Bring Learning to Life with Aurasma

Aurasma is a FREE augmented reality application for mobile devices with many interesting and creative uses in the classroom. Aurasma is a way to bring the world around us to life. It is a way to interact digitally with the world around us. In order to begin, though, we need to understand some basic terminology:

• Aurasma - a FREE app to make and view auras on Apple devices, Android Devices. You can even make auras using the Aurasma Studio Web App.
• Target - any image or item on which you can to add media. A target can be an image in a book, a printed document like a poster, or any picture of the real world. ANYTHING can be made into a target to trigger the interaction.
• Overlay - media that is viewed over the target in Aurasma.
• Aura - the creative combination of targets and overlays. 
• Channels - the way your auras are made available for viewing. 

Auras are often compared to QR Codes. Whereas QR codes are an unidentifiable images needing to be created and then added to websites or printed for use; auras use images from the world around us to trigger the digital experience. Learn more about the app by watching below.

The easiest way to create an Aura is by using the Arasma app. You can also create more complicated auras using the online Aurasma Studio Web App. More information can be found in the Comprehensive Guide or by watching additional tutorial videos found on Aurasma YouTube Channel. Ideas for creative ways Aurasma is being used can also be found by following the Aurasma company on Twitter, Facebook, or Pintrest.

Ideas for using Aurasma in the classroom:

• Welcome to the new school year or explain classroom rules
• Bring yearbooks (or any book) to Life
• Review Word Walls & Vocabulary Lists (Definitions, Examples, Non-Examples)
• Label Diagrams or any object with triggers
• Create Interactive Posters, Bulletin Boards or Classroom Displays
• Create Interactive books, journals or newspapers
• Explain Art Work or any class work (explanations by students) & encourage parental participation
• Checkwork for understanding
• Provide Scavenger Hunts

Why aren't you connecting?

I'm going to do a brief review of a cool new app that I found out about yesterday. First I want to talk about how I found it. If you know our department, you will know that we are big users and promoters of Twitter. We don't watch our twitter feeds all day, but when we have a chance we'll watch the feed for a few minutes to see what is happening out there. Yesterday I was watching my feed and saw a couple of pictures and mentions of something called ChromVille. Not knowing what it was I did a quick search online and found out.

ChromVille is an augmented reality app. Click on the link for a definition of what it is. In the case of ChromVille what it does is it lets you print out a blackline sheet that you can then have students color. There are 5 different scenarios (villages) that you can download sheets from. You then download the ChromVille App. In the app you select the village that matches the sheet the student colored. You hold your iPad over the sheet until it reads the paper correctly, then the characters and artifacts on the page pop up in 3D. You can then rotate the paper and see the items from different points of view. Here is an example of what it looks like.

Here is the official how to use Chromville video.

How to use Chromville app from Chromville on Vimeo.

So Chromville is pretty cool. It really isn't the point of the message. The point is that I found it because I am involved with the global education community on Twitter and other places. You may say, "well I don't have time for that!" If you could make finds like Chromville and really important things, isn't it worth investing a little time everyday. I believe it is, for all of us. If you aren't on Twitter and want to know more, contact your EdTech.