MANAGING ICT


Kevin Bennett considers the use of Augmented Reality and QR


Codes in the classroom


another is Augmented Reality. QR Codes have been featured in this section recently


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(Using QR Codes, SecEd 303, January 5, 2012) but to re-cap, they are like barcodes on steroids. They are made up from a series of black and white squares which contain information in an encoded format that a reader App can decipher and understand. QR codes can be used to link the reader to any


website, email address, WiFi log-in (on Android) and plenty of other online content. Many schools have found these a really useful way to start sharing digital content. QR Codes can be generated free of charge and


then printed or saved as an image that can be added to documents, or posted in various places. There are always interesting ways to use them – examples I have come across include at open days where parents can see videoes of introductions by staff or pupils at work when they walk around the school. They can also be included in the school newsletter or prospectus to link directly to your website or a picture stream. In the classroom, they could be used to explore the


parts of a skeleton and human body or perhaps as a treasure hunt activity around the school site, or even as part of a field trip where items around a village are labelled. You could also use them to signpost students to reference materials that you want them to include in a piece of work. We began to use QR Codes a while ago but found


that there are some limitations. For example, our PE department videoes many of the activities they do and wants students to be able to view these clips easily. One


A virtual world


case was with trampolining. While students are waiting for their turn we wanted them to be able to watch clips and understand the next move, or check their previous performance against a pre-filmed example. QR codes made this process a little too complex and


in our efforts to look for a solution, we considered how Augmented Reality (AR) could fit in. So what is AR? Well you probably have seen it


many times without even realising. AR in its simplest form is the super-imposing of computer generated content over a live view of the real world. So those of you that have watched sports on television have seen scores imposed, or lines to show where pundits think the player should have gone, distance to goal lines etc. These are simple examples of AR. We spent some time trying different forms of AR


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ith the development of new devices has come the development of new applications and ways in which they can be used. Some of these are the use of things called QR codes and


and soon realised that it had great potential. However, as a school we were struggling to find simple ways to set it up and were then limited to using other third party Apps and software to try and get anywhere. That was proving time-consuming and difficult, until we found Aurasma. This App was a ground-breaking moment for us.


It is simple and effective and gave us everything we needed. Aurasma works by allowing users to use existing images, items or locations to create a trigger. When the Aurasma App sees this trigger it then links


to the “Aura” that has been allocated to that trigger. This meant we could have simple images of different moves on the trampoline up around the Sports Hall and students can use this to trigger the video clip of the move they have or will be doing. We started to play about with what it could achieve


and how we could use the App. A combination of QR Code and Aurasma gave us what we needed. We now have versions of the school newsletter


which has a QR code on the front to link you to the App download, and then also joins our content library. When you then run the App and point the device’s camera at the trigger image, for example a photo of the school football team, the image is overlayed by a video which plays, in this example, highlights of the match. Elsewhere, we have members of staff introducing


areas of the school when a room or door sign is viewed while one of the really big areas where we can see this developing is in making existing text dynamic. The beauty of Aurasma is that it is simple to use and


does not need a lot of additional images or QR Codes to be generated. Instead it can use existing images or items as the triggers and because of this we can start using text books as triggers to video clips about specific items. So rather than just reading about how the Romans


built a bath house we can use an image on a text book page to then bring up a video explaining how the underfloor heating system works or how they fed hot water into different chambers. This then helps support the content of the book. I believe there are some very exciting opportunities


ahead through the development of the App and its uses in education could really start to bring text and technology much closer together. After all, for technology to be truly effective at helping to raise standards it should be integral to learning – not a separate part where we all trek off to the ICT room.


SecEd


•Kevin Bennett is vice-principal of Belvoir High School and Melton Vale Post 16 Centre in Leicestershire.


SecEd • March 15 2012


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