Prof. Debbie Holley, HSS, on an Erasmus exchange with FMC, Principal Academic, Dr. Ann Luce, led a Technology Enhanced Learning workshop and the University of Salento in Italy.

As part of her contribution to the workshop, Prof. Holley focused specifically on augmented reality and launched a new website, co-developed with Dr. Mike Hobbs, a visiting researcher at BU.

Augmented reality uses the real world as an environment and by selecting a predetermined location or image, a trigger can be created to play context relevant images, sounds and media. This acts as an overlay to a scene watched through the camera of a smart phone or a dedicated headset. The media can be pre-loaded into a dedicated app, streamed from a server or the augmented reality can provide a link to a website that can be viewed in the normal way via a browser. Media can be trigged through scanning the real world scene or through unique indicators, such as QR codes, or via location sensors that can also provide notifications to indicate available media. Educationally, augmented reality is a platform practitioners can use with their learners to build user generated content, and the final resources can be shared.

The website, www.augmentedHE.org, has case studies, user guides and scenarios to encourage learners to create their own content and share with others. Examples range from primary school to higher education and the same principles can be adopted for any learning context.

Those drawing upon the resources are warmly invited to contact Prof. Holley at: dholley@bournemouth.ac.uk to have their case studies showcased on the site.

While in Italy, Prof. Holley was interviewed about augmented reality and its potential for education. Please listen to the podcasts here: (English) (Italian).

Please feel free to disseminate widely!