Using Augmented Reality as a Medium to Assist Teaching in Higher Education

In this paper we describe the use of a high-level augmented reality (AR) interface for the construction of collaborative educational applications that can be used in practice to enhance current teaching methods. A combination of multimedia information including spatial three-dimensional models, images, textual information, video, animations and sound, can be superimposed in a student-friendly manner into the learning environment. In several case studies different learning scenarios have been carefully designed based on human-computer interaction principles so that meaningful virtual information is presented in an interactive and compelling way. Collaboration between the participants is achieved through use of a tangible AR interface that uses marker cards as well as an immersive AR environment which is based on software user interfaces (UIs) and hardware devices. The interactive AR interface has been piloted in the classroom at two UK universities in departments of Informatics and Information Science

How do I enhance motivation to learn and higher order cognition among students of Science through the use of a virtual learning environment?

In this paper I explore the capacity of Moodle to enhance the teaching and learning of Leaving Certificate Biology within a small urban secondary school. I simultaneously investigate the potential of the technology to enhance higher-order cognition and motivation to learn among the students. Adopting an action research approach has led me to a much deeper understanding of the tacit knowledge that inspires my work. The chief stimulus to my research was the realisation that my explicit practice was in negation of my implicit values. I have come to know my practice and over time changed it. I can now see evidence of a greater congruence between my espoused core educational values and my explicit actions. Cycle one of the research focuses on setting up and introducing Moodle to a group of Biology students. The second cycle shows the feasibility of a community of enquiry through a discussion-forum. A process of social validation runs concurrently, in which interested individuals substantiate my claim that my core educational values are being translated into my practice. Throughout I learn to strike a balance between co-learner and guide. Consequently the students come to act as co-authors in moving away from authoritarian dissemination of facts. This facilitates a community of inquiry, revolving around the collaborative negotiation of meaning. There is clear evidence of increased higher-order cognition and motivation to learn among the participants within this virtual community

Mobile learning: benefits of augmented reality in geometry teaching

As a consequence of the technological advances and the widespread use of mobile devices to access information and communication in the last decades, mobile learning has become a spontaneous learning model, providing a more flexible and collaborative technology-based learning. Thus, mobile technologies can create new opportunities for enhancing the pupils’ learning experiences. This paper presents the development of a game to assist teaching and learning, aiming to help students acquire knowledge in the field of geometry. The game was intended to develop the following competences in primary school learners (8-10 years): a better visualization of geometric objects on a plane and in space; understanding of the properties of geometric solids; and familiarization with the vocabulary of geometry. Findings show that by using the game, students have improved around 35% the hits of correct responses to the classification and differentiation between edge, vertex and face in 3D solids.This research was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council Design Star CDT (AH/L503770/1), the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) projects LARSyS (UID/EEA/50009/2013) and CIAC-Research Centre for Arts and Communication.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Strength in diversity: enhancing learning in vocationally-orientated, master's level courses

Postgraduate education in geography, especially at the Master’s level, is undergoing significant changes in the developed world. There is an expansion of vocationally-oriented degree programmes, increasing recruitment of international students, integration of work place skills, and the engagement of non-traditional postgraduate students as departments respond to policies for a more ‘inclusive’ higher education. This paper sets the context by outlining some programmatic changes in selected countries (Australia, the UK, and the USA). We briefly reflect on how postgraduate ‘bars’ or ‘levels’ are defined and explore in detail what ‘diversity’ or ‘heterogeneity’ means in these new postgraduate settings. The paper then explores some examples of practice drawn from our own experiences, whilst recognising that relevance will vary in other contexts. Finally we consider how diversity can be harnessed as a strength that has potential to enhance taught elements of contemporary postgraduate education in and beyond the discipline

Grounding the curriculum: learning from live projects in architectural education

Abstract: For more than twenty years architects in the UK have advocated the use of ‘live’ projects in architecture schools as an alternative to the more traditional model of studio learning, but the educational establishment continues to marginalize community-based approaches to learning. Recent debate, focusing on shortcomings of the studio culture in architectural education, has condemned the isolation of students from real world contexts and teaching methods that cultivate values of individualism and competition. As an alternative, many claims have been made about the potential for enhancing student learning by adopting live briefs and involving clients and users in the education of architects. Yet much of the literature remains largely speculative or descriptive and so far has neglected to investigate participatory design processes to determine their precise pedagogic value. The aims of this paper are to examine the nature of learning in student projects outside the studio environment, to locate that learning within a range of categories of learning, and to develop a conceptual structure for further exploration of alternative pedagogies in architectural education. The study is based on evaluations of two participatory design projects carried out with students at Lincoln School of Architecture in the UK. Students’ perceptions of the learning they acquired are compared with the intended learning outcomes identified by tutors at the start of the projects, and these are further contrasted with the ‘competencies’ that are typical outcomes of the traditional curriculum. The findings, which reveal significant contingent and emergent learning in the live projects, are then discussed in relation to recognized theories of learning, such as experiential learning, social constructionism, situated learning and collaborative learning. The objective is to identify an appropriate theoretical framework that may be used to draw attention to the valuable contribution of live project learning in architectural education and support arguments in favour of a more expansive and socially grounded architecture curriculum

Data-Driven Shape Analysis and Processing

Data-driven methods play an increasingly important role in discovering geometric, structural, and semantic relationships between 3D shapes in collections, and applying this analysis to support intelligent modeling, editing, and visualization of geometric data. In contrast to traditional approaches, a key feature of data-driven approaches is that they aggregate information from a collection of shapes to improve the analysis and processing of individual shapes. In addition, they are able to learn models that reason about properties and relationships of shapes without relying on hard-coded rules or explicitly programmed instructions. We provide an overview of the main concepts and components of these techniques, and discuss their application to shape classification, segmentation, matching, reconstruction, modeling and exploration, as well as scene analysis and synthesis, through reviewing the literature and relating the existing works with both qualitative and numerical comparisons. We conclude our report with ideas that can inspire future research in data-driven shape analysis and processing.Comment: 10 pages, 19 figure