July 11, 2016

AR in Education – a beginners guide

Self-driving cars drop the kids off at school. All students take a seat on their floating chairs (potentially using quantum levitation), put on their augmented reality smart glasses and the class begins. Real, virtual and robot teachers share the classroom. On the holographic blackboard, kids can click, augment and almost touch the virtual content being taught.

This could be the school of the future, where technology-enhanced learning will be not the exception –  but the new normal.

AR and Education

Education and technology go hand in hand (or at least this is how it should be). From preschool to university, technology creates opportunities for teaching and learning not only inside the classroom, but also in other learning environments such as museums, art galleries, zoos, or parks.

Augmented reality is easily one of the most exciting technologies to include in the classroom. Several studies have discussed the benefits of using augmented reality as a pedagogical tool, making the learning process more dynamic and engaging.

Get started with AR in your institution

Over the years, the Wikitude Academy has provided hundreds of schools and universities a kickstart to AR with educational licenses. For the younger crowd, we’ve held several classes in elementary schools teaching kids how to code (using hour of code), Stay Safe Online and Work with AR. If you are ready to take your classes to a whole new level, here are some ideas on how to include AR in the plans:

For beginners: augmenting text books 

If you are totally new to AR, this is probably the easiest step to get started. Augmented reality can be used to link textbooks to videos, 3D models and additional visual content with no coding skills required. Tools like Wikitude Studio allow you to create such experiences in just 3 steps:

1. Upload a picture of the desired text book in Wikitude Studio
2. Add your augmentation
3. Test and publish your project on the Wikitude app (or your own school’s app)

For advanced: teaching and learning with the Wikitude SDK

For those who already have a feel for coding, the Wikitude SDK is the way to go! Teachers from various disciplines use our SDK to teach students about mobile development, coding in JavaScript, computer vision principles and of course, augmented reality. The Wikitude sample app comes in handy to demonstrate how to build different functionalities with AR and guide students to building their own projects for classes. Here’s how to get started with your Wikitude Educational SDK:

1. Apply for the EDU license in the Wikitude Academy page
2. Download the Wikitude SDK
3. Check our the SDK documentation and sample app
4. Start developing!

Wikitude is proud to support students with free educational licenses and discounted prices for academic institutions (teaching purposes only). Since 2014, over 900 academic licenses were distributed around the world.

To see some extraordinary projects supported by the Wikitude academy program, check out the Invisible Light Project, sign language AR flashcards, “We AR Lehen” community project.

Request EDU SDK