Peer Review

Aurasma App for iOS

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Reviewed:: Jan 24, 2016 by Teacher Education

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Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:

'Aurasma is the industry-leading augmented reality app that’s changing the way millions of people see and interact with the world. In fact, it’s the only mobile app that lets you create and share your own augmented reality experiences!

Discover:
• Bring tagged images, objects and even physical locations to life with interactive digital content, such as video, animations, and 3D. These augmented reality experiences are called Auras.
• Look out for the app’s ‘A’ logo in magazines, posters, books, apparel, product packaging, and much more! Wherever you spot the ‘A’, there’s an Aura for you to discover. Simply open to the app’s viewfinder (bottom-center menu button) and point it at your target to unlock the experience.
• Browse the Explore and Featured sections of the app to find the latest and most popular Auras.

Create:
• Use the simple step-by-step creation wizard within the app to make your own Auras and share them with friends and other Aurasma users.
• Build Auras using your own photos and videos, or alternatively, select from thousands of digital animations available on the platform. Most popular user-generated Auras include adding 3D dinosaurs to your street, sending a video message on a greetings card, leaving hidden clues in a treasure hunt, or adding information to classroom materials.'

This is a free app

Type of Material:

Simulation

Recommended Uses:

Build Auras using your own photos and videos, or alternatively, select from thousands of digital animations available on the platform. Most popular user-generated Auras include adding 3D dinosaurs to your street, sending a video message on a greetings card, leaving hidden clues in a treasure hunt, or adding information to classroom materials. While the app could be used to incorporate auras into instruction, it could also be used to teach aura development.

Technical Requirements:

The Aurasma app is available from iTunes and Google Play. For Apple devices it requires iOS 8.0 or later and is ompatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. For Android devices it requires 4.0 and up.

Identify Major Learning Goals:

The app allows you to 1) discover and view the augmented reality connections that have been created by using the online site Aurasma Studio and 2) use the simple step-by-step creation wizard within the app to make your own Auras and share them with friends and other Aurasma users.

Target Student Population:

Upper elementary students through post graduate students

Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:

Having a basic understanding of augmented reality is helpful but not required

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The app allows users to create some basic auras (connections) between provided overlays and any image the user selects for a trigger. The steps are easy to follow within the app. What is even more powerful, though, is the connection between the online site, Aurasma Studio, and this app. The online site allows users to create their own overlays, combine them with their own trigger images. The app can then take full advantage of the augmented reality environment. Any curriculum can make use of this app. Both students and teachers can create powerful learning opportunities the present the selected concepts, models, skills, and/or information.
Concerns:: None.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: The teaching and potential of this app is only limited by the user's imagination. The user, teacher or student, can create connections or secondary layers to an initial image via video, photos, animations, or more. These connections can help make abstract concepts applicable to real-world setting. The learning value is really found in the use of the Aurasma Studio online and this app. The content for creating auras with just the app is more on the entertaining side and is a way to help introduce the concept of augmented reality. It is a good place to start or introduce the concept to be taught. Auras created on your device with the app will be more simple Auras, and, initially at least, can only be viewed through your device. Auras created in the Aurasma Studio, on the other hand, can very easily be delivered to tens, hundreds, even thousands of mobile devices.
Concerns:: None

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The app is easy to use. Directions and support are built in. There is a tutorial that appears when the app opens and takes you through the key steps to creating your first aura. There is also a very useful User Guide that clearly lists the fours steps for creating an aura in the app. (Just a note for clarification: Steps 1 and 2 are reversed when using the online site Aurasma Studio to create auras. This is because the app uses pre-made overlays and on the online site, you create your own.) The online Aurasma site offers further resources and support. One reviewer has shared this app with student teachers and K-12 teachers. Within five minutes, they have been able to create auras and understand the potential for using augmented reality in their teaching and learning.
Concerns:: None

Other Issues and Comments:: This is not an issue, but a comment. If you download the app, it is recommended that you also go to the online site, Aurasma Studio and create a free account to get the full teaching potential of the app and the augmented reality connections you can make.
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