You're spending an afternoon browsing the exhibits at an art museum. If you're anything like me, you'd probably appreciate the art a lot more if you could bring someone along that could explain the history and nuances of the pieces on display. Now imagine pointing a device at the painting and seeing it morph into a dynamic video giving you all the information you wanted about the art. Welcome to augmented reality (AR). 

Virtual reality replaces the real world with an artificial, digital environment. In contrast, augmented reality alters your view of the real world by layering it with associated digital information. AR uses your device's camera to view the immediate environment and display media when it sees an object it recognizes. It has been utilized as a marketing and informational tool by many industries. Using an AR app, you can point your device at an advertisement in a magazine and get detailed product demonstrations. Aim it at a sign outside a house for sale and get an after hours virtual walk-through the property. There are also many ways augmented reality can be used in education.

The Virtual Museum
I've worked with teachers at several schools to created virtual museums - student created exhibits that use augmented reality to display student videos when a device is pointed at an exhibit. In one such project, students researched elements of their community's culture and created exhibits for a museum display. At the same time, they created videos detailing the relevance of each exhibit and the process that went into creating it. The museum was set up in a large hall and several hundred members of the school community attended. 

We used a popular AR app called Aurasma. Visitors open the Aurasma app, point their device at a tagged object and watch it morph into a video as shown in one example below:

AR offers many ways for students to create media and delve deeper into their learning. Here are some simple ways that augmented reality can be used in education:
Create a live timeline that displays video documentaries when devices are pointed at images along the timeline.

I'm sure you'll come up with lots of ideas of your own. Using the Aurasma app, here's the steps to follow to create your own augmented reality 

• Create an AR timeline that triggers documentaries for periods of history along the timeline.
  
• Plays student book reviews when you point a device at printed images of book covers.
  
• School visitors point a device at an image outside a classroom to watch student video explaining what they’ve been learning. 
  
• Create a "wall of heroes". Print and hang images of famous people and have the students create short videographies of each person.
  
• Create live student portfolios for open house. Students display their work and each piece triggers a video with an explanation of the process and learning that took place. project.

For additional details explaining how to create your own AR application, refer to the original post on Sam's iPads in Education website.

The art of animation - a series of related images that depict movement - is arguably several thousand years old. The use of equipment that could display animated images in rapid succession to create the illusion of motion is a more modern phenomenon that gained wide popularity with the development of motion pictures. Cartoons and animated movies from the studios of companies such as Disney, Warner Brothers, Nickelodeon and others have had a tremendous impact on modern culture. Production of an animated movie requires skilled artists, expensive equipment and an investment of countless hours of labor. No longer. Mobile devices with built-in cameras such as the iPad enable budding animators to use a variety of easy to use animation apps to capture and stitch together photos of characters and objects into seamless, fluent animated movies. Further, the process of designing, scripting and staging animations has tremendous educational potential. Animation can be a wonderful mix of art, science, collaboration and problem solving.

At a recent professional development workshop I challenged teachers to create short animated sequences that would illustrate and teach a concept. They had the equivalent time of an average school lesson to devise a concept, build their props and record a sequence of photos in an animation app on an iPad. We used Animate It, a simple and relatively inexpensive animation app. Here's an example of one group's animated movie:

They did an outstanding job depicting the life cycle of salmon. Less obvious is that the video also exemplifies learning outcomes that run deeper than may appear on first glance. Firstly, it's important to note that there wasn't a single art teacher in the group. The objects and animation were the result of collaborative discussion, collective imagination and creativity, problem solving, critical analysis and a lot of very obvious teamwork. If some of those terms sound familiar, it's because they intersect with a lot of the learning skills we're trying to develop in our students.

The group quickly came up with a scheme to divide up the work. Some group members shaped the figures and set up the background stage, some worked on setting up the iPad and testing the lighting, and others researched the details of the salmon life cycle and salmon run. During the setup you could see and hear them interacting and asking questions of each other. Discussions were focused on the mechanics of the animation - "what settings and objects do we need?", "how do we break up the process to illustrate our concept?", "how can we create a boat with a fisherman?", "how do we set up the iPad to maximize the lighting and minimize shadow". Other discussions related to the analysis and presentation of the educational content - "what are the important stages in the life cycle of salmon?", "when exactly do salmon swim upstream?", "what percentage swim out to sea and what happens to the others?". They even managed to touch on the issue of salmon fishing as a potential introduction to discussions about the impact of fishing on the dwindling number of wild salmon.

If Art is at least partly about developing creative visualization and representation then it's a process we use throughout all academic disciplines at school. Animations can be used just as effectively in Science, History or Art. It requires breaking down a concept into essential stages and parts, then representing the development of a process visually. Some of the many, many ways in which animation can be used effectively include:

• History - journeys of an explorer, animating key elements of a famous speech
  
• Science - life cycles, water cycles, photosynthesis, principles in physics
  
• Math - visual presentation of the concept of fractions
  
• English - telling a story with visuals
  
• Foreign language - developing a story around key vocabulary words
  

Note that Animate It only records the images that make up an animation. There's no feature for recording sound. That's actually part of the appeal of the app for me however there are several options if you require an app that records sound within the animation (eg. iStopMotion or iAnimate - but they are substantially more expensive if you purchase a class set). When using Animate It, students that want audio simply export the completed video and open it in iMovie to add a soundtrack.

