Week 5 - Augmented Reality (AR)

Updates: Changed Osmo Monster to just ‘Monster’

Augmented Reality (AR) allows real and virtual objects to co-exist concurrently within the same space (Bower et al. 2014). AR can be incredibly beneficial within the education context, as it allows students a hands-on and interactive learning experience with realistic digital manipulatives. AR improves understanding and increases motivation and engagement (Bower et al. 2014).

Osmo Monster (‘Monster’) is interactive and hands-on educational game, where users interact with a Monster character called Mo, who needs help with various challenges and problems. Three activity ‘modes’ are offered including the magic show, adventure and Mo’s house. These activities allow the opportunity for children to develop their problem-solving, critical thinking and social emotional skills, therefore, making Monster a beneficial tool to be used within the education context.

CC By Olivia Spanswick

Fostering creativity

Monster can be used in many ways within the classroom to foster creativity of students. Monster can be implemented in the subject of English in the NSW syllabus EN2-HANDW-02, which requires stage 2 students to “use digital technologies to create texts” (NESA, 2022). Monster can be used by teachers to develop students reading and writing skills, by getting students to create a storyline with Monster and then having them write a short story, based on the storyline created. Creating a story by utilising Monster initiates students to think imaginatively, creatively and critically which greatly fosters students’ creativity.

CC By Olivia Spanswick (experimenting with monster to learn how to use it)

Pedagogy

Monster uses a constructivist approach, as it provides students with experiences where they gain understanding of concepts and ideas (Bower, 2017). An example of this, is that students can interact with Monster to create a short story, giving the students the opportunity to practice how to create a short story based on a topic and storyline and what is involved in the process.

Game-based learning aids students learning through the use of video games to teach specific skills and to achieve learning outcomes (Dimitra et al, 2020). Game-based learning positively affects students learning, as it improves their motivation, increases their engagement and enhances their collaboration skills (Dimitra et al, 2020). Monster achieves this by having the students interact with Mo, which increases their engagement, motivation and collaboration as they can also work with other students.

Limitation

A limitation of Monster is that it can only be used on an iPad, therefore making it quite inaccessible for many schools who don’t have access to iPads.

References:

Bower, M., Howe, C., McCredie, N., Robinson, A., and Grover, D. (2014). Augmented Reality in education - cases, places and potentials. Educational Media International, 51(1), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2014.889400

Bower, M. (2017). Design of Technology-Enhanced Learning: Integrating Research and Practice. Emerald Publishing Limited. https://doi.org/10.1108/9781787141827

Dimitra, K., Konstantinos, K., Christina, Z., and Katerina, T. (2020). Types of Game-Based Learning in Education: A brief state of the art and the implementation in Greece. The European Educational Researcher, 3(2), 87–100. https://doi.org/10.31757/euer.324

NSW Education and Standards Authority (2022). English K-10 syllabus: Content. NSW

Curriculum. https://curriculum.nsw.edu.au/learning-areas/english/english-k-10-2022?tab=content