Future teaching students experience taste of augmented reality at Open Day
The education industry is undergoing an exciting transformation due to the impact of ever-more innovative learning technologies.
At the School of Education of the University of Adelaide, we have introduced an eLearning Program that is enthusiastically exploring iPad technologies to prepare students for the classrooms of the future.
One focus of the eLearning Program is augmented reality, which combines the physical world and the digital world. When used by a skilled teacher, augmented reality can have a transformative impact on the learning experience, as was on full display at Open Day at the University of Adelaide on Sunday, August 18.
Keen to get a taste of what university courses have to offer, scores of visitors learned about the Bachelor of Teaching degree in sessions run by Dr Walter Barbieri and a team of dedicated undergraduates. Visitors enjoyed a hands-on experience with personalised iPads, learning about the difference between old-school and new-school classrooms through the app HP Reveal, exploring Biology and human organs through the freakish Virtualitee app and handling planets through the nimble Merge Cube.
One participant, Kurt Watson, said he could see the benefits of the modern learning technology.
“The incorporation of iPads in the Bachelor of Teaching degree allows aspiring teachers to learn how to demonstrate knowledge and classroom activities through the modern means. I can see how the iPads can be a tremendous benefit to all of our university studies, as-well-as our own everyday interests.”
The wonder on the faces of all involved was telling. Participating undergraduates noted how visitors were “caught by surprise” and “overtaken by enjoyment”. Some visitors were currently schoolchildren, who confessed the desire to be able to use Augmented Reality in their own classrooms.
If you would like to study teaching in 2020 at South Australia's best university for graduate employability, applications are now open via SATAC.