Augmented Reality in science education–affordances for student learning

Abstract

Most extant studies examining augmented reality (AR) have focused on the technology itself. This paper presents findings addressing the issue of AR for educational purposes based on a sequential survey distributed to 35 expert science teachers, ICT designers and science education researchers from four countries. There was consensus among experts in relation to a focus on ‘learning before technology’, and they in particular supplemented affordances identified in literature with perspectives related to interactivity, a creator perspective and inquiry based science. Expert reflections were condensed into innovative dimensions in a framework with nine continua. The framework can be used to illustrate how, and to what extent, an innovative educational perspective, such as that focusing on engaging learners in creating and/or inquiring can be addressed in a particular AR design, and is in the paper exemplified for use in both analysis of existing educational AR and in design of new second-generation AR.