AR: Bringing Social Studies to Life
ReadWriteWeb summarizes a good early example of augmented reality in education, “One of the world’s largest museums, the American Museum of Natural History, has introducedExplorer, an iPhone app that uses augmented reality to give its visitors more control of their experience.” Earlier this year the Guardian carried this overview of Augment Reality developments.
Field trips can be great but pose logistical challenges. I’ve had chats with the local transit authority about making it really easy for teachers to set up trips and having a suitcase full of iTouch for a little early AR in support of a field trip.
The alternative to AR is VR–virtual reality–especially massively multi-player online role playing games. MMORPGs, or their cousins MMOs, like MuzzyLane’s Making History II and Evoke, created in part by the World Bank, are another strategy for bringing history alive. Simulations can be a great way to promote critical thinking around current events.

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