In today’s digital age, technology plays a pivotal role in almost every aspect of our lives, including the way charities market themselves. Gone are the days when traditional methods like flyers and cold calling were the primary means of reaching potential donors. 

With the advent of sophisticated digital tools and platforms, charities now have a plethora of innovative ways to connect with supporters and raise awareness for their causes. Let’s delve into some of the key technologies that are revolutionizing charity marketing.

Social Media Platforms

Social media has emerged as a powerful tool for charities to engage with their audience on a more personal level. Platforms like Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn allow organizations to share compelling stories, showcase their impact, and interact with supporters in real time. Through targeted advertising and influencer partnerships, charities can reach a wider audience and attract new donors who are passionate about their cause.

Content Marketing

In the digital realm, compelling content reigns supreme, and charities are capitalizing on this by crafting engaging material that deeply connects with their audience. Whether it’s through blog posts, videos, infographics, or podcasts, charities employ diverse content formats to inform, inspire, and spur people into action. Through strategic optimization for search engines and social media algorithms, charities enhance their visibility and draw organic traffic to their online platforms. 

In the process of expanding your audience in health and social care, collaborating with Eleven Agency, a renowned firm specializing in digital marketing strategies, can provide valuable insights and support to amplify your message effectively.

Email Marketing Automation

Email continues to stand as one of the most potent communication channels for charities to cultivate relationships with donors and keep them up to date with their latest initiatives. With the help of email marketing automation tools like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, and HubSpot, charities can segment their audience, personalize their messages, and send targeted campaigns based on donor preferences and behavior. This not only saves time and resources but also ensures that communications are relevant and timely.

Crowdfunding Platforms

Crowdfunding platforms like GoFundMe, Kickstarter, and Indiegogo have democratized fundraising, allowing charities to tap into the power of collective generosity. By creating compelling campaigns and sharing them on social media, charities can mobilize supporters to donate to specific projects or causes. These platforms also provide valuable data and analytics insights that charities can use to optimize their fundraising strategies and improve donor engagement.

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR)

Immersive technologies like VR and AR have the potential to revolutionize charity marketing by providing donors with immersive experiences that evoke empathy and inspire action. Charities can use VR to transport donors to the front line of their work, allowing them to see the impact of their donations firsthand. Similarly, AR can be used to create interactive experiences that educate people about social issues and encourage them to get involved.

Blockchain Technology

Blockchain technology offers unprecedented transparency and security in charity transactions, addressing concerns about fraud and mismanagement. By leveraging blockchain-based platforms, charities can provide donors with real-time visibility into how their donations are being used, from the moment they’re received to the impact they create on the ground. This fosters trust and accountability, which are crucial for long-term donor relationships.

In conclusion, technology has transformed the way that charities market themselves, enabling them to reach wider audiences, engage supporters more effectively, and raise funds more efficiently. By embracing digital tools and platforms, charities can amplify their impact and drive positive change in the world. 

However, it’s essential to approach technology implementation thoughtfully, keeping the needs and preferences of donors at the forefront. Ultimately, the goal of charity marketing technology should be to foster meaningful connections and inspire people to contribute to creating a better, more equitable world.

In today’s fast-paced era, technology continues to push boundaries and reshape our everyday lives. It has opened up a myriad of possibilities, one of which involves enriching experiences by combining text-to-speech technology with augmented reality. This powerful combination allows users to receive information audibly while immersing themselves in an enhanced world. Let’s explore further how text-to-speech and augmented reality are enhancing experiences for people across industries and everyday situations.

The Impact of Text-to-Speech Technology

Text-to-speech (TTS) technology converts written text into words, providing a way of consuming information. Widely used in accessibility settings, TTS offers benefits for individuals with impairments or reading difficulties. However, its applications go beyond accessibility; it is also a tool for improving productivity and convenience. Text-to-speech APIs play a significant role in integrating this technology seamlessly into various applications and services, enhancing the overall user experience.

Imagine the ability to listen to articles, emails, or other written content while carrying out tasks or engaging in activities. TTS technology enables hands-on consumption of information, freeing up resources for other activities. Users can multitask effectively by absorbing information without disrupting their workflow.

Augmented Reality: Enhancing the Visual World

On the side, augmented reality (AR) brings together elements and the real world to create an interactive and captivating experience. AR technology has gained popularity, in industries, including gaming, education, and manufacturing. By overlaying objects or information onto the environment, AR enriches our visual encounters, making them more engaging and informative.

AR can transform how we learn, work, and entertain ourselves. For instance, AR applications can breathe life into textbooks by transforming images into animated 3D models or providing context through text or audio explanations. It can also revolutionize training processes in industries like manufacturing by allowing workers to receive on-the-job instructions or troubleshooting guidance through overlays.

Enhancing Visual Experiences Through Integration of Text to Speech and Augmented Reality

Now imagine combining the power of text-to-speech (TTS) technology with the nature of AR. The result would be a blend that enhances experiences by providing audio information alongside the augmented world.

Take a museum visit as an example. By reading descriptions on wall labels to learn about exhibits, visitors could use their smartphones or AR glasses to access augmented content while simultaneously listening to TTS narrations.

This integration offers an informative experience, liberating visitors from the confines of reading and enhancing their overall comprehension and enjoyment of the exhibits. Furthermore, text-to-speech (TTS) narration can accommodate an audience by accommodating languages.

Regarding navigation, the integration of TTS with augmented reality (AR) has the potential to revolutionize how people explore places. Users can effortlessly follow visual cues projected onto their physical surroundings while receiving audio guidance by checking GPS maps or struggling with complicated written instructions. This combination makes navigation more intuitive, efficient, and enjoyable for individuals with mobility or visual impairments.