You may jump to the conclusion that animation is for adults or older students but that's not the case. I've worked with teachers and students in lower elementary grades and the children take to the animation process very quickly. They relish the challenge of creating the illusion of movement and it's often difficult to tear them away from it. Here's one example from a colleague that was teaching Kindergarten at the Pasir Ridge International School. Ben Sheridan worked with his Kindergarten students to create a stop motion animation from a story they created. They went through several iterations, learning through trial and error as they experimented with their props. Finally, they came up with the following animation. Let me remind you that this is a Kindergarten class!

They created their animation without sound and Ben took the process one step further by challenging students at other schools to add music and narration to the movie.

One last thing. You'll make life a lot easier if you use some form of iPad stand when you take your photos for the animation. As long as your stand can hold the iPad still and at the right angle then it will do the trick. There are several expensive options available for purchase or you could opt to build it yourself for a few dollars by using sturdy cardboard or foam core.

One way to depict the cycle of education is that it moves between the development of learning and the subsequent expression of understanding ... and the amazing growth of inexpensive mobile technology tools is affording learners the ability to communicate their understanding in ever more creative and personalized manners. Media is moving center stage (yes, the pun was fully intended) and what once required tens of thousands of dollars in equipment and training can now be accomplished with an iPad and some inexpensive props. One of the first places I visited when I first came to the United States was Universal Studios. Of course, being a relatively young and willing tourist, my hand automatically shot up when they asked for a volunteer to put on tights and a cape and "fly" like Superman in front of a green screen. Needless to say it didn't springboard me into an acting career but it did spark my interest in how movie magic could be used for education. Move over Superman ... here's a few ways that green screen technology can be integrated into some engaging educational projects.

1. Setting up your classroom studio
I've worked with lots of schools but I've never walked into one and been told that I could spend as much as I needed. Budgets are tight but the good news is that you won't need to break the bank in order to set up your studio. Here's what you need:

• An iPad (or other mobile device) for taking and editing the video.
  
• A stand that holds the iPad steady for taking video. Average cost is between $40 and $100.
  
• A green screen kit  (search Amazon and you'll find kits with lighting for $120).
  
• A green screen video editing app. I'd recommend Green Screen by DoInk. 
  
• (optional) An external microphone. If you purchase a USB mic then purchase a camera connection kit to plug it into your iPad.
  

If you're willing to get a little creative then you can cut the cost even further. Clip a sheet of large green butcher paper to a wall to save on the green screen kit. Even better, see if you can convince the powers that be to paint a section of your wall. Buy a can of green paint, cover the floors and get the kids to do the painting. Giving them ownership of their learning environment is always a good idea.

2. The Weather Project  
This was a 2nd grade project that was designed to have students learn about the various elements of weather. Students selected a location in the USA and then used their iPads to research the weather in that city. They were asked to play the role of a weather reporter and script a detailed weather forecast for their city. Once their reports were submitted and approved they were ready for the video session. As you can see from the image at left, they came to class dressed for the occasion. They discussed presentation skills and how to present their reports (pause, make eye contact...). The green screen was placed in a corner of the room and the students presented their weather reports while we took the video. Once completed, students found a background that best represented their location and edited the video to insert the background. Viola ... you're presenting the weather report in front of a ski lodge in the snow.

3. Creating a Poetry Performance
This 2nd grade teacher has a poetry writing project with her class every year. We wanted the students to perform their poetry.  In discussing the project, the teacher pointed out that well written poetry evokes imagery in the mind of the reader. With that in mind, we decided to have the students use traditional media to draw or paint an image that matched the poetry they were writing. When they were done they used the iPad to take a photo of their art. Taking the process one step further, we wanted them to select key themes from their poetry. They printed the words then cut and paste them on to green paper. Once again, they took photos of the words on green paper - remember that the Green Screen app allows editors to remove the green in any video or image. They can then overlay the words at points during their recital video. 

Take a look at the following overview and then I'll explain the process.

The process:

• Students wrote poetry and created matching art. When done, they used iPads to take a photo of their artwork.
  
• They selected and printed "keywords", cutting and pasting them in different positions on green paper. Again, they took photos of each word.
  
• Using the Green Screen app, students edited their video and replace the green background with the photo of their art.
  
• On another layer in the Green Screen app, they inserted each photo of a keyword on green paper (the green is not visible) at the appropriate points in the video.
  

The end result transforms a traditional writing project into a wonderful poetry performance piece.
 
One last word of warning. When you're taking video in front of a green screen make sure that the person on video isn't wearing anything green. The final video can look a little eerie when all of a sudden there's a "hole" where the green clothing was being worn! As evidenced in this example, even professionals occasionally make the mistake of wearing green.