boards? I think this tool is AWESOME for art work. I loved the idea that this could be done in museums with large pieces of art, etc. Do you have iPads available at your school?

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  2. Yes, I was thinking of art. I love the idea of using it in museums as well! We have a Talent Showcase night as one of our PTA nights each year, and it showcases a lot of artwork, but also writing and science projects, dance, music, and more. We do not have iPads at our school, so we are limited to what students and families own. Maybe I will try to get some for our library or my classroom at some point this year as part of a grant or fundraising project.

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  3. An augmented bulletin board!?! That would be amazing. If you do that next year, pleas share it with us too. This is my favorite technology so far!

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