Education is a powerful tool. It is a gift that no one can take from you. The team at Aurora Reality understands this fundamental value and are currently in the process of developing an educational app for Augmented Reality. Why make an educational app? Traditionally, when one thinks of learning, they think of a school; an orderly classroom with desks, and a teacher at the chalkboard or whiteboard. In society, the role a teacher takes on is an educator, and their task is to reproduce cultural norms and traditions to future generations. At the moment, we are at a liminal stage in which technology is used in some schools and not in others. This is due to the age gap between some teachers and students. Let’s put yourself into the teacher’s shoes – he or she did not have technology in their school and thus, they are less likely to reproduce (i.e. teach) future generations using technology. Therefore, the cultural norm being reproduced by current teachers is one that is hesitant towards an over-use of technology. However, in today’s society, technology is finding its way to even the youngest people which educators find distracting and not ‘normal’.
But what if it can be the new ‘normal’? As time moves forward, we want the best for the next generation and we want to see humanity improve and advance itself. As a solution to having technology in classrooms, instead of trying to teach children to adapt to the traditional learning style, why not adapt to the student’s upbringing. Technology doesn’t have to hinder learning, in fact, it can be used enhance it! Making an educational app focused on STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) subjects can be advantageous in enhancing the current learning done at schools in a new and fun environment.
Following the curriculum The aim Aurora Reality has is to create an educational app that complements school learning. By implementing the latest technology in children’s education, we not only hope to create a new ‘norm’ but to improve the next generation. Being based in Australia, and more specifically, New South Wales (NSW), we started following the NSW Board of Studies Curriculum when creating out content. Using a curriculum allows the app to be structured as well as complement classroom learning. However, not long into development we realise that each state has a slightly different curriculum. If the app is to target all Australian students, a broader curriculum is needed. Fortunately, the Australian Curriculum website “sets the expectations for what all Australian students should be taught” and from now on, we will be following the Australian Curriculum. Aurora Reality
1 Comment
Hello and welcome to Aurora Games’ very first blog post! We are excited to begin and share our journey with you. Aurora Games is a team of four talented individuals, invested in making fun games and applications for all to enjoy. Currently, we are working on two projects: our first, a virtual reality (VR) puzzle game for the HTC Vive, and our second, an augmented reality (AR) educational app for students of various levels. For our first project (Fig. 1), the earliest brief was that we wanted to create a puzzle game for the HTC Vive. But why a puzzle game specifically? Part of Aurora Games’ mission is to create immersive worlds the player can get into, and by creating a puzzle game, this allows the player to spend more time and immerse themselves into the environment.
Our second project is aimed towards students from kindergarten, all the up to senior years. We decided to move away from the VR platform and focus predominately on using AR instead. This choice is was made because VR is not safe for kids under 12 with the risk of developing motion sickness. As for the content of this application, the levels are designed to complement topics learnt at schools in a fun and exciting way. We look forward to sharing our adventures with you in the future! Keep up to date by subscribing to our blog or logging onto Facebook and liking our page. Aurora Games |
About the blogThis page will host stories about the development of our products. ArchivesCategories |