Augmented reality is one of the few technologies that have come out within the last few years that really have the ability to simply drop jaws. Primarily, it’s hung out in the marketing field, and been used in car ads and recently on the cover of Esquire magazine. Home versions include a DIY lightsasber and Addidas has announced plans to include an AR code into several of their upcoming shoes, allowing people to actually use the shoe as a controller for a video game. Seriously. I really couldn’t make that one up.

The big question of course is, does Augmented Reality have a place in education, and if so… what is it? At FETC, the folks over at SMART had a small corner of their booth devoted to Augmented Reality. The person there said flat out that they have nothing in production right now, they really have no idea where it’s going to go, they just think it’s neat, has potential and wanted to hear what educators thought.

Well, I got an email about a month ago from a company with a product called Imaginality, and they’re much farther along the path of figuring this stuff out than anybody else that I’ve seen yet. They’ve taken the ordinary webcam, combined it with images that you print out and created some pretty dynamic modules. Basically you download their software, choose which modules you want to purchase, and setup your webcam. Then, when you hold the ‘paddles’ in front of the camera, it displays various 3D objects. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. What’s really interesting is the way the paddles can interact with each other. For example, check out this video of the Solar Explorer module.

As you can see, each paddle representes a different planet. The planets spin at the correct proportional speed, and have some bars in the corners representing various stats about them. But what’s interesting is when you move the planets within a few inches of each other. They resize themselves proportionally. The most dramatic example of that is when you move any planet next to the sun. Pretty powerful effect, much more so than holding up the pumpkin and a marble.

A few other examples. The video below is about the human heart. One paddle shows a beating heart, and by rotating it around you can see it from any angle. But the next four paddles display each of the four chambers. By holding up the ‘info’ paddle, you can make it translucent and see how blood flows through it. But when you start moving the paddles next to each other in the right combinations, the chambers actually connect to each other to create a complete heart.

Is this all you need to teach a student about the heart? Absolutely not. But you do have to admit that it’s a pretty amazing demonstration of the direction technology is moving. I mean, this isn’t something that you find in a museum, it’s being done with ordinary webcams and bar codes you print out. Pretty amazing.

The big question is, where does this belong in education? What kinds of AR should people be building? Science seems to be the most obvious application, and everything from biology to chemistry could make use of this. Think about the building blocks of matter, and how atoms interact with each other. But Imaginality also has a math module, using blocks to demonstrate how multiplication works. It’s more of a proof of concept right now, but it really does show some great potential.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about this one. Where does Augmented Reality fit in? If you could ask them to build a module, what would you want them to create? How would you use it in the classroom?

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[simlulposted at the DEN National Blog]

I can’t tell you how many people I speak to that have a ton of great information to share, but come up with one excuse or another not to bother submitting any proposals to the various state conferences. Well, let me tell you something… You’ve got experience, you’ve got ideas, and you’ve got knowledge that would be valuable to other people. Why not take the next step and share it with other educators?

As I do every year, I’ve aggregated together a list of state conferences along with when their proposal dates open and/or close. I didn’t realize just how late in the year I was doing it this year and a few of them have closed already. So don’t waste any time! If you’d like to participate in any of these conferences, JUMP at the opportunities and apply immediately (if not sooner).

One thing to remember, particularly if you’re an East coast resident… You aren’t restricted to just your state. Apply to present in a neighboring state and see how they run things across the border! More thank likely, there’s several conferences within driving distance that you could be presenting at. Why not apply to them all and see what happens!

• Florida Educational Technology Coorporation, January 21-24, 2009. Deadline is past, but you can still volunteer to support the conference.
• Northwest Council for Computer Education, Portland, Oregon, February 17-20, 2009. Deadline is October 3
• South Carolina EdTech 2008, November 5-7, 2008. Call for proposals is past.
• Arizona Technology in Education Alliance, November 8 2008, January 31 2009, and May 2 2009. Call for proposals open now.
• Georgia Educational Technology Conference , November 5-7, 2008. Call for proposals is open now, deadline is Sept. 7th.
• Massachusetts Computer Using Educators, November 19-20, 2008.
• New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education Conference, November 23-25, 2008.
• North Carolina’s 18th Annual
  Technology Conference, December 1-4, 2008. Call for proposals is open now, deadline is September 27.
• Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference, New England, December 2-4, 2008. Deadline is passed, but proposals are still being accepted for Thursday Share-A-Thon
• Tennessee Education Technology
  Conference, December 10-12, 2008. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Oct 16.
• Louisiana Association of Computer Using Educator’s
  Conference December 3-5, 2008. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Oct 1.
• Virginia’s Educational Technology Leadership Conference, December 10-12, 2008. Deadline not posted.
• Midwest Education Technology Conference, Missouri, January 26-28, 2009.
• Indiana Computer Using Educators, January 27-29, 2009. Call for proposals not open yet.
• eTech Ohio Educational Technology Conference, February 2-4, 2009. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Oct 8.
• Texas Computer Education Association Conference, February 2-6, 2009
• Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference, February 8-11, 2009. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Sept.30
• Virginia Society for Technology in Education, February 22-24, 2009. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Oct 1 .
• Illinois Technology Conference for Educators, February 26 -29, 2009. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Oct 1 .
• Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning, March 18-20, 2009. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Sept 29
• Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference, March 4-6, 2009. Call for proposals is open, deadline is October 31st.
• Wisconsin Technology Education Association, March 5-6, 2009. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Dec 23 .
• California Computer Using Educators, March 5-7, 2009. Call for proposals is open, deadline is Sept 12.
• Delaware Instructional Technology Conference, April 22-23, 2009
• Alabama Educational Technology Conference, June 9-12, 2009.

And of course the big momma, which happens to be in Washington DC next year…

• National Educational Computer Conference, June 28-July 1, 2009. Call for proposals is open now, deadline is Oct 8.

Did I miss any? If so, leave a comment with the info!

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