Future Vision Learner Considerations

I feel that in "narrowing down" to AR and ARGs, I have still set the scope of my digital artifact project too wide. I’d really like to use augmented reality (AR) to enhance the students’ use of the library. Going back to my first blog post about how to support a culture of readership and evaluating the needs of the students in my school will lead me in narrowing my direction for this project.

I’ve lived in multiple cities in multiple countries, but in the rural area I teach in now, the culture is more anti-intellectual than any other place I’ve experienced. Not only are the people uneducated, but they discourage others from accessing or embracing education as well. Students entering kindergarten in this culture are not prepared for school or learning, so they start already behind their counterparts in other areas of the province. Unlike where I grew up, students that go to university are the exception rather than the rule. Some of them do go onto post-secondary trades or vocational schools, but for the vast majority, Grade-12 graduation is the only grad ceremony they will experience. I don’t mean to disparage my school or its social environment, but rather explain it in plain terms that someone from outside this culture can understand. I myself had heard of low-academic schools, but I’d never seen it first-hand until I moved here. It’s proof that culture shock isn’t limited to international travel. It’s proof that a person’s environment determines their opportunities. And it’s proof to me that education is not a given, but a valuable privilege.

In Learning Strategies and Humanities 8-9 Resource classes, I’ve worked with many kids far below grade level in reading and other basic school skills. The number of students who go through “Reading Recovery” in primary school and still can’t read at grade level in secondary school is upsetting. And yet, research into best practices still tells us that the number one determiner of lifelong learning is reading. Students who read recreationally do better in all aspects of academics (Anderer; Fuglei) Reading fiction leads to better empathy skills, building theory of mind and improving social cognition. (Hammond). And reading improves vocabulary and critical thinking skills (Harward). So the greatest gift educators could give these students is a love of reading.

I’d like to use AR to enrich these students’ experiences in the library. For students who are still so busy decoding text that they can’t focus on comprehending it, a place that is so text-rich may be overwhelming and intimidating. And if they can’t see themselves as readers, they may not respond to simple physical proximity. One thing that educators have focused on is using graphic novels as access points to literature for slow readers. Perhaps some sort of AR project might make new access points.

Other libraries are using AR to enhance their processing and shelving (Ko-Chiu Wu) (Spina), independent orientation and book-finding (Spina), displaying metadata to users scanning individual books (UiO Realfagsbiblioteket), and adding animations or other interactives to individual books (TPL Teens).

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As much as I’d like to go further down the ARG (alternative reality game) rabbithole, I think it would be better for me (and my potential users) to start with something like the metadata AR. I have even dreamed of what it might be like to have a “guestbook” of sorts attached to the books, so that students could rate works, leave reviews, and interact with other readers. I understand that like all social media platforms, it would need a lot of moderation to prevent cyber-bullying, but I want to imagine an ideal version first, and then worry about how to make it work.

 

Bibliography

Anderer, John. "Children Who Regularly Read for Pleasure Perform Better in School, Study Finds."  (2020). Web. 2021.

Fuglei, Monica. "Why Students Who Read for Pleasure Are Stronger Academically | Resilient Educator."  (2013). Web. 2021.

Hammond, Claudia. "Does Reading Fiction Make Us Better People?"  (2019). Web.

Harward, Samantha. "Want to Become Better at Critical Thinking? Read Books. - College Magazine."  (2019). Print.

Ko-Chiu Wu, Chung-Ching Liu, Tzu-Heng Chiu, & Chun-Ching Chen. "Augmented Reality Navigation App and Metadata Icon Design for Children’s Library."  (2019). Web. 2021.

Realfagsbiblioteket, UiO.Augmented Reality with Wayfinding and Metadata in the Library. YouTube, 2019.

Spina, Carli. "Keeping up With... Augmented Reality." Keeping Up With... February 2014 (2014). Web. 2021.

Teens, TPL.Tpl:Ar Augmented Reality App. YouTube, 2019.