Augmented Reality (AR) is defined by merging the virtual world with the real world, creating an interactive and real-time experience (Radu, 2014). A meta-analysis conducted by Radu (2014) demonstrated AR provides affordances of increased content understanding and student motivation. Content understanding is facilitated through AR’s multiple representations of content (visualization, and 2D/3D animation) and facilitating experience/visualization of phenomena that are impossible/unfeasible to experience (Radu, 2014).
How does Augmented Reality foster creativity?
Kaufmann & Dunser (2007) demonstrate that AR systems can reduce cognitive load and encourage student exploration and creativity. Moreover, motivation is considered fundamental for promoting creativity (Hennessey & Amabile, 2010) and given that AR promotes motivation students will experience an overall increase in creativity when using AR. Wei et al., (2015) argues that AR can improve creative design courses due to its immersive and interactive features, while also providing potential usefulness in tasks requiring experimentation.
One effective AR app to promote motivation/creativity and achieve lesson outcomes is Expeditions. This app provides a variety of interesting abstract 3D phenomena, objects, sites or things to be visualized (see figures/video).
This app could be used to reach stage 4 science outcome LW2 b. which involves identifying structures within cells and describing their functions. The AR app would assist in visualizing abstract structures within the cell by providing a 3D/360 view.
Figure 1. Screenshots from Expeditions cell structure which could be used to assist knowledge of cells.
Outcome CW1 b. involves understanding the effect that heat energy can have on particles movement. This outcome could also be reached from 3D/360 visualizations in Expeditions (see 45 seconds into the video).
Figure 2. Screenshots from Expeditions
A downside to Expeditions may be the relatively small amount of AR phenomena available that can be utilized within education.
Cospaces is another effective AR (also Virtual Reality) technology. I have looked into its capabilities as a Virtual Reality (The virtual reality capabilities are similar to its augmented reality capabilities) technology in my Topic 7 blog. Please visit if interested!
Figure 3. An example AR creation using CoSpaces.
Pedagogical considerations
Radu (2014) observed in several studies that students can find AR more difficult than other learning alternatives. If students find that AR is too difficult to use they may lose motivation causing reduced creativity. Teachers should aim to reduce AR difficulty by demonstrating/scaffolding and giving students time to test/explore its functions before introducing more difficult tasks. Teachers should also teach safety, as students may experience attention tunnelling using AR which can put them in dangerous situations (Radu, 2014).
AR experiences improve group collaboration (Radu, 2014) and collaboration positively affects creativity (Hon et al., 2014). Considering this teachers’ aiming to stimulate creativity should focus on cooperative/group tasks rather than individual tasks (more information about how collaboration affects creativity can be found in my zoom blog).
References
Hennessey, B. A., & Amabile, T. M. (2010). Creativity.Annual Reviewof Psychology,61, 569–598
Hon, A. H. Y., Bloom, M., & Crant, J. M. 2014. Overcoming resistance to change and enhancing creative perfor-mance. Journal of Management, 40: 919-941
Kaufmann H, Du ̈nser A (2007) Summary of usability evaluationsof an educational augmented reality application. In: Proceedingsof the 2nd international conference on virtual reality. Springer,pp 660–669
Radu, I. (2014). Augmented reality in education: a meta-review and cross-media analysis. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 18(6), 1533-1543.
Wei, X., Weng, D., Liu, Y., & Wang, Y. (2015). Teaching based on augmented reality for a technical creative design course. Computers & Education, 81, 221-234.
Digital Creativity and Learning 
Hi Mark,
Interesting collection of platforms you’ve collected here! I’m curious about Expeditions, I’ve never heard of it before. Could you tell me a little more about how it works? I’m from a primary school background and I noticed you are secondary so I was wondering if you feel it would also be appropriate in younger Stages?
Regards,
Miss Wilkes.
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Hi Shellie,
It is quite simple to use. Once the app is downloaded you can use the expeditions search bar to find whatever AR tour you are looking for. For example, you can search “animals” and a range of animal AR tours can be downloaded. Each tour generally has 5 or more as they call it “objects” within it. So I might download a ‘large mammal’ tour which has 5 objects (5 different animals) within it. Once downloaded you open up the AR tour and the animal will appear in the space you are looking at on your device (the space must be appropriate E.g. a 1x1m floor space). You can then scroll through each object in AR as seen in the video in my blog.
I think expeditions would be appropriate for stages 2 and above as younger students may lack the capability to use it expeditions effectively. I also think it has a good range of AR tours which could be used for stages 2 and above primary school students.
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Hi Mark,
That sounds very straight forward, a lot like some of the others I’ve come across. Similar to BBC’s Civilisations, perhaps? And how about creating with it? Is that simple too?
That’s a shame, I was hoping it might be accessible for younger students, I’ve struggled to find any that would be (in my opinion) appropriate for K-2, for example. It does still sound worth exploring though. I looked into Google expeditions when making a Google Cardboard viewer and was so interested in its applications for VR education opportunities that I didn’t venture any further, hence why I thought you may have been talking about a different app altogether!
It is useful how many of the AR/VR apps overlap though, especially from a financial and administrative stand point for schools.
Regards,
Miss Wilkes.
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I’m not sure if Google Expeditions is similar to BBC’s Civilisations as I have never used it before.
Creating your own AR is currently available which is unfortunate. However, creating your own VR in Google expeditions is available and it is quite easy to use as can be seen in these videos.
I agree it may be hard to find an interactive AR for that age range. However, I also think it is worth testing out whether Google Expeditions is effective for that age range.
I agree the overlap is great and it can also decrease the learning curve when switching from AR over to VR (or vice versa) when using the same App or technology.
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Hi Mark,
I think if you like Google Expeditions for AR (I’ve had a look now) then you would like BBC Civilisations, ( here’s the app link if you’d like to have a play around with it –> https://apps.apple.com/us/app/civilisations-ar/id1350792208 ).
Wow it really does look easy, enough so even for upper primary, very cool option too. Could be an awesome home work task! I did one of my Professional Experiences at a school that incorporated a “research task” which became a literature stimulus activity. Students would research things like “coolest modes of transport”, demonstrate their research in whatever form they conducted it, then write a text about it. This could easily be a similar sort of task if you knew your students had access to digital devices at home. Love it.
Agreed. I think there are some platforms that would be practical for K-4 to view AR, but perhaps none to create, none that I’ve come across anyway.
Thanks Mark,
Miss Wilkes
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Hi Mark,
Just to follow up… are you talking about Google Expeditions? In which case, I have heard of it, but your descriptions and images just looked different so I wanted to check because it does look like a good one!
Regards,
Miss Wilkes.
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Yes I am talking about Google expeditions.
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