Traditional methods of education as we know them are becoming a thing of the past. They are becoming increasingly digitized and driven by technological innovations. In fact, the so-called EdTech, the educational technology industry, is expected to reach $ 680.1 billion by 2027, growing at an annual rate of 17.9%.
Among the biggest trends in EdTech, augmented reality rightfully occupies a leading position. With the value of AR in educational technology projected to exceed $ 5.3 billion by 2023, a host of opportunities will undoubtedly open up for educational institutions and businesses.
AR applications in schools and universities
Today, you can hardly ever see a school kid without a smartphone. Among college students, the number of mobile device users is even higher, as young people use smartphones for almost anything.
Many schools are trying to ban smartphones for the distraction they create. These bans are mostly useless, since so much of a modern child’s life is connected to a smartphone.
As is often the case, the “if you can’t win, join in” strategy works here too.
Rather than trying to separate students from their phones, teachers can use the devices in their lessons. By asking students to download an augmented reality app that can enhance the learning process, the teacher gets an additional tool to drive students’ interest in the lesson.
The same approach works well in colleges and perhaps even more, as college students are generally more motivated to learn than schoolchildren.
Making educational content richer and more engaging by introducing high-end technology like AR can ultimately help train better professionals.
Benefits of augmented reality in education:
There are the various benfits we get if we use the augmented reality for the education purpose
Accessible learning materials
Augmented reality has the potential to replace paper textbooks, physical models, posters, and printed manuals. Offers portable and less expensive learning materials. As a result, education becomes more accessible and mobile.
Higher student engagement and interest
Interactive and gamified AR learning can have a significant positive impact on students. It keeps them engaged throughout the lesson and makes learning fun and effortless.
Enhanced collaboration capabilities
Augmented reality apps offer great opportunities to diversify and revolutionize boring classes. Interactive lessons, in which all students participate in the learning process at the same time, help improve teamwork skills.
Practical learning
In addition to schooling, vocational training can also benefit greatly from the use of AR. For example, accurately reproducing conditions in the field can help you master the practical skills required for a particular job.
How AR works in education
AR is part of a broader concept of Extended Reality (XR), which also includes VR and MR technologies. Augmented reality enhances the real world environment with text, sound effects, graphics, and multimedia. In other words, AR gives us a rich version of our immediate environment by layering digital content on top of the graphical representation of the real world.
The hardware for learning AR can be pretty basic, like smartphone cameras for playing a popular PokemonGo game. However, AR glasses hardware like Google Glass, Dream Glass, and Vizux Blade are arguably more convenient for bringing AR to consumers. However, AR content is generated using AR software, which is still primarily developed for a specific AR hardware vendor, and is often sold with an AR hardware kit. Augmented reality in education and training has a wide range of uses and enables its users to learn on the go using real-time instructions.