Emerging Technologies and
Augmented Reality
Steve Rose
Technology Enhanced Learning Adviser
ESCalate Academic Consultant
Emerging Technologies
Looking at developments associated with
handheld computing devices.. mobile
phones!
Mobile learning – ‘m-learning’
Moving away from Institutionally-owned
devices and looking at what’s in (probably)
every student’s pocket
‘Personalisation’
M-Learning
Developments in mobile learning (‘m-Learning’)
have continued apace
The LSC/LSN MoLeNET programme has made
progress in exploiting ubiquitous handheld
technologies, together with wireless and mobile
phone networks to ‘facilitate, support, enhance
and extend the reach of teaching and learning’.
The programme involves approximately 20,000
learners and 115 staff in 115 FE colleges and 29
schools
HE / HE in FE has yet to capitalise on
these developments but there are valuable
lessons being learned that can readily
inform teaching, learning and technologyenhanced learning strategies being
developed and implemented by HEIs
Benefits associated with mLearning
• Encourage and support learning at any
time of day / location
• Facilitates personalised learning
• ‘TEL’ without location-fixed computers
• Facilitates work-based learning
• Promotes collaborative learning
• Supports evidence-gathering / work-based
assessments…
Extending HE opportunity in the
workplace
A ‘Case Study’ building on ESCalatefunded work carried out 2005 – 06
Somerset College (Taunton) providing HE
(Foundation Degree) programmes in the
workplace
Involved the employer – Somerset County
Council – University (Plymouth) and local
HE in FE institution (Somerset College)
‘No strings attached: Wireless Technology in Teaching and Learning’
Leon Glass Chris Kelly Steve Rose
This Project aimed to..
•Trial and evaluate the use of mobile computing
and communications devices as a means of
supporting learners on a new workplace-delivered
Foundation Degree programme.
•Develop a ‘template’ for learning materials and
teaching/learning strategies using these particular
learning technologies which will be used on the
new Foundation Degree and be extendable to other
HE programmes.
The Foundation Degree in Transport Planning and
Engineering has been developed in association
with Somerset County Council.
80% of the programme will be delivered in the
workplace.
An Extended Learning Environment created from
the College's VLE, the University’s Portal and a
variety of mobile learning (‘mLearning’) options
promotes and supports a collaborative approach to
teaching and learning on the programme
Research and Development Unit
A more recent revolution!
New and emerging mobile technologies
are set to create a whole new generation
of tools to enhance the learner experience.
Mobile phones are evolving into a ’ remote
control for your life’ (Steve Jobs). Phones
are used less and less for ‘talking’ but for
accessing and interacting with an always
on virtual world of texts, emails, ‘tweets’
and even the retail environment
New generation phones ‘know where
they are’ and provide real-time
information and interaction with the
user’s world.
‘QR Codes’
‘Quick Response’
Over the coming months you will see more and more 2-dimensional barcodes
appearing on products prompting you to scan with your mobile phone.
Companies will be using them to advertise other products in their range of food or
drink, give access to promotional offers, and a whole range of other things.
You will see them appearing in newspapers, on billboards, posters, even
television shopping channels.
Interest is growing fast in this market and forward thinking companies are getting
in early ready for this technology to be well publicised and take off across the
Western world (it has been in use in Japan now for some years).
• Project at Bath Spa – Andy Ramsden
‘A useful way of thinking of QR
codes is that they link the physical
world (the poster, print out, room, or
physical object) to the electronic
(web resource, text information) or
facilitating communication (SMS
message, phone call). This adds
value through improving the
potential of making
access to information more efficient
and effective’.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality overlays data on realtime images of the world e.g. through a
web cam or mobile phone. Sometimes
called a ‘mash up’.
The technology can also translate simple
symbols into complex multimedia content
via a webcam or mobile phone camera.
Data Overlays
Magic Symbol
How it works..
‘Magic symbols’
trigger information
stored as
graphic/video files
which are
‘recognised’ by a
webcam or mobile
phone camera and
replayed as an
overlay..
Applications (Tourism) Interpretation
Let’s see if it works here!...
• 2 examples..
• Advertising – Toyota
• Entertainment – BBC’s Merlin
Benefits to Teaching and Learning?
• Useful technology for Informal Learning
• ‘Beyond the Podcast’
• Enables location-based access to data
without a computer (PC)
AR and Extending the Learning
Environment
• The University of Exeter is currently
bidding for funding to investigate the
possibility of using AR and mobile devices
to interpret and interact with the rich
biodiversity of its main campus – the
campus as a ‘living laboratory’.
• It is proposed to use data collected by
students on Bioscience degrees to create
an overlay of information which can be
accessed by mobile devices.
http://www.layar.com/
AR Layers
Translate data e.g. species diversity,
population dynamics into
graphical/visual/aural information at
specific locations on campus – at its
simplest a ‘nature walk’ or at a more
sophisticated level a means of anchoring
data to actual locations for fieldwork
investigations
What’s next?
• More use made of sophisticated userowned devices
• Greater interaction with the real world
through accessing informational data
• Enhanced informal learning opportunities
• ...