“Logic will take you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” – Albert Einstein
What is education if it can not help develop imagination and curiosity in a student. AR helps bridge this gap that our current education system has brought in where innovativeness takes a back seat for better grades. AR provides real-time experience to its users. In a learning environment, AR can help promote critical thinking by stimulating multiple sensories of students’ brain. This not helps in better understanding of concepts but also motivates learners to study further.
User Interaction
Making classrooms and reading materials interactive means the users are more involved in the learning process and can fire up 3D-models and other AR experiences using their mobile phones, which helps in better understanding of concepts at the same time helps learners assimilate new information faster and easier. AR can facilitate playing around with the material, rotating it and instantly read facts and useful information about it.
Cost Effectiveness
Using 3D physical models and artefacts is very expensive and more often than not needs regular replacements to do away with the ones which have wear and tear, most schools do not have enough budget and funds to buy all the additional learning material that is required. AR becomes cost effective as its buy once use forever, it can be used by each student individually. Since it works off a mobile device, AR is ubiquitous.
Perspective Control
In subjects like chemistry and biology, Augmented Reality can help students view models more naturally, moving them around to view it from various perspectives, rotate or scale it as one pleases. This helps in examining properties of various shapes etc. with more precision.
Engage Better
Using Augmented reality, storytelling can become very powerful, it will help students visualise and interact with the story itself. It can not only motivate students to learn but also make it effective. This will stimulate imagination of the students and will help them discover things about themselves that they didn’t know existed. Every lesson becomes a new journey which helps students be interested in it and curious to discover this new AR world.
Stimulate The Senses
A chinese proverb when translated to english means “Tell me and I’ll forget, Show me and I may remember, Involve me and I’ll understand.” Learning is way easier when multiple senses are involved. By creating AR experiences for classroom lessons, classes can be used to develop stronger memories and better understanding, it is not same to hear or read than to touch and experience it.
Augmented reality in education can improve the learning curve by offering practical knowledge. Students often need a hands-on experience to completely understand a concept, which where AR can pitch in. It can motivate and make students more interested in learning.