Way Better than Flashcards:  Using Augmented Reality in the Elementary Classroom & Computer Lab

HP Reveal lets teachers and students create Aurasmas that appear when a target image is detected.

What is it? Aurasmas are media that hover over target images.  Media includes videos, pictures, audio, or hyperlinks.  Both the target image and the media are created by the teacher or the student.

When do I use this? As often as I can! 

• In the computer lab, I use small groups and we work on creating Aurasmas, with less focus on the content, although I use the content from their regular classrooms.  In the computer lab, I am teaching them to use the technology.  So, I often print the target images and attach them to a bulletin board or wall. Their job is to find a picture, make a video, produce a script of audio, etc. Then they actually create the Aurasma and test it out. 
  
• In the classroom, when I was a special education teacher, I would make the video of the child leaning the skill, create the target image, and the focus there was for the student to watch themselves repeatedly working on that skill, set of skills, or content review.

How it works:  A teacher or student makes a target image (like a picture of a piece of an anchor chart, picture, word on a word wall, or even math problem). Then the teacher or student attaches a some sort of media to that target image. The target image is like a QR Code that most people have seen before.  The target image triggers the media. The little video, audio, or picture "magically" plays on the ipad or iphone that is scanning the target image.  The target image could also bring up a longer url. That means a user, say kids in a classroom, could scan a target image and up could come the obnoxiously long URL that they might need to type to get to the website. The younger the child the longer it takes her to type in the URL, so this is sometimes a lifesaver when you only have 45 minutes to teach a lesson.

Steps to Create an Aurasma:

1. Media. Using your iPhone/iPad's regular camera, record your media. I find a short video about 10-20 seconds, is a good starting place. (think of this as a mini-mini lesson you'd teach one-on-one).
   
   1. You can also screen shot a picture to your device. iPhones do that with a firm hold of the round button and the off button.
      
   2. Alternatively you can take a picture yourself, the same way you take a normal picture on your phone.
      
2. Target Image. Then you'll need something to act as a target.  The pictures at the bottom of this page are all targets. A single typed word is sometimes not enough contrast and details, so you can draw shapes or use stickers around a word-wall type of target image.
   
   1. Generally print or write this and stick it to the wall someplace - like centers.
      
   2. Alternatively you can try computer images like the bunch at the bottom of this page.
      
   3. Alternatively you can create a 3-Ring binder with large images or words to act as a station of target images. 
      
3. Connect the Target Image and the Media. 
   
   1. Open up HP Reveal on your phone.
      
   2. Tap the + symbol in the upper right corner. (This creates a new Aurasma).
      
   3. Point your camera at the target image so that the circles do what the kids call "whom whom" over your image. The screen has a 9square grid that photographers call the Thirds. Just wiggle the device until you see the white circle go to the green on the "red-yellow-green" bar.   Click the large circle.  (You've just inserted the target image.)
      
   4. It will ask you to name your image. Name it. Copy or remember the name you gave it.
      
   5. Now it wants you to insert an Aura. This is the video or media you created. You can also put the silly minions or whatever else you find. But we are teachers, so we will probably put our own teaching content up there. Your Aura (media) is on your phone.  So you'll need to insert from the device.
      
   6. Click Next or Upload.  This can take a while.
      
   7. Once it's uploaded, it will ask you to name it again. Paste from the copy and paste you did earlier....or retype the name.
      
   8. Make sure you select PUBLIC if you want others to see it. 
      
   9. It uploads again, and after a few minutes, You and others should be able to scan the target image and up will pop your video, media. 
      
4. Tips: 
   
   1. ...for saving your battery and letting people know what to scan. Print a bunch of little paper logos (the purple or the blue ones, or do a google search). Use color paper for subjects if you want.  Put these near your target images to help kids orient to the things you want them to be using this for. Otherwise they scan everything in the room and you kill your device battery.  One glue stick inside the pre-cut triangles worked well for my students.
      
   2. ...for a good evaluation on tech integration.  Make a "how to" page and post it on the wall. This way when observers come into your room they will have a clue, and ask you about this embedded use of technology in your room.
      
   3. ...for Teaching Aurasma making to your students. Teach your most techie kid and her friend first. The other kids will watch them creating the Aurasmas and then the other kids will learn it twice as fast as the first two.  I do not suggest you attempt to teach a whole group lesson on how to make these.  They are not hard, but they are frustrating at first.  By the fifth try, most kids had no problems making these.
      
   4. ...for making your Aurasmas public and easy to scan.  It is tempting to make multiple public groups for your classroom, like by subject or topic.  It's hard from the scanning end though. I have tried both. If you have 5 iPads, save the login information onto each one, and make that information the same or all 5 iPads.
      

Cost:  Free

Who created it?  Hewlett Packard, or HP, the computer company, created a free app several years ago that lets anyone create some pretty nifty stuff - augmented reality.  Aurasmas were quirky, sometimes impossibly frustrating to create at first. Using them had quirks too.  The app did not work with the online platform, and it still does not  If you created an Aurasma on a cell phone or iPad, that's where it stayed. You could not edit that one on the desktop, and sharing was not intuitive at all. If you created one on a desktop, you couldn't edit it on the phones or iPads.  But, so long as it was made "public" when you created it, wherever you created it, your followers could scan the target image and up would come the media you attached to it.

Name change? I discovered Aurasmas in 2016 when I was teaching 2nd grade special education. HP made the nifty little app and it was gimmicky at first.  It also had a weird name. Yes, HP Reveal used to be called Aurasma. A person created Aurasmas using the app Aurasma. The problem was, no one really knew how to pronounce Aurasma. By the way, it's pronounced like 'are-az-muh' or 'or-az-muh,' The root is Aura, and that was kind of what you were creating - an Aura that appeared hovering over the target image.  But no one really knew what the name or aura meant.  It sounded a little like Aura, but then it was pluralized, and what that "ma" was doing at the end was anyone's guess.  Their website didn't clarify anything either. By the way, HP also suffers from the difficulty of spelling and pronouncing problems. In short, the app had a silly name no one could spell or say, and it lacked meaning. At some point HP decided to rebrand the app as "HP Reveal" which makes Aurasmas.  The name is easier to spell and say, but it still lacks meaning.  HP also changed the cute purple triangle logo to a boring white with blue typeface logo which does not really stand out as easily as the purple icon. 

I'll remind you that it's free, and totally worth the frustration.

TARGET IMAGES for Aurasma / HP Reveal

The images below are "target images" that bring up Aurasmas using the program the app HP Reveal.  You might need to follow or search for the public profile under the name HeatherMiller2016.

1. Click the pause button on the picture to hold it still. 
2. Hold your iPad or iPhone to scan these images.
3. The augmented reality (video, still pic, link, audio file, etc.) should appear on your device.