Augmented reality transforming education
The Education industry in Australia and beyond is transforming: the University of Adelaide is at the forefront of evermore innovative learning technologies.
The University of Adelaide is one of the first universities in Australia using an e-Learning program that is enthusiastically exploring such technologies and embracing the most effective among them. This allows education graduates from the Bachelor of Teaching (Middle), Bachelor of Teaching (Secondary) and Master of Teaching, to teach the future generation with innovative learning technologies.
The e-Learning includes Augmented Reality (AR), which brings together the physical and digital world. This type of learning can have a transformative impact on students in the classroom and the way teachers deliver classes.
This was on full display at the Arts @ Adelaide event, held recently.
Keen to get a taste of what university courses have to offer, visiting high school students learned about the Bachelor of Teaching degree in sessions run by Dr Walter Barbieri and a team of dedicated undergraduates. Students were able to get hands-on experience with personalised iPads, learning physical geography through the brilliant app WWF Rivers, human biology through the freakish Virtualitee app, and handling planets through the nimble Merge Cube.
The assisting University of Adelaide undergraduates commented later that the high school students were surprised by the technology, and enjoyed testing the interactive AR activities.
Some high school students admitted they would leap at the chance to use AR in their own studies - and as soon as our Bachelor of Teaching students graduate and start off in schools, they will, whilst other South Australian students will be experiencing the technology sooner than others, with our teaching students soon heading off on their first prac where they will share this exciting technology.
