I had to do a project for the 2nd-grade class for the Augmented Reality elective that I am in. It had to incorporate Augmented Learning into their experience at school. Each 2nd-grade class has a book that they’re reading, and each has a main character. For the 2nd-grade class I was working with, they had Lilly the Mouse, a character constructed by Kevin Henkes. After corresponding with the 2nd-grade teachers, I decided to make the Lilly character be around the AR space.
I took the books and edited the backgrounds of the scenes out, making them so that they would be transparent PNGs. I then put them into the AR space on the iPad that was provided to me and had Lilly dance around the room. I had multiple snapshots of Lilly, so there were various versions of her around the room. I also tried my best to take some key elements of Lilly’s design. I took off the crown that she wore, and the red scarf that she wore in the book that I was able to use
When it was time to show the 2nd-grade class, I at first could only show it to them through my iPad, so they weren’t as engaged. After working it out with the class teachers, I could share the document that had all of the models and locations. That allowed for the students to be able to see Lilly around the room for themselves. They were extremely excited and showed each other where Lilly was on their own screen.
Once I finished the project, the school newspaper had me answer a few questions on it.
.What strategies did you use to complete your project?
When I first was assigned the project to work with the 2nd grade teachers, I knew I would want to meet with them as much as possible so I could get everything that they wanted to include in the AR view that was to be shown. As a result, I met with the teachers three times prior to the presentation, and used that time to check in and say about what was going wrong and what I was doing well with the project. I found this to be a good strategy because it allowed me to get in all the components that the teachers wanted me to add.
2. What challenges did you face and how did you resolve them?
Some challenges that I faced was mainly that I couldn’t find a way to import 2D images into Reality Composer. I looked around for any way to import it, and since I couldn’t figure out how to import the images, I emailed and asked what to do.I was able to get the 2D figures with the help of the video sent.
3. What surprised you about the LS students’ response to your work?
When I first showed it to them and explained what was going on, they seemed very unenthusiastic about it, so I expected that when I came back and they would do it themselves, they would be as unenthusiastic. To my surprise, they seemed very interested and engaged in it, and it made me happy that they were able to enjoy it.