Sumreen Asim uses augmented reality (AR) as a tool to help education students nearing graduation become more confident with using technology to teach STEM to elementary and special education students.
Sumreen Asim
Professor of Science and Technology, Elementary
Education Program, IU Southeast
Augmented reality layers computer-generated media over the world we see around us (for example, Pokemon Go uses AR to make it seem like virtual cartoon characters are present in our actual surroundings). While virtual reality (VR) is a fully immersive experience that requires specialized hardware, like headsets, AR is less complicated. It can be as simple as an app on a phone or tablet.
Students using AR apps engage with the content in a more visceral way than they do when they passively watch a video. With AR apps, they can zoom in closer to see an image, or they can examine several different layers of content transposed on an image as they explore a topic.
Asim said that most of the education students that she works with are about to begin full-time student teaching. Because many of them will be generalists and teach several different subjects in their day-to-day work, they often feel intimidated about teaching STEM subjects.
They have low confidence and low self-efficacy, and I want them to be very comfortable with what they are teaching and the content. They need to be engaged with the content so that they can dive a little deeper," she said. "I find that augmented reality allows them to deeply immerse themselves into the science content.
Some of the research that she has done1 about student teachers has shown that using AR with student teacher candidates increased their engagement with STEM. They also leave the course being less hesitant to use technology, and they appreciate how much content is available on AR apps.
One AR app that she uses with upper elementary education students is Curioscope Virtuali-tee. With this app, a young student wears a specific blue t-shirt that triggers an app on a phone or iPad that vividly shows and explains the work of various anatomical systems in the human body, such as the cardiovascular system or the skeletal system. Among the other apps that she uses are: Wonderscope, Notable Women, and AugmentifyIT.
While AR apps have a rich wealth of detail, she said that it is not enough to just give students an app and let them go off into a corner. Teachers must be purposeful and use AR as a springboard for deeper discussions.
I feel like technology helps us to transform our teaching but it's not a replacement for teaching at all. You've got to do the legwork of knowing where you are going, what your objectives are and how you are going to assess your students.
"You have to frontload your lesson: What are we looking at? Where is the skeletal system? What is that bone? What is that cell type that I'm looking at?" she said. "And for the conversations that you want to have, you've got to be the guide. You have to formulate good questions for students to really learn through the experience."
For her teacher education students, working with augmented reality has helped them to engage with the math and science content deeper and has helped them to feel more adequate as they make that transition from students to working educators. She believes that this tool has a bright future in education.
"We have just touched the surface of what augmented reality can bring to our classrooms to prepare our future educators," concludes Asim.
References
- Asim, S. & Ellis, J. (2023). Augmented Reality: Expanding or pedagogical toolbox to teach elementary science topics. In R. E. Fredig, R. Hartshorne, e. Baumgartner, R. Kapalan-Rakowski, & C. Mouza (Eds.), What PreK-12 Teachers Should Know About Educational Technology in 2023: A Research-to-Practice Anthology (pp. 268-275). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. https://learntechlib.org/p/222690/
- Asim, S. and Mendez, J. (in press) Leveraging Augmented Reality (AR) for Enhanced Student Engagement in Higher Education. FACET Quick Hits