Augmented Reality In Education: Enhancing Learning With Digital Overlays

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality is nothing but a technology that overlays the information in a digital way such as videos, graphics and sound on top of the real-world scenario. The use of AR can be seen in different industries such as medical, engineering, manufacturing and many other areas. But this research has chosen the area of the education sector wherein classroom the effectiveness of AR has been effectively showcased in the entire research area. The first and foremost consideration of incorporating AR is for teaching the children at an early age because the base of children in terms of literacy and education needs to be clear. Children love to visualize things and can memorize accordingly rather than through verbal communication. Interactive applications and tools based on AR can provide good communication and interaction of children with the process of learning. Similarly, for adult students to have interaction in class and learn, tutors in different fields of education can adopt different AR processes to ensure effective teaching and learning for students within the classroom. Easy access to learning materials and engaging students with different concept visualization can ensure an effective learning process. The interest of students can be higher when they can see the reality of different subjects with the help of AR-based smart devices. The research showcased different reasons behind the incorporation of AR in the sector of education and also different applications and the process of implementation also have been discussed effectively in the below study.

The concept of Augmented Reality (AR) is nothing but a technological consideration that overlays digital transformation in this digital era such as videos, graphics and sound with having reality in a real-world environment. Like other industries such as manufacturing, engineering, the sector of education is also not far behind in terms of using this AR technology. With the up-gradation of technological advancement and the adoption of smartphones, educational organizations are also increasing the utilization of AR technology in the classroom to provide visual and graphic educational facilities to students of different ages. This research will ensure the elaboration of how AR can incorporate within the classroom for having better educational facilities for students.

The first and foremost consideration about AR is to ensure providing knowledge based on different visual and sound formats. With the help of AR, the schools with primary and secondary students who are deaf can have interactive flashcards which operated using sign language to have proper interaction with the students. The visual format can help those students to have a visual representation of different educational tasks and activities within the classroom. This is not only helpful for deaf students, rather for children, AR is also quite effective because, in early childhood education, children also cannot speak in a proper way or cannot understand language in a proper way. Thus visualizing those different arts or objects an organization or childcare group can ensure providing better education facilities to those children. In addition to that with the support of AR, medical institutions can let their students have medical training for students in terms of simulated surgeries. There are different ways of incorporating AR into the classroom such as it can help in engaging the students with educational activities. Students are quite interested in getting the opportunity to engage in developing educational content. Thus AR technology can permit students in the classroom to add curriculum content, explore new interests and create virtual worlds as well. These things will not only help enthusiast students to go for different desired activities but can also motivate and encourage students to come to school to experience a better digital experience. The school and classes that incorporate AR can help students to involve more in the process of learning. An interactive environment of learning can provide an opportunity to implement hands-on learning. Students can ensure desired activities and knowledge that they can gain from AR rather than only gaining bookish knowledge. This can also help in increasing the engagement among the students, can enhance their learning experience and most importantly can learn and have to practice new skills by using different devices which will be incorporated with AI. It can be seen that rather than just telling about concepts if teachers can use the visual representation of different chapters or concepts in terms of understanding the content it becomes easier for the students. While telling about some areas, showcasing the main parts of those areas with visual power, then the way of catching the content becomes effective and brain-friendly for the students. Lack of quality content can lead to a lack of proper educational facilities. Therefore considering that, adopting AR for different groups of students in a school can ensure enhancing the understanding and a positive experience for students.

AR in Education

The trends of AR can be seen significantly worldwide and by the year 2023, it is expected to be 2.4 billion mobile users based on AR globally. In the year 2015, it has been found that there were only 200 million users worldwide. But these numbers were there not only in the field of education, rather in gaming and different social media platforms AR seen to be utilized. But with the evolution of technology and up-gradation of AR technology, the education industry is also not far behind to adopt the power of AR for the enhancement of the education system. The AR has gone from the evolution of something of the future generation to an interactive and unique way to engage the classroom like it has not been seen before. Enthusiastic educators are nowadays looking for tools and resources to let the students in the classroom be excited and engaged about the content they are teaching and can provide different interesting options of learning with the help of AR. Teachers and students together can have an interactive conversation by using AR apps to access location-based, projection-based or recognition based experiences so that artefacts, media appear and objects to be showcased in the classroom. Based on those processes, students can interact properly with the content by moving here and there and by getting closer to it and also can manipulate it to research and can learn more about it. The engagement of students is necessary while learning different areas but it can be seen from the previous research tutors used to have the only verbal language to teach students in the classroom. But in this digital era, a tutor can have AR to showcase or visualize students in different areas of learning by using smart devices. This can help in engaging the students in terms of learning new concepts in a far better way by knowing the areas of application and can go into the depth of understanding the areas. It has also been found from different experiments that when students use to have AR during a lesson, they want to go more depth in the content and don't want to stop exploring or learning the content. Students become more willing to use critical thinking, communication skills and problem-solving skills to explore the activity or lesson. It is not only beneficial for the students to learn effectively but the teachers can also teach effectively based on visual concepts and methods. While having just verbal communication it often becomes difficult for the teacher to teach and students to learn. Therefore by having visual effects with sounds both the teachers and students can have effective communication in terms of teaching and learning concepts. By using a variety of apps based on AI, students in the classroom and outside of the classroom can develop projects that can correlate with curriculum concepts and standards to show what they learned and know.

