In the past we have taken students to art galleries, with the intended goal that students improve their visual literacy skills. In these past excursions, students would wander throughout the gallery finding specific paintings, reading the description and moving on. Perhaps the teacher organized a tour, where a guide would speak about a series of painting sand their importance - very little in the way of visual literacy is improved. With our new revised AR-based art gallery activity now there is an extra 'layer' of content to a work of art. Take for example 'The Tribute Money' by Renaissance artist Masaccio we always have students stop and look at. The work is a narrative, which tells the story of Jesus, the apostle Peter and the tax collector. When painted, the artist and audience would understand that the viewer would begin in the middle with the image of Jesus and the tax collector, then to the left to the image of Peter and the fish, and finally to the far right to the image of Peter paying the tax collector. However, this understanding of how to 'read' a painting is not as natural today (typically we read and view from left to right), and the narrative pf the painting is unclear.
With the AR Aurasma app on an iPad students can hold up their mobile device directing students from the centre of the painting to the left and finally to the right. Not only does the student understand the narrative of the painting, but develops visual literacy skills at the same time. What is even more amazing with this new AR activity- our students dont need to leave the classroom anymore as they can do the same tour from the classroom.
What became very clear in our experience is that AR allows students the ability to access information using an image - not tied to location or authenticity.
This is really strong example of helping change ways of seeing. All ways are valid, and traditional behaviours of how one is supposed to be or behave in a museum or gallery are patterns of their own eras. An AR component sounds very engaging, particularly if it can fill a gap where location is concerned. I wouldn't want to replace the physical experience of roaming freely, even if that is boring, because boredom and just "being" in a museum as opposed to always "doing" is valuable, too. I don't believe that knowledge should take precedence over experience, but they are both important, and AR appears to be a really supportive technology in this kind of space. Thank you! Julia
Hi Sarah, we did notice a change in the quality to output. When Students went to the museum they seem to be more distracted and remembered less about the items they looked at but when using AR students more to say about it art item and were able to articulate it better and faster.
What an interesting post! This is a great example of using technology to enhance our students skills - visual literacy. Just curious - did you notice any changes in student output (example: class conversations, assignments) from when you did traditional art gallery visits to when you could use AR?