Have you ever wondered if augmented reality is going to be of any help to the education industry? Many of us have. That’s why in this post, we’ll discuss seven ways it is already changing education in the United Kingdom.
By the time you finish this article, you’ll have a better grasp not only on AR’s possibilities but on what the future may hold in terms of benefits we will reap in the short-term for these couple of years to come.
Learning Is Accessible: More Learning Materials
First of all, learning usually depends on books or school supplies, which cost you money. Most countries in Europe struggle when it comes to deciding on the best way to help those with less purchasing power and even countries with free education have some problem making sure everyone has their supplies.
With augmented reality, you give everyone more access to learning materials, as long as they go to class they have their material there waiting for them in their classroom’s AR system, even if it is a great work of art like Mona Lisa or a hard-to-get mineral, which is great.
Learning Is Flexible: Altering Variables to Suit Your Subject and Teaching Methodology
Another thing to consider is that each teacher has its own teaching methodology. Not only that but each subject is taught in a different way.
Augmented reality gives everyone the power to customize their experiences and adjust their AR sets to specs matching their strategies. Theoretic teachers can use AR as a means to empower their expositions while more practical tutors can have the students interact with the platforms.
This makes it so learning gets a new degree of flexibility, as we will see approaching the headers below.
Learning by Doing: How Experience Enriches Minds and Improves Memory Retention
Something that is already being used nearly everywhere where AR was adopted is apps that allow you to learn by doing rather than by being exposed to theory classes and long speeches.
Doing things instead of listening about them or watching someone do them improves memory retention and caters to those students who are more practical and have trouble imagining or retaining concepts through explanation alone.
You can now learn by doing in many schools in the United Kingdom, which gives you a leg up on learning as it makes you practice what you are to learn, making it that much easier.
Digital Materials: Trumping the Limitations of the Physical World
One thing augmented reality and virtual reality have in common is that they give us the ability to transcend the physical world as they overlay virtual elements on the world we know (in AR) or render entire new worlds from scratch (in terms of VR).
This enables students to learn in a much bigger scale as they can see things they usually wouldn’t, such as some apps allowing students to see extinct animals when there was no way to see a tridimensional one moving in the past.
AR can make a dodo sprint in front of a classroom, giving teachers superpowers they never dreamt of.
Safe Learning: Security and Safety in Learning Experiences
When it comes to education, safety is paramount. Having this in mind, there are many safety and security protocols in place to make sure students are out of harm’s way.
Augmented reality can be an extra layer here as well, as it will allow students to complete otherwise dangerous procedures by practicing in a simulated reality through the smart use of AR, cameras, and sensors.
As an example, students will be able to perform chemical experiments without the need for the chemicals themselves, experiencing the potassium’s reaction with water through a simulated experience in an interactive AR layer.
Sensory Skills: Improving the Senses
Humans perceive their worlds through their senses, and it’s no wonder sensory skills are usually those that get memorized first.
It’s like a musician doesn’t even have to think to play the right note, or you can just shut your brain off while driving, mechanical memory takes it from there.
Having said that, sensory skills are a great thing to be worked on by augmented reality adopters. And AR can add this extra layer to many skills you couldn’t otherwise learn in a practical way.
Having the Past in the Present: Actionable History
History classes are another subject to be benefiting a lot from augmented reality. There are some apps that allow you to hover important places in the street and see old pictures layered on top of it to see how it was back in the days.
You can also see objects from the past, people or even events in front of your eyes through the magic made possible by AR and VR alike.
The best experiences are a combination of both AR and VR, which leads us to state these are technologies designed to work together, and the future will probably blend them into something totally new.
Apps Already Being Used: How the UK is Benefitting From More Apps on Augmented Reality
There are a lot of AR apps being used, most of them simple and niche-specific.
The apps in use are mostly apps that teach you how to do certain procedures, like changing a pipe or a tire, and are used by professional schools that are actively teaching practice-oriented professions like a mechanic, plumber, electrician and so forth.
There are complex AR apps being used in the healthcare industry, such as helping train surgeons and aiding in diagnostics.
Finally, a lot more apps are being developed and launched as we speak, which brings some optimism into augmented reality’s picture.
Guest PostAbout the Guest Author(s)
Gurps Nijjar
Over the past 12 years, Gurps has worked extensively in the web, mobile and digital industries managing teams of developers and delivering bespoke web projects to clients globally. He has extensive experience working with technical teams, development teams and business experts allowing him to integrate digital, web and mobile technologies to increase target audience engagement, and deliver business KPI’s.
