Aurasma: The App vs. Aurasma Studio

After my first post on Aurasma I've learned more about the app and how to make it work better for different purposes. Here is the initial video I put on my first post to illustrate how to create a basic Aura using your device:  

Making Auras viewable through multiple devices

1. If you are creating Auras on your device you should:

• Make your Auras public (as illustrated in the video)
• Create a channel and
• Add your Aura to it

2. Share a link to your channel with the parents and/or teachers you'd like to be able to scan and view your Auras.

Here is a video to illustrate how to create a channel and share it:

Using Aurasma on your mobile device to create Auras is quite simple, and I can see my Kindergarteners creating their own auras once they get used to the steps. There are some advantages, however, to creating Auras using Aurasma Studio.

Creating Auras on Aurasma Studio

Using Aurasma Studio on your computer allows you to:

• Create more complex auras (i.e. use more than one overlay)
• Use trigger images that sometimes don't work well when creating on a device
• Add actions to overlays such as making it full screen on double-tap

IMPORTANT NOTE: You cannot link your Aurasma account on your device to your Aurasma Studio account (even if you use the same login information). Ultimately you will end up with two places you can create Auras and two different channels. Here is an explanation on the Aurasma site.

This is one example where I simply used the word 'the' as my trigger image. This image would not work if I tried to create an aura on my device because it has very few details. On Aurasma Studio, I can upload any image as a trigger image.To create the overlay for this Aura, I used Explain Everything to make a recording.

To view this Aura:

1. Download Aurasma into your device

2. Follow my channel by clicking this link ON YOUR DEVICE:  http://auras.ma/s/tREMd

3. Scan the image below on your screen using Aurasma

How to Create an Aura on Aurasma Studio:

In this video I decided to use one of my reading charts as an example because I thought using Aurasma may help my Kindergarteners remember what charts say, especially at the beginning of the year when they can't read yet! Being able to go over and scan a chart to recall the strategy may even motivate children to use them more in reading and/or writing.

I hope that this post has been helpful to those of you just starting out in the world of augmented reality! If you have any questions or feedback please do leave a comment. Thank you!