Augmented Reality (AR), according to the experts quoted in the July/August issues of Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines, is the “next big thing” in the learning universe.
To stay ahead of the curve, our two magazines feature an AR cover that magically comes alive on your computer screen when you follow the simple directions we outline in the issue. Using our July/August covers as a “live” demo is, incidentally, our industry’s first attempt at bringing AR to the attention of the learning community in this manner.
Christine Perey, the founder of several AR community organizations, notes in our cover story that AR has been shown to accelerate comprehension and increase engagement for all ages and in numerous disciplines, including learning.
Another important collaborator, Upside Learning’s Girish Dhat, was instrumental in making publisher Catherine Upton’s original idea come true.
“While AR technology is in its infancy, it has huge potential for use in workplace learning,” Dhat told us.
Upside had to incorporate FLARManager, PaperVision3D, Windows CP, Flash CS4, Flash Developer and, for MacIntosh users, some code- and bug-fixing schemes. Although it sounds complicated, Dhat says that the process was really quite simple. Indeed, the first and most common entry point for AR experimentation is the AR Toolworks Kit, which is open-source software downloaded from the Web.
“As mobile technology and persistent Internet connectivity become home and workplace realities,” Dhat notes, “more and more AR applications will invade our lives. The challenge to learning designers and developers will be to use these new technologies effectively.”
If you have the slightest interest in AR and its possibilities, we invite you to check out our July/August covers and related articles by Perey, Tim Martin and Dhat. To see AR “in action,” all you need is a computer monitor with a Webcam; we supply the rest.
About the author of this article
Jerry is the Executive Editor Elearning! Group Contact him at: 888-201-2841 x843 Email: editor@2elearning.com
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