Augment Reality to Celebrate something Important

What matters to you? Your culture?  Your family? A favourite sports team? Surfing on Sunday? A certain song? Your pet dog? Everyone has something that matters to them.  Using Aurasma you can take an image of your significant something and bring it to life with a video or animation.

From PokemonGo to Snapchat, Augmented Reality is commonplace for entertainment but it is actually remarkably easy to Augment Reality in the classroom.  There are a few apps you can use to do this but a good one to start off with is Aurasma.

Learn:
Aurasma is an app that lets you quickly and easily augment images so that they come to life when you hover your phone or tablet over it.  You will need to download the app onto your smartphone or tablet.  This tutorial below will teach you how to create an 'Aura' quickly and easily, just using your mobile device.

There is also 'Aurasma Studio' a website that gives you more control over the trigger images and their actions.  In order to use Aurasma Studio, you will also need access to a regular computer. You can sign into it using the same details as your app.

Watch the video below for a tutorial on how to use Aurasma Studio

Connect:
With Aurasma you can add a video of anything onto an image of anything.  This means the potential for making connections is vast!  Here are just a few bright ideas for how you can connect Aurasma to different learning areas.

Art:
Create a piece of artwork and then add a video of yourself explaining the purpose of the art.  If the artwork is culturally significant, add more details or information explaining why the design is important.

Technology:
Why not create a video first, then take a still frame from the video and print it out as the trigger image.  Then have the full video play as the overlay.  If you place the overlay just right you can make it look like the printed image has come to life!

Writing
Write a snapshot recount to share a memory in less than 30 seconds.  It will still need to be rich in detail and description but it focusses on just a moment in time when something important has happened.  You can augment a piece of artwork related to the recount and record yourself reading the story (or use an app like Tellagami to make an even more interesting video!)

Reading:
Using Aurasma Studio, you can link images to websites.  Why not create a digital book using Storybird or StoryJumper and print out the first page as your trigger image.  When you hover the device over the book cover it can launch the digital book for you to read on the device!  The book covers can be stuck to your library wall and people can give feedback to the author on the website!

Social Studies
A provoking image or sign can be used to grab peoples attention.  Hovering the device over the image could launch a website or a link to a forum where people can post their responses.

Music:
An image of an instrument could link to a recording of that instrument being played.  Or, a composition you made on Soundtrap or Incredibox that was inspired by some artwork (or your snapshot recount) could be launched and appreciated quickly and easily!

PE:
Learners who have created a game or want to show how a game is played could do so by recording themselves in action and then using a still image from the game as a trigger image.  It could even link to a website or a longer video where the rules for the game are explained in more detail.

Early Years/ ESL
Want to help emergent language learners to understand the meaning of new words?  Why not record yourself reading the important vocabulary they will need and printing a book of these words for them to scan at their leisure.

SEN
An image of a timetable on the wall could link to the classroom's digital timetable.  Parents or learners who want to see what is happening on that day or for the week could simply scan the image quickly to get more information.

Maths
Using apps like Educreation, an image of an equation on the wall could link to a video from the learner, explaining how they worked the problem out.  You could write the number '1' on the wall and link in a padlet full of  learner's work showing ways of making 1.  For example 25% of 4 or 10x0.1.
A simple word or image could link to a video explaining a concept or a game that helps learners to practice a skill.  It could even showcase a padlet or website full of examples of the work your class have created.

Share:

If you have another idea for how you can use Aurasma in the classroom, then leave a comment in the box below.

Also, if you would like to make a recording of your Aura in action, share a link to that video so that others can be inspired.

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