Thursday, January 31, 2013

Aurasma App: Augment Reality With a "Virtual" Routine Schedule



Wouldn't it be great if you could aim an iPad or iTouch camera at a symbol or picture on a daily visual schedule and get an instant video of what the steps are for that routine? Well you can for free with the Aurasma App.
In 4 simple steps you can link a video in your camera roll or photo album as an overlay and sync it to an item or a picture symbol in the classroom. Once that is done, a student can hold the iPad or iTouch with the Aurasma App on, and the camera automatically sees the image and starts the video.

Easy Steps:
Get the Symbol
I went to Google images and picked a picture of a fiddler for music and copied and pasted it into a Word document, enlarged and printed it off for my wall "symbol". (You could use your Visual schedule images, etc.)

Choose the video
I looked on my camera roll and found the video clip I wanted to use of the teacher in music, then opened the Aurasma app and pressed the plus sign to add a new aura/overlay. It asked what overlay I wanted and I selected the "Device" option, then pressed a plus sign and browsed/to  my video to attach it.

Add an "Aura"
The app asked if I wanted to add an Aura. I laid the picture of the fiddler down on the table and held the iPad over the picture and looked to see that the red/yellow/green slider went to green, then clicked on the camera icon and took the picture.

Name your new Aura
I named it the title I wanted for my class activity/routine and it saved and linked the two together.
Done!

Use Your New symbol linked video with your schedule
Now when I hover over the image with the app on it gives me purple swirls and starts the video hovering over the symbol in real time.

Here is a video of  Aurasma being used in education:


Applications:
I am going to work with an intensive learning center I consult with to take some short videos of important routines and link them to some schedule symbols and see if we can't make this a fun and motivating way to learn how to come in quietly, sit at circle, listen to a book, have music time, wash hands for snack, etc. How about a video of a storybook that when the cover is scanned it reads and asks questions? How about a flash card or manipulative activity with a short clip on how to sort or play? I would love to use videos with card symbols that model cooperative play, sharing, taking turns and more.
The idea are endless.

Go have some fun!
All the best,
Lon

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