By Angeliki Voreopoulou

ARTutor was introduced and utilized in the short training program Online Training Program on Immersive Technologies for Education, under the Erasmus+ program  Immersive Technologies for Education (ImTech4Ed)”, which focuses on the application of augmented and virtual reality technologies in STEAM education.

The training involved students, researchers, and teachers and was available remotely. It included asynchronous activities (eg educational content study, excercizes) and a total of 5 online meetings.

The training was attended by teachers of different STEAM domains and students from different study programs (computing, game design, arts, humanities & social sciences) in universities of various European countries (Cyprus, Greece, Germany). In this way the innovative content was combined with the possibility of cultivating “21st century skills” concerning creativity and the ability to operate and collaborate in heterogeneous groups.

The training took place between 28^th February 2022 and 14^th March 2022

The iPEAR (Inclusive Peer Learning with Augmented Reality Apps) is european project KA2 , with 36 months duration and 336,536 budget. The project combines collaborative expertise of technology-enhanced learning researchers, computer scientists, and educators to build a strategic partnership to streamline the adoption of Augmented Reality (AR) technology in educational practice.

The project will create innovative open educational resources for educators that help implement and integrate active and collaborative learning pedagogical approaches supported by AR. This will enrich the teaching practice and support inclusive, peer to peer learning relevant to the requirements and preferences of the students.

The main objectives of the project are to:

1. Map the educational use of AR, focusing on collaborative and peer learning approaches
2. Facilitate the adoption of AR in education by creating open access teaching and learning material for educators
3. Create and maintain a community of experts in educational AR and other stakeholders that will ensure sustainability of the project and keep the most useful results up-to-date

The ARTutor platform is one of the 8 tools that are proposed in the iPEAR project for educational use.  It is important to note that ARTutor is the only FREE platform available for educators.

More information on the iPEAR project can be found at https://i-pear.eu/

Field trips constitute a powerful educational tool, providing students with the opportunity to acquire authentic, hands-on experiences by direct contact with the natural environment. Technological advances, especially augmented reality (AR) applications, can add a whole new dimension to field trips. A field trip took place at the volcano Sousaki, enriched with AR activities that were created using the educational platform ARTutor. The students that took part in the field trip were asked to locate different rock formations on site from the pictures they had been given. By scanning these pictures with the use of the ARTutor application on their mobile devices they were given access to educational material that had been loaded in the ARTutor platform. The augmentations were pictures, videos and text and provided a great deal of information regarding the rock formations of the volcano.

The instructors were asked to comment on the whole experience from planning this field trip to watching students’ reactions and evaluating the level of their engagement and satisfaction. They reported that after setting the learning goals, the design of the augmented reality activities was problem-free. The platform was very helpful when uploading the augmentations chosen and they only had to check the signal reception at the volcano site so that they could confirm that there would be an internet connection during their visit. The quality of the content and the integrity of the materials could not be questioned, since they were uploaded on the educational platform after a great deal of consideration and rigorous screening on the part of the instructors.

Following the educational outing, the instructors expressed how positive this experience had been for the students, who enjoyed working together in groups, had fun locating the spots from the pictures and were amazed by the information provided to them through the AR application. All in all, the true potential of such a field trip was appreciated and taken full advantage of and, as they reported, it was something that they would definitely like to do again. They also pointed out how important such endeavours are for preserving our geological heritage.

Source: Psychogiou, M., Georgiou, K., Antonarakou, A., & Drinia, H. (2019). A field trip enhanced with ARTutor, an augmented reality educational platform. Eur. Geol. Eur. Geol.
https://eurogeologists.eu/psychogiou-a-field-trip-enhanced-with-artutor-an-augmented-reality-educational-platform/

ARTutor was presented and utilized at the 2nd International Hackathon, under the Erasmus + program “Immersive Technologies for Education (ImTech4Ed)”, which focuses on the application of augmented and virtual reality technologies in STEAM education.

During the program, participants explored the possibilities of implementing educational games and applications prototypes using ARTutor 3. In particular, they worked in small teams and conceptualize and develop prototypes targeting school kids in the age range 14-16 yrs.

The training was attended by teachers of different STEAM domains and students from different study programs (computing, game design, arts, humanities & social sciences) in universities of various European countries (Cyprus, Greece, Germany).

The training took place from 6^th to 10^th of December 2021

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