Bringing History Class to Life

Augmented reality is a fantastic new technology that can be used in many different types of classrooms. There are a couple different types of AR apps out there, but the one I use the most is the app Aurasma. What Is like about this app is that it is FREE and it is duel-platform so it will work with Apple or Android devices.

You can download it here on iTunes or on the Google Play store.

Augmented reality allows you, and your students to make almost any object into a scannable interactive code. This is fantastic for history, art, english, science, and pretty much any other class out there. My classes and I have used this app to explore different cities, and create interactive museum exhibits that allow the students to analyze, evaluate, and explore different primary sources and their meaning. The app is very easy to use and allows teachers to create separate private channels for the information to be stored so that student privacy remains intact. Here is a tutorial video that I made for one of my classes to help them with the Aurasma creation process.

After the videos have been uploaded, and the auras created, the really fun part begins. Since my classes use private channels with Aurasma the students need to subscribe to the channel in order to see the auras and have the images come to life. I do this by sharing the channel URL with my students via email or our Canvas LMS. Once, the students are subscribed to the channel they are then free to explore and venture around the room to see the different videos linked to the images/objects. This is a different way to showcase and share the students' work and learning. It allows to student choice in exploration and is visual, auditory, and kinesthetic in nature.


The first time that I used this was in a 7th grade World Cultures classroom. We were doing a Trip Planing project where the students had to plan an entire month long trip to a country in the Eastern hemisphere. This included creating a day by day itinerary, cost analysis sheet, Google map and KML file with locations visited, "booking" airfare, and a digital story taking us through their country's capital city in a day. The final product resulted in the students making digital stories using the app Puppet Pals HD, with themselves as the tour guide. The students then linked there videos to a postcard from that country using Aurasma. Finally, the students used iPads to scan the different postcards around the classroom and traveled the world through their classmates' eyes. Here is a short video showing how it looked.

Augmented reality can also be used to create interactive museum exhibits. My U.S. History classes used Aurasma and the app Tellagami to bring our museum exhibits to life. Tellagami is another free and duel-platform app that allows students to dive in deeply to the analysis and evaluation of primary sources.

You can download it here on iTunes or on the Google Play store.

The students were tasked with creating a museum exhibit that revolved around the concept of equality and how it has evolved throughout our country's history. The students were allowed to choose a specific era, or movement, to focus on and then they had to create an exhibit that incorporated analysis and evaluation primary source documents and information about some of the individuals involved during the era or movement. During this project we also took a field trip to the Oregon Historical Society, where the students got to see how exhibits are made, learned about the different elements that make exhibits successful, and got to conduct research in the museum's library. The students then brought this new knowledge back to school and incorporated it into their own exhibits. We then had the students set up their exhibits in and allowed them to explore their classmates' interpretations with their own devices.

Here is the Tellagami tutorial that I made for the students, and an example video that they made and linked to an exhibit.

Augmented Reality in the Classroom

     Over the course of the last 4 weeks my students have been working on a unit called Trip Planning.  In this unit the students are learning many different skills and concepts.  To begin the unit each student was assigned a country in the eastern hemisphere.  They then go through many different steps and assignments that will them to create their own one month long trip to that country.  When the students are finished with all of the main assignments;  a fact outline about their country, a digital story that takes us through 24 hours in their capital, their travel map with placemarks, and a complete daily trip itinerary they hyperlink all of the assignments to their home placemark on their travel map.  Then they download the finished map as a viewable KML file and share it as their final project.

     Each student begins with creating and sharing a Google map and calendar for their trip, which is then shared with my cooperating teacher and myself.  Both of which, will be used to create a complete trip map with placemarks and a daily itinerary that explains what and where they are for each day of the trip.  The next step is creating a fact outline for the country they are traveling to.  This piece helps students conduct research about their country, so they can learn different types of information about it.  To quote one student, "The fact outline is kinda fun.  You just find new facts and get smarter."

     After the fact outline is completed the students move onto the next assignment, which is creating a digital story, using an iPad and the Puppet Pals app, to take us through a day in their country's capital city.  Once the students have created their digital story they upload their video to the school YouTube channel, and the link the video to their home place mark on their travel map.  Since each student in the class is researching and learning about one individual country, I wanted to find a new and exciting way to share all of their videos with one another so that they can explore and learn about what other countries have to offer and what their classmates created.

      This is where augmented reality and the Aurasma app come into play.  Instead of just having the students watch each others' videos on YouTube they can now link there video to different images in the classroom.  Right now for the trip planning unit, our classroom is covered in postcards and other souvenirs from all around the world.  Using the Aurasma app the students are now able to link their own video to an image or object in the classroom.  Once all of the videos are linked up to different images, the students will then explore the room with the app and view each others' videos.

Here is a walk-through of how I used the Aurasma app in the classroom.

     This is a new and exciting way for the students to experience a history classroom, and embodies what I call iHistory.  Other possibilities include linking student explanations to primary source documents so they can show their understanding about the document, you can link videos to pictures or text from the textbook, or even attach the videos that you would show in class to different images so that the students can explore them at their own pace.  This tool is extremely adaptable and can be worked in any type of classroom.  I am currently helping set up student book reviews to a student recommended literature board in the library, explanations of student artwork which are tied directly to their piece for an art show, and videoing math problems being worked out so students can explore the process of different math problems.

Here is the tutorial I made to show students how to link their video to an image.