The Use of Augmented Reality in Education: Development and Use of Application for the Course "Physics - Explore and Discover" in the 5th Class of the Primary School

Abstract

Initially, this research paper attempts a brief bibliographic review of the concept of augmented reality, which in combination with the use of smartphones and tablets can be much easier to apply to school reality, allowing students to gain multiple interactive experiences, always for the benefit of the educational and learning process, as well as its applications and their corresponding effects on the field of education, since the increase of the real environment with the digital information are considered to offer additional capabilities in teaching and learning. Utilizing the results of other literature reviews of this type of research to achieve a more centralized presentation and cross-section of individual results, we have a more complete picture of AR's use in education, its areas of application, its impact on learning and potential its limitations. Subsequently, it is designed, developed and implemented in the 5th class of Primary School, an original Augmented Reality (AR) educational textbook application in the "Physics" section of the "Physics - Explore and discover" course to explore the effect of Physics AR textbooks on learning outcomes and on students' interest and attitudes about the subject. Therefore, in this area, where traditional teaching often involves difficulties in understanding the concepts, misunderstandings and inability to construct mental representations, because of the ambiguity of the concepts and their distancing from the perceived reality, the use of AR applications seems to be more than necessary, but necessary. Interactive simulations and visualizations prove to be extremely important in this area, and the fact that they are connected to the real world contributes to a better understanding of knowledge. Next was the design and development of AR micro-applications aiming at enhancing the textbook, utilizing the Unity engine (https://unity3d.com) and the Vuforia library (https: // developer.vuforia.com), which allow them to be implemented quickly and easily, since Unity's overarching philosophy is that in order to develop games or other applications, a fully integrated graphical interface should be used and the use of programming minimized. Taking into account the above facts, it was decided to carry out the present research, given the difficulties faced by students in the field of science in understanding the concepts. The following research questions arose: 1st RQ: Does using a Physics AR textbook have better learning outcomes compared to conventional / classical teaching? 2nd RQ: Does the use of AR textbooks have an impact on the interest of students and their overall positive attitude towards the subject, compared to traditional textbooks? The method used for conducting the research was field research, which is considered suitable for exploring or applying innovative practices at the school or classroom level, so that they can then be disseminated to the wider educational community in case of positive results and observation. Specifically, it included educational intervention in two groups of students in a public Primary school of the city of Rhodes, which has two 5th classes, one of which was the experimental group and the other the control group. The intervention was implemented in the period from 20 to 28 September 2018, with a total of 44 students (22 per department or group). (Initially) Also, a short pre-test was implemented to check students' prior knowledge and to establish the same conditions regarding the level of students in both groups. The only point of difference between the teachings is that the students in the experimental group had additional information when using the student's book, since in addition to the written text contained therein, they had the opportunity to watch the corresponding videos or see additional pictures of each individual passage in the book. Throughout the above learning process both groups received the same information and used the same educational material. As far as the assessment is concerned, this was done in both groups in the same wa , with the electronic Assessment Test, so that the only reason for their possible differentiation is their use of the AR textbook. Furthermore, through the literature review and then from the teaching process, observation of behaviors, utilization, analysis and comparison of the results from the research process, we attempted to draw conclusions and answers to the research questions that were initially asked. From the results of this application show a positive impact on learning outcomes and reinforce students' interest and positive attitude towards the Physics lesson, a desire derived towards the extension this type of application to other knowledge objects. In conclusion, from the data analysis, it was found that students who were taught using the AR book had better learning outcomes and final performance than those who were taught the same module in the conventional / classical way. These results are in agreement with the results of related research, which have been mentioned in the theoretical part. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Open Education: The Journal for Open & Distance Education & Educational Technology is the property of Hellenic Network of Open & Distance Education and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. 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