Using Aurasma to Create Interactive Displays

I first came across the app Aurasma being used in an educational context through @alvareztany, who blogged about it HERE. She had created an interactive display in preparation for her class parents coming in for Open House, so that they could experience how she integrated technology into the curriculum. Her post really excited me and the more I thought about it, the more ideas I had! My class parents are coming in to school in two weeks for conferences, and I have created two Aurasma displays for them to view their children's work. One of them has to do with our work on patterns in Math. To see a little more about the process we went through in our patterns unit click here.

I'm going to ask all the parents to download Aurasma into their devices (or use one of our classroom iPads) and here is what the parents will see during conferences:

The first thing I had the kids do was to create a pattern using manipulatives on a sheet of paper and label their pattern using letters. They then went to get their iPads and took a picture of it. Later they used the app ShowMe  to record their explanations by uploading their photo into ShowMe and recording their explanation. For this activity I was trying out ShowMe to compare to Educreations, I personally feel Educreations is a little easier for young children especially since you can erase the recording if you make a mistake without deleting the entire project. For the purpose of this project, only ShowMe will work because you can download it as a video to create the overlay, however, you cannot download from Educreations. Other whiteboard apps like Doodlecast pro and Explain Everything will work as they can be exported as video to your camera roll.

Here is an example of a ShowMe pattern explanation:

I then had to download the ShowMes so they could be imported into my camera roll. I also printed out all the pictures of the patterns so that I could use them as trigger images when creating my Auras. Here is how I put it all together using Aurasma:

That's it! Thanks again @alvareztany for introducing me to Aurasma!

Possible Ideas for using Aurasma:

This is a little update to this post. I've been asked a few times what other ideas I have for using Aurasma, here are a few.

In Reading:

• Using the cover of a book as a trigger image and the overlay being a child retelling the story. It could be sent home to share with parents, it could also be used in partner reading to see if the story could be retold a different way.
• Again a book cover as a trigger but a student book review as overlay
• On a certain page in a book trigger a question you want the student to answer or a task they have to do such as make a prediction of what might happen next.

In Writing:

• Student writing triggers the child presenting their work (possibly have a gallery walk of each other's work with iPads and headphones)

Collaborative group work:

• I often have the kids work in small groups to create something such as this social studies project on 'rules' and I end up recording them presenting it. So when I displayed the poster they made I also attached the video connected to each poster as an overlay. The kids also enjoy watching their own and their peers' work again after the presentation. (Will be good for student-led conferences too!)

Global Education:

• I have discovered that if you post a trigger image online somewhere, it'll work on screens too! So I can see partner classes in different parts of the world sending each other their learning via trigger image and then watching presentations or mystery messages through the app! It is just as easily posted online on blogs so parents can trigger the overlays from home!

I wonder if anyone else has other ideas? I would love to hear some! :)