Augmented Reality - HP Reveal App

This week's tech tool blows every existing tech tool out of the water - or at least can make it appear that way! The topic of virtual reality and augmented reality is quickly becoming one on the forefront of educational technology as more and more apps and software/hardware become available for school use. VR and AR is even popular for non-school use - Pokemon Go anyone? While Pokemon Go was just an extremely popular game, the technology and idea behind it has incredible potential in education. Creating an environment that is enhanced beyond the current reality opens the doors for tremendous opportunities in teaching.

So how can you bring augmented reality to life in your school without a hefty price tag for this awesome new technology? I bring to you a free app called HP Reveal.

HP Reveal, formerly known as Aurasma, is a free app that allows you to create an augmented reality "aura" attached to a picture of anything that exists in real life. This aura can include pictures, videos and descriptive text. Once an aura has been created, a user would use the app on their smartphone to scan your trigger image. Once scanned, the aura will appear on the user's smartphone.

This teacher's tutorial explains how to create an aura using the HP Reveal app.

You can also create auras using the HP Reveal online interface as shown below. You simply add your trigger image then choose your overlays (the video you want displayed).

The educational opportunities here are quite literally endless but here are a few ways you could potentially use HP Reveal in your library:

• an art gallery displayed on the walls of the library can become interactive with videos that accompany the different pieces of art. The videos could be background information about the famous artist, information about the type of art or art technique, or even a video of the student artist explaining their work.
• an English teacher could use specific pages of a required reading to add enhanced content like videos about the time period in which the book is set, pictures of characters or places in the book, or even discussion questions to ponder while reading.
• a History teacher could enhance readings, articles or even the textbook with additional videos, pictures and information about the people, places and events in the readings.
• students could create presentations through the aura for any class project in any subject area and create a 2D flyer or poster to use as their trigger image.
• within the library, you could create an expo on authors or genres

The possibilities are really limitless with this technology and as a free app, it would take nothing but some patience to learn how to use it to be able to start incorporating it into your school right away!