Applications of Augmented Reality in Education - 10 Best AR Apps for the Classroom

Augmented Reality technology can transform an ordinary class into an interactive classroom and a more engaging experience. 
AR technology adds gaming elements and offers virtual examples to help students understand textbook materials and remember information well. 
AR technology provides training opportunities for medical students and creates virtual human body models that allow them to learn anatomy in-depth.

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Augmented Reality in Education, Image Credit: Flickr, with some modification

Applications of Augmented Reality in Education - 10 Best AR Apps for the Classroom

Overview

In the present era, the education process is facing many mutations and revolutions which change the course of education towards greater creativity, interaction, and control of the students in the education process.

This is a result of the development of technology that allows the incorporation of new applications, especially in education, when technology becomes of interest to all students, and then education becomes more enjoyable using these tools and techniques.

Many tools have begun to advance to the extent that they can be tailored in the field of education in a manner commensurate with the nature of the learning process and its objectives. One of the tools introduced to transform the world of education is "Augmented Reality Technology".

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality is a type of Virtual Reality (VR), in which the augmented reality system generates a composite view and combines the real scene that the user looks at and the virtual scene created by the computer, which enhances the real scene with additional information.

Augmented Reality is about adding, enhancing, and displaying some data and elements to the real world through utilities such as smartphones or specialized glasses.

Over the past few years, augmented reality technologies have begun to invade applications in various fields, particularly to better improve virtual reality technologies in education. This helped to develop the learning process differently with some fun and interaction.

Read more:

1. What is Virtual Reality and How VR Technology Works

2. What is Augmented Reality and How Does It Work?

3. What is Mixed Reality and How MR Technology Works?

4. Role of Virtual Reality in the Education System

Importance of Augmented Reality in Education

Imagine living in a magical world like Harry Potter, where the school galleries are decorated with dozens of vibrant interactive paintings.

Imagine now that you, as a teacher, have the ability to create vibrant, interactive worlds full of information and fine details about their components.

This will be really fun if it happens on the ground, and it will greatly change the students' perception of the school and will make them inevitably accept the study with unrivaled passion and pleasure. 

But did you know that this has really moved from science fiction to the real world in the form of AR technology?

Yes, this technology allows you to do this by projecting virtual layers of digital information to the physical world, which can be viewed through smart devices that are accessible to students and teachers.

With augmented reality products such as Elements 4D, students can manipulate chemical elements and create interactions between them by default through their smart devices, rather than just reading about them in the textbook.

Through the same technology, they can also perform anatomy of the human body through the application of Anatomy 4D, which allows users to explore the human body and isolate different body systems.

The promising potential of AR technology has inspired developed countries to take care of it and try to use it to make education more interactive and realistic.

 Applications of Augmented Reality in Education

In general, when it comes to integrating technology into education, the human mind thinks to create limitless, innovative ideas that make science-fiction things part of reality.

Augmented reality technology does not go beyond this rule, so there is no limit to ideas on how to use it. 

There are many ways and various augmented reality technologies that can be used in education. Including:

Interactive Digital Lesson Plans

Augmented Reality technologies help to add more interaction to your explanations during classes and lectures.

Teachers can use these AR technologies to present 3D lessons and models.

These technologies help attract students' attention and enable them to absorb more information in less time by interacting with the elements displayed and enhanced within the classroom through those applications.

Educational Materials (EM)

One of the most popular augmented reality apps currently in use is educational materials, where some books and apps are produced that can be transformed by mobile phone into a 3D world or add informational elements to reality.

Whatever information or pictures the book contains, on your mobile phone you will see these images in a realistic 3D you can zoom in or zoom out with all the information about it.

These three-dimensional models may be animals, museums, archaeological sites, or even rare compounds and chemicals.

Instead of paying to buy those models to see them, these apps can be at your fingertips at any time with AR technology.

Homework Assistance Program

Augmented Reality can be used to support and accompany learners as they complete homework.

When a student stumbles on his homework, he can use his mobile phone camera to aim at the point that is difficult for him. He can easily watch a video prepared by his teacher, explaining that point, and providing him with elements to help him solve the problem.

Laboratory Safety Equipment

Photos or cards with safety codes are prepared and attached throughout the science lab so that they play multiple media when students scan them with their smart device cameras to familiarize them with the different safety procedures and protocols for laboratory equipment.

Live Photo Album

You can prepare a photo album for the activities of the school year, such as concerts, outputs, seminars.

Anyone who would like to know additional information on a particular activity can hover their mobile phone over the picture to show video of the activity and all the information, statistics and reports related to it.

Observation of Stars and Planets

With the naked eye, you can observe dozens of stars in the sky. But through augmented reality technology, you can monitor hundreds and thousands of stars as well as planets, constellations and the most famous astronomical events.

Not only this, but they display all the information about everything in the sky.

All the learner has to do is just run the app over the phone, direct the phone towards the sky and enjoy all the pictures and information shown on the phone screen.

A presentation about Books and Reading

Students record a summary of the book they have just read. The presentation is recorded in a digital information card attached by a software program for this purpose.

This is affixed to the cover of the book, enabling anyone to have immediate access to the recorded presentation and to identify the subject of the book by scanning the mobile card.

Excursions and Trips

Many students get bored during some exploratory trips, especially when it comes to walking around a museum or temple without a guide.

Within augmented reality applications, some programs can be downloaded to a mobile phone, then pointing the phone to the wall or anywhere and then many images, models and objects begin to emerge, as well as some information that reviews the area where you are located in an interactive way that helps students to acquire information as well as have fun.

Parent Encouragement Program

Brief words are recorded for parents to encourage their children. An information card or an expressive picture is affixed to each child's seat.

Whenever the learner needs encouragement and inspiration from his parents, he looks at the picture and reads the text using an AR-based device. He feels as if his parents are saying that in front of him. 

Flashcards for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing

Using Augmented Reality technology, you can create flashcards that contain vocabulary linked to videos that show how to express them in sign language.

10 Best Augmented Reality Apps for the Classroom

There are several applications that can be used to bring augmented reality technology to your classroom. These applications allow users to create and integrate into their augmented reality experiences, easily and conveniently.

Some important AR applications are: 

• AR Makr
• Shapes 3D
• Wonderscope
• HP Reveal
• Layar
• CoSpaces Edu
• Google Expeditions
• Google Translate
• Metaverse
• Snapchat

Curiosity and interaction

The most important idea on which such techniques are based is to create curiosity among students by stimulating interaction with what the technologies offer.

This interaction may be through some games, acquiring information, dealing with models, observing the sky and other different ways that contribute to the promotion of the concepts and objectives of learning among students.

So, little by little, these technologies are taking advantage of many opportunities for the development of education, and perhaps soon will be a good time for the education process to rely entirely on such technologies and applications.