Augmented Reality can be incorporated within the classroom in all courses and graded across the possible curriculum ranging from exploring animals to learning about space and continents to having knowledge about historical settings and book reviews. Due to belonging from different backgrounds and families and with financial conditions, students may not have opportunities to visit different historical landmarks and areas, therefore to lead with that AR can help in the virtualization of those landmarks in an effective way. Students with a naked eye might not see different things for which they need to have a microscope or other devices where students in the classroom can see those things one by one. But with the help of AR, students can view different models and can also create opportunities to see and interact with animals and plants and can also see creatures living in the sea. Lack of depth in understanding of concepts often impacts on getting a job candidate. Therefore in order to strengthen the base of concepts, AR can provide better experiences and opportunities at different levels and ages of education which can be vital and effective in future. With the help of AR, classroom education can be more interactive and extraordinary as AR can make it enable teachers to show virtual concepts and can add different gaming elements to provide support for textbook material. Visual interaction can help students to memorize information and learn faster. This is because the nature of human memory cannot forget visuals so easily compared to verbal or written interactions. Different more example of AR in the implementation educational sector can be seen such as AR can be admired in Google Expeditions which enables the students to see objects with a 3D view in the classroom such as storms, volcanoes and DNA. This application can also help the students by providing more than 100 expeditions which include the moon landing, history of technology and many more other considerations. In order to make chemistry fun in terms of learning, there is another application based on AR called Element 4D. This application helps the users to find the chemical element, atomic weight, the name of atoms, the reaction between two chemicals and many more other things that help students to have better learning of chemistry concepts. Therefore from the above examples of applications, it can be stated that AR in education can be a very useful and exciting intervention that can change the system of education for the upcoming year. This is not only helpful for early childhood education but rather can also be capable enough to transform the training system for higher education as well.

Incorporating AR for Better Educational Facilities

Now, this part of the research will discuss the other reasons why AR can be incorporated into the classroom or in the education sector for the current and future generations of students. A better explanation of the abstract and complex concept is one of the major reasons behind adopting AR in the education system. There is no doubt that based on AR, students can understand complex concepts in a better way they can visualize them in reality. Students can quickly learn the difficult areas with the representation of the 3D model. In addition to that, learning through AR provides a gamified approach to the process of learning that makes the lesson to have fun. Based on that, it provides a positive impact on the students in order to keep students engaged in the learning process within the classroom. Another reason behind the incorporation of AR is that around the globe, there are around more than 70% of teen uses a smartphone. Therefore teachers and parents do not have to spend an extra amount of money in order to buy a different tool for interactive teaching and learning. With the help of AI, the lack of proper training and education can be fulfilled with interactive sounds and visualization in smart devices. In order to have practical knowledge while studying within the classroom, AR can help the students without having any lab equipment. In a professional course like engineering and medical, having practical knowledge is necessary but sometimes due to a lack of practical equipment and resources students lack behind gaining adequate practical experience. Without operating patients practically in the medical field students can learn the process in an effective way and thus it is another reason behind the integration of AR in the educational field. In order to learn anywhere and anytime, users can use their smartphones and can learn different things with effectiveness. Carrying books, physical models, different posters and paper are not needed for students where they will have smart devices with AI. Educators across the globe have already incorporated AR in their process of teaching. Play Store and App store is flooding with AR apps for the process of education. Students on the other hand are responding to those applications in an optimistic manner. There is another application or tool called Augmented Classroom which is browser-based where students can learn about animals and plants and can also explore the world within the classroom. Students can interact and explore a variety of activities, can check their knowledge on different topics such as weather, space, geography and geometry and can learn about different curriculums. The augmented classroom can also permit the students to create and collaborate with other students across the globe and can have interaction within the classroom as well.

In the above research, it has been discussed the reasons and effectiveness of AR in classrooms and education. Now, this part will discuss the fields of education where AR can use effects such as Maths, AR tools can help tutors to create educational math content that can solve the curiosity of students and can help them achieve academic success. There is a smartphone app such as Photomath that permit students to scan a problem of math from a physical worksheet and then with a virtual process the steps of solving different stages of math can be done through animation. AR-based applications within the classroom can help students effectively understand the concepts and ideas of mathematics through 3D interactions and visualization models. In terms of coding, AR technology can also help with involving the development process. Teachers in a classroom can use AI-based platforms to develop the lesson plan for coding with the technology of AR. Coding is one of the effective lesson areas for this current era of digitalization and for technological advancement. Based on different coding programs and algorithms different business processes can run in an effective way and thus it is necessary for students to have depth understanding and knowledge in this era. AR can make this demand fulfilled for students with interactive visualization and gaming tools. Along with that teachers can take the help of AR tools in order to help the students to have a positive experience in learning history interactively. Tools such as Timelooper and 360Cities enable virtual visits to sites across the globe to teach about historical and cultural perspectives. At historical places and museums, teachers and students can utilise their smartphones to have access to AR apps that can provide additional context and information about historical pieces on display.

Engaging Students with Interactive and Hands-On Learning

Conclusion:

This research is all about the areas of Augmented Reality wherein education sector, the use can be seen in the present era whereas in other industries the use of AR can be seen from the past time. The benefits and areas of exploring AR seem to be high were based on using different devices and tools, educators and students can have a great experience in terms of learning different concepts. It is beneficial for students in the classroom to go into the depth of making the concepts realistic and students can have the opportunity to ensure about visualise practical things without going here and there. It has also been found from the above research with the support of AR, the classroom can make an interactive lesson for students where they can interact with friends within and outside the classroom. By using different tools and applications, the learning process can be easier for students and also becomes easier for the tutors to teach a difficult and complex concept in an easier way.

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