Discovery Based Learning and AR
The term Discovery Learning is used to describe inquiry-based learning. Jerome Bruner, who furthered the notions of discovery learning in the 1960s, believes that "Practice in discovering for oneself teaches one to acquire information in a way that makes that information more readily viable in problem solving,"' (Bruner, 1961, p.26) Many early versions of portable AR illustrate the ability to enhance a live experience through discovery based learning. A visitor to an art gallery, museum or historic site can access AR applications that enable additional information, maps, audio content, or videos. Colleges and Universities are now providing campus tours that include AR content. One application for the iPhone called [http://osnapps.com/ uTourX] comes with tours of Yale, Stanford, MIT and Harvard. While on campus, potential students just point their iPhone or iPod Touch at buildings or areas and campus details pop-up. See a demonstration here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxT11XtXvBw Campus Tour]
In the fall of 2010, Champlain College began offering an MFA in Emergent Media. According to Jeff Rutenbeck, Dean of the Communication & Creative Media Division the program "'s not only about the knowledge we possess, it's about the processes we use to create new knowledge. All knowledge has a built-in expiration date." The program will focus not only on ways to shape the future but also define what that future means for society. To market the new program and to illustrate one of the emerging technologies, graduates and professors of the school worked with Tag New Media to create an interactive augmented reality website. Potential students received a postcard in the mail. They were directed to the website and asked to hold up the eye on the postcard to their webcams. An on-screen image would then appear with streaming information about the program. Other effects occurred when the card was tilted or moved.[http://www.champlain.edu/News-and-Events/News/MFA-Emergent-Media.html]
Other applications allow the viewer to point a mobile device at an historical location, and a picture of what that location looked like in different time periods appears. To encourage cultural tourism, iTacticus explored ways to enhance visitors' experiences in cultural locations through AR by overlaying 3D objects onto a scene, annotating the landscape with information or videos, and overlaying spatial acoustics to relay the sites original ambiance.[http://itacitus.org/] See a video here http://itacitus.org/
CultureClic is another recently released augmented reality application for the iPhone and other smart devices. Visitors to France can use their devices and the CultureClic app to access high definition information on 1300 museums- including 500 paintings, photos and sculptures, as well as information about cultural events.
CultureClic Augmented Culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtJ1ZrPu-00
Are you interested in knowing the name of that star you are seeing in the night sky? Well, if you have an Android phone and have downloaded '''Google Sky Map''', just point your phone to the sky and you'll soon find out. See a short demonstration here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6znyx0gjb4 Sky Map -Astronomy App for Android
[http://www.mindspacesolutions.com/imaginality/iuhome.html Imaginality] is a beta product developed by MindSpace Solutions in New Zealand. Imaginality according to their website is a mixed reality player that acts like a browser. With an internet connection the users can access learning modules where objects like dinosaurs, planets and a beating heart can be viewed and manipulated in 3D. [http://www.mindspacesolutions.com/imaginality/html/beta_preview.html] Read and see video demonstrations [http://www.mindspacesolutions.com/imaginality/iuhome.html Imaginality Unleashed]
Harvard EcoMobile Project and EcoMuve
EcoMUVE created by the Harvard Graduate School of Education "uses immersive virtual environments to teach middle school students about ecosystems and causal patterns." (EcoMuve)
Computer‐based modules are part of an inquiry‐based ecosystems curriculum. Their goal is to immerse students in a multi-user virtual environment to gain a deeper understanding of ecosystems and causal patterns. The experience is intended to be similar to a video game.
Ecomobile is an extension of Ecomuve. Ecomobile has students extend their learning through mobile and field trips. Using a smartphone students capture vaiuos media such as pictures, video or audio. These help students solve the environmental mystery. The snartphones use augmented reality to see information that is not available in the real environment. As students explore, hotspots allow students to navigate and explore. See the video here
http://ecomuve.gse.harvard.edu/
Next Up: Augmented Reality and Educational Gaming