Where do you see AR in future classrooms?

This is a very interesting point of discussion, as it could be a norm in the coming years. Augmented Reality presents many benefits not only for students, but also teachers looking to enhance their content.

The first thought that came into mind was medical schools, and the affect AR could have. Augmented reality would be great in this environment, for example, med students can utilize AR to preform risk free practice. This is a great incentive for med schools to add AR, because it allows all the practice wanted, before actually preforming on a real human. I firmly believe because of risk free practice; AR will be implemented into every medical school in the near future. Additionally, AR can drastically improve teaching within medical schools. The ability for professors to provide a 3D representation of the human body is quite remarkable. The possibilities are endless with AR incorporated into teaching at medical schools.

I have always been fascinated by how technology can be integrated into our everyday lives. The classroom setting is especially interesting because of the shift to technology in recent years. In the past year, it is apparent that COVID-19 has catalyzed the need for increased technology in classrooms. The need to access learnable content remotely continues to grow. One major benefit I find is the ability for personalized learning for students. Technology such as AR can allow for students to explore how they learn best. For the past however many years, students have been exposed to a similar teaching style, but I think this technology can provide students insight into new teaching methods.

With all that being said, I’m not completely sure if augmented reality should be fully incorporated in the classroom setting. Fundamentally, I feel that learning has to have a real connection between a student and their environment. There still needs to be that experience of “real” reality, and AR simply can’t mimic that. I do also wonder about certain ethical issues with using AR in a classroom setting. For example, privacy issues have the potential to be violated if learning is fully integrated into technology.

Augmented reality has some serious potential to improve learning in all aspects, and I think it’s coming sooner than we all think. However, it’s important to note the drawbacks and potential ethical issues with this technology taking over the learning environment. There will of course be many factors that will be considered before we start seeing AR a normal aspect in classrooms.