TEDx and Augmented Reality - Informal Learning and International Exchange with Mobile Technology

• published: 29 Oct 2015
• views: 41

Eric Hawkinson, Martin Stack and Erin Noxon were Featured Presenters at The IAFOR Asian Conference on Technology in the Classroom 2015 (ACTC2015) in Kobe, Japan. In their Featured Presentation they discuss the latest advances in Augmented Reality (AR) technology and the potential impacts it can have on education. Eric, Martin and Erin implemented their AR project at TEDxKyoto. Looking to approach the idea of AR on several fronts and link them all together Eric, Martin and Erin put together a series of activities that have never been seen at TEDx events ever before. The result was an interesting mix that got great reaction from participants. The TEDx Program is designed to help communities, organizations and individuals to spark conversation and connection through local TED-like experiences. The focus is on curating an interesting program of speakers and performers to engage audiences. Their team’s focus was creating activities for participants that encouraged interaction. One of these activities revolved around the use of augmented reality and mobile technology. They created a smartphone application that allowed participants to explore the venue in a fun and interesting way. This app overlayed digital information on physical things all over the event such as signs, artwork, volunteer T-shirts and the distributed speaker program. User analytics and participant observations were used to analyze activities. The experiment results point to several opportunities for the use of this technology to bring people together in international social settings. Future challenges surrounding technology acceptance and privacy also became apparent. In this presentation they explain how these technologies can be used and how it might impact how people of different cultures and backgrounds interact at larger events. http://www.iafor.org