3 Augmented Reality Apps to Take Your Lessons to the Next Level

Ask a Tech Teacher guest blogger, Steven Wesley, has some great suggestions for using augmented reality:

Day by day, technology is becoming more and more present in our lives. As the time goes by, we tend to rely on technology more and more. A good example would be the kids nowadays. They are becoming tech-savvy from a very young age. Twenty years ago, kids were outside playing games from football to hide-and-seek, today’s kids are becoming too attached to their gadgets. They spend their time playing video games rather than hanging out with their friends.

Technology can be either a curse or a blessing, depending on how we use it. In good hands, it can be directed to the achievement of great purposes. Even so, if we use it in an unfavorable way, it can have a lot of malicious side effects.

Augmented reality is a technology that is gaining more and more popularity. Just remember what a huge hit Pokemon Go was this summer. Even though it’s a new technology, it doesn’t mean that it has to be very expensive. You don’t have to buy expensive glasses, you can just use your smartphone or a tablet for educational purposes.

Let’s take a look at three helpful reality apps. They can make your lessons exciting and beneficial for your students.

Elements 4D

This is a helpful app because it can combine two elements and create a new one. For example, you can take two triangles and transform them into a rhombus. This way, math teachers can help their students find out more about how different shapes are created.

Another advantage of the app is that it can help students learn mathematical formulas easily. People find it easier to understand a definition or a formula if they visualize it. In this case, the learning process can be drastically increased if an app like this is used during math classes.

A chemistry teacher could make use of this app, as well. While presenting different substances to their students, they can show them their natural state. For example, while holding an aluminum can in their hand, a teacher can point the Elements 4D app at it. While doing so, the app will present the structure of the substance and the places where it can be found.

Blippar

Another impressive app is Blippar and it can come in handy for every teacher. It offers the ability to transform regular classes into an interactive environment, suitable for learning. Its developers offer the Blippbuilder tool which can help you modify and add new features according to your needs.

Using the dashboard of this app, you can assess the impact of your teaching style and the performance of your students. By closely studying the feedback offered by the app, you can adapt in order to achieve a greater impact on your students, thus helping them learn more efficiently.

Alicia Glover, tutor at Best Dissertation, said “Blippar was very helpful for me, considering the fact that I’m a tutor. It gave me the opportunity to assess myself and adapt my writing style according to my students’ needs.”

A biology teacher could really use this app. During classes, students can use the app to find out more information about the animals they are studying. Considering the fact that a school book cannot contain an exhaustive description of each living organism biology studies. This app can come in handy when more information is needed.

Science AR

This is a new but promising augmented reality application. It works by pointing your phone to different posters and making them come alive. Although it is only in its incipient phase, in a near future, it will be able to offer quite some help for our teachers.

By using it, a geography teacher can show their students all the processes taking place whilst raining. From the way clouds are formed, to the way water droplets interact with the soil during contact. This could help students have comprehensive knowledge about everything they are taught during geography classes. People remember the information if they have a visualization of it.

You can download interactive posters which go along with the app here for free.

Conclusion

More and more kids are spending their time playing games on their gadgets. A very good way to teach our kids is to make it fun for them. Augmented reality can be very helpful when teaching. It combines the benefits of learning new information and having the excitement of playing with new gadgets and apps. This way, students will consider learning process very exciting and will be able to learn new things much easier.

Every teacher should adapt their teaching techniques to the current situation. Let’s be honest, technology is becoming more and more present in our lives; let’s make its presence a useful one. Augmented reality can become a good assistant in the teaching process.

Short Bio

Steven Wesley is an ESL teacher, ed tech enthusiast and education blogger. He is interested in educational, technological, and political issues and believes in the mighty power of the pen to change the modern world. Follow him on Twitter.

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.