The possibilities for augmented reality in the educational field are seemingly endless.
Brad Waid and Drew Minock have been at the forefront of this topic for some time. They were each elementary school educators n Bloomfield Hills, Michigan when they began touring the country teaching other educators how to use AR in the classroom. Now employed by Daqri to do the same work on a broader scale, they have seen countless educators break down barriers to learning and open up exciting new pedagogical possibilities with AR applications. For example, AR allows kinesthetic learners their best opportunity yet to interact with digital objects in a way that fits their learning style.
Although these techniques offer new worlds of possibilities for all kids, the potential is particularly tantalizing for kids with learning disabilities and other barriers to comprehension. Educators are currently limited in what they can offer by such pesky constraints as budgets, resources, and the laws of physics. AR overcomes those barriers by virtually replicating and allowing students to meaningfully interact with anything they can imagine. Kids who need to learn through particular senses can have their instruction tailored to those needs.
Driven by such legal mandates as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which was reauthorized in 2004, the public education system is constantly searching for alternative methods to teach kids who do not respond to traditional pedagogical techniques. For example, the IDEA requires that a meeting of parents, educators and other professionals be convened for each student with special needs, resulting in an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) designed to accommodate the child’s specific disabilities.
IDEA 2004 already requires IEP teams to consider the use of “assistive technology” so as "to maximize accessibility for children with disabilities." An 'assistive technology device' is defined as “any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve functional capabilities of a child with a disability.” IDEA defines an 'assistive technology service' as:
any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device. Such term includes -
(A) the evaluation...
(B) purchasing, leasing, or otherwise providing for the acquisition of assistive technology devices...
(C) selecting, designing, fitting, customizing, adapting, applying, maintaining, repairing, or replacing...
(D) coordinating and using other therapies, interventions, or services with assistive technology devices...
(D) training or technical assistance for such child, or ...the family of such child...
(F) training or technical assistance for professionals....
The Act also requires schools to provide training in the assistive technology for the teachers, child, and family.
These statutory provisions already provide the legal foundation for requiring AR-based tools as part of a disabled child’s IEP. Once educators have a sufficient track record with AR pedagogical tools to prove their effectiveness—which, thanks to passionate educators like Waid, Minock, and many others, will not be long—we could very soon see conversations about augmented reality happening in IEP meetings across the country ... and education for these disadvantaged students improve as a result.
