AR Education Annotated Bibliography

         

         An Examination of Augmented Reality's Potential Applications in Educational Fields

         

         Jackson Walker Downs

Foundational Sources:
          Koutromanos, George, et al. "The use of augmented reality games in education: a review of the literature." Educational Media International, vol. 52, no. 4, 2015, pp. 253-71, https://doi.org/10.1080/09523987.2015.1125988.
In this literature review, George examines published works from 2000 to 2014 about Augmented Reality Games (ARGs) being used in formal and informal learning environments in primary and secondary education. The specific type of literature he investigated was on educational ARGs on mobile technology devices, such as phones or tablets. George starts by defining AR according to Azuma's three defined features of AR (1997), then he goes on to determine its place on the spectrum between real and virtual environments. George then goes on to describe some of AR's functions and applications, including enhanced sensory stimuli through device displays, image and location-based systems, and marker and markerless environmental tracking. George describes his methodology by going over which databases he would use and how he would perform his research. He notes that in his findings, most of the educational subjects that ARGs were used for were science-based. George then goes over the research goals and design regarding the works he found, also determining what devices and games/services the AR experience was delivered through. He then continues discussing the results of each document's findings. In the end, George determined that more research was required on ARG integration into educational settings. This source will provide me with plenty of information on how AR systems function and learning theories that previous researchers applied to their studies. It is also vital that I use it to explain the different points on the spectrum of mixed reality.

          Lichty, Patrick. "The Gamification of Augmented Reality Art." Augmented Reality Games II, Edited by Vladimir Geroimenko, 2019, pp. 225-246., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15620-6_10.
In this book chapter, Lichty discusses the applications of Augmented Reality (AR) art when combined with gamification. Lichty continues by better defining gamification and what it can do to a piece of media. She notes that there is not currently an abundance of AR art-based games at the time of her writing this chapter and gives a few examples of AR and non-AR-based games that display their gamification. Lichty proceeds with an examination of the concept of "stickiness" and how habits can be formed through engaging digital media. She discusses the labor aspect of gamification and how it can lead to different forms of thinking and learning to solve complex problems. After going into the semantics of the concept of "playbour" (a combination of play and labor made possible through gamification), Lichty examines fictive works to describe possible directions for ARGs in the future. Afterward, she examines current AR and ARG experiences to show how elements of these experiences could be used in an educational environment. After exploring a synthesis by another author in a similar field, Lichty then tries to argue why there are so few AR art experiences with elements of gamification. Lichty discusses the limitations of the AR genre by noting its dependence on the physical environment around the user, and she ends her piece by reviewing her research and expressing hope for the future of gamified AR art and reaffirming its usefulness for educational purposes. This source provides us with a solid understanding of the concept and implementation of gamification in AR, along with plenty of potential applications of this in terms of education (from location mapping to mechanical puzzles).

          Redep, Tamara, and Goran Hajdin. "Use of Augmented Reality with Game Elements in Education - Literature Review." Journal of Information and Organizational Sciences, vol. 45, no. 2, 2021, pp. 473-94, https://doi.org/10.31341/jios.45.2.7.
In this article, Tamara and Hadjin investigate previous scholarly articles (from 2010-2020) on implementing ARGs into school curriculums to create a synthesis of knowledge on the subject. The two begin by defining AR and Digital Game Technologies to provide some background on their subject, and they define Game-based learning, and Gamification to distinguish the two phenomena from each other. They investigated what the articles reported in terms of AR's effectiveness and attractiveness for teaching, along with its use alongside game elements. They also noted the abundance of papers on these subjects in the 2010 - 2020 decade. They performed their research by searching through multiple scientific databases based on combinations of keywords such as "AR + game" and "AR + education". They found a multitude of articles on AR technologies in education, and these papers led to their conclusion that the use of AR in teaching activities (especially with game elements) improves student attention and learning efficiency. They also determined that AR in classrooms encourages student collaboration, interest in lessons, and innovations and improvements to curriculums through educational technology. This literature review serves as a vital source, providing a solid foundation with plenty of research into AR applications in educational institutions for me to base my report on.

          Tobar-Muz, Hendrys, et al. "Augmented Reality Game-Based Learning: Enriching Students' Experience During Reading Comprehension Activities." Journal of Educational Computing Research, vol. 55, no. 7, 6 Feb. 2017, pp. 901-936., https://doi.org/10.1177/0735633116689789.
This article by authors Tobar-Muz, H., Baldiris, S., & Fabregat, R. examines AR applications in classrooms, specifically their use to help motivate students about reading comprehension. Their work began by devising an augmented reality game (ARG) with the help of teachers to research their impact on student comprehension and motivation in a south Columbian school. They noted past arguments for AR's use in reading comprehension and proposed that the capacity to display elements beyond 2D objects would be useful in encouraging student experimentation for a more active and "present" learning process. The authors then provide some background information by explaining the three conditions of AR as defined by Azuma R. (2001) and go on to explain their research approach. After explaining the design of the game they created, AR Ole Cierraojos, as well as going through its iterations, the authors went about defining, setting up, and performing their experiment with the game. The qualitative and quantitative data they recorded from this experiment showed that there was little difference in terms of comprehension between those who read through the ARG and those who read normal books. However, the data did show that students had greater motivation to learn when playing the ARG. This source has an incredible amount of quantitative data for me to integrate into my report.


          Yu, Jiaqi, et al. "A Systematic Review of Augmented Reality Game-Based Learning in STEM Education." Educational Technology Research and Development, vol. 70, no. 4, 24 June 2022, pp. 1169-1194., https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-022-10122-y.
In this literature review, Yu examines existing knowledge gaps relating to applications of ARDGBL (Augmented Reality Digital Game-Based Learning) in STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Yu begins by introducing the concepts of AR and DGBL (Digital Game-Based Learning) and drawing their definitions and deeper examinations through a myriad of different citations. Drawing upon peer-reviewed journal articles from 20120-2020, Yu investigates AR's integration into DGBL in support of STEM learning. Yu explains his methodology and then states the difference between DGBL and Gamification, going over the criteria of what material will be included in the literature review. These criteria included publication type, the nature of his study, restating his determined definition of AR, the game genres and elements he found in educational ARGs, and teaching frameworks. The results of Yu's studies showed that most studies on ARDGBL in STEM subjects in the 2010-2020 decade were targeted toward elementary school and middle school students and teachers (91.7%) and that these studies were most often quantitative (43.5%). Based on the various technological limitations of each type of AR the study covered, Yu determined that Conceptual knowledge was the most prominent type of knowledge currently taught in his researched material, and he concluded that more research was required to determine future applications of ARDGBL in education. This serves as another great source of important definitions, examples, and statistics for me to use when I explain the benefits of ARGs in education.