The fusion of TTS and AR also holds promise for boosting productivity in settings. For instance, architects and interior designers can leverage AR visualization tools that superimpose furniture or design elements onto spaces. With TTS providing real-time information about dimensions, materials, or design concepts, professionals can make decisions quickly, streamlining the design process and improving collaboration with clients.

Additionally, combining TTS with AR has the potential to make information sharing more accessible during business presentations, conferences, or academic lectures. By relying on visuals or expecting participants to read slides, presenters can enhance their content by incorporating TTS narrations. This ensures that everyone can access the information regardless of their reading abilities or language limitations.

The Future of Enhanced Visual Experiences

As TTS technology continues to advance and AR becomes more widespread, their integration will undoubtedly shape the future of experiences in industries and personal contexts. From museums and navigation to education and professional settings, combining TTS and AR holds the potential to transform how we absorb information, learn, and interact with our surroundings.

By providing information alongside the augmented world, this powerful integration promotes inclusivity, improves productivity, and deepens our overall understanding and enjoyment of the world around us. Whether through a smartphone app or dedicated AR glasses, the future of experiences promises to be immersive, informative, and accessible to all.

Educational technology, or EdTech, has the power to revolutionize primary school classrooms by enhancing teaching and learning experiences. With a wide range of innovative tools and resources available, teachers can engage students, differentiate instruction, and support individual learning needs. In this article, we will explore some of the top EdTech solutions that are making a significant impact on primary education.

1. Interactive Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards are an excellent way to engage students in the learning process. These devices enable teachers to display and manipulate digital content, such as images, videos, and web pages, directly on the board. Students can interact with the content using touch or stylus inputs, promoting active learning and collaboration. Many interactive whiteboards also come with built-in educational software, providing teachers with a wealth of resources to support their lessons.

2. Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Learning management systems are an essential tool for primary school teachers, allowing them to manage all aspects of their students’ learning experience. Teachers can use LMS platforms to create, share, and grade assignments, track student progress, communicate with students and parents, and provide personalized feedback. This centralized digital hub streamlines the teaching process and fosters a more organized and efficient learning environment.

3. Educational Apps and Games

A wide range of educational apps and games are available for primary school students, covering subjects such as math, language arts, science, and social studies. These digital resources engage students through interactive gameplay, providing a fun and immersive learning experience. Teachers can use these apps and games to reinforce key concepts, assess student understanding, or provide targeted practice for struggling learners.

4. Classroom Resource Creation Tools

Incorporating physical resources and hands-on activities remains an essential component of primary education. Tools like laminators for teachers are invaluable in enabling educators to create durable, reusable materials for their classrooms. Teachers can use these tools to produce flashcards, posters, worksheets, and other resources, protecting them from wear and tear and extending their lifespan. This helps teachers save time and money by reducing the need for constant reprinting.

5. Adaptive Learning Platforms

Adaptive learning platforms utilize artificial intelligence to provide personalized learning experiences for students. These platforms assess each student’s performance, adjusting the difficulty level and content based on their individual needs. This enables teachers to differentiate instruction more effectively, ensuring that all students receive the appropriate support and challenge they need to succeed.

6. Virtual Field Trips and Augmented Reality

Virtual field trips and augmented reality (AR) applications can bring the world to the classroom, giving students immersive, interactive experiences that enhance their understanding of various subjects. Teachers can use these tools to virtually transport students to museums, historical sites, or natural wonders, providing unique opportunities for exploration and discovery.

Concluding thoughts…

By embracing the power of EdTech in primary school classrooms, teachers can create dynamic, engaging learning environments that cater to the diverse needs of their students. From interactive whiteboards and learning management systems to educational apps and resource creation tools, these top EdTech solutions are revolutionizing the way primary school teachers approach education. As technology continues to advance, we can expect even more innovative tools and resources to emerge, further enriching the learning experience for both teachers and students.

Modern workplaces rely on technology to run seamlessly. Every aspect of organisational operations uses technology in one way or the other. HR processes are no exception as they rely on advanced tools and digital applications. The good thing about embracing these tools and apps is that they enable HR managers to do more with less. It reduces their workload and enables them to focus on the human aspect of managing people. Not surprisingly, businesses of all sizes are moving to technology to enhance their HR processes. Let us explain how technology is transforming HR operations for good.

Recruitment gets smarter with AI

Recruiting new hires is an expensive and time-consuming process for businesses. But the advent of AI and automation has made recruitment smarter than ever. Managers can rely on automated resume screeners to find the right fits easily. It is easy to pick hard skills with AI-based solutions. At the same time, managers can focus on evaluating soft skills and cultural fits. Overall, it leads to a holistic hiring process with higher success rates and fewer misfits.

Efficient and sophisticated compliance

HR teams often struggle on the compliance front. The constantly changing laws and regulations require them to be diligent with paperwork. Missing out on anything can land the business in trouble. Cloud-based solutions make it easier to manage paperwork. Managers need not struggle to organise them as the entire records are available at one location. There is hardly a chance of compliance issues even as laws change more often than expected.

Better performance management with analytics

HR managers can enhance performance management by leveraging analytics for data-driven decisions. Fortunately, modern hr software offers better ways to monitor performance, collect feedback, and facilitate regular employee reviews. It eliminates guesswork and unnecessary steps, making it more efficient and faster. With better insights, businesses can find high-performing employees and incentivise them. At the same time, it is easy to identify the laggards and address their concerns to help them improve.

Training enhancement with AR and VR

Training is another critical aspect of people management. It can also be enhanced with technology. Modern businesses use high-end training and development technologies like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. With these tools and apps, employees get a lifelike feel of processes. It enables them to handle operations better in real-time. Moreover, there are fewer errors, wastage, and accidents when people work after training well enough.

Especially due to changing working conditions, a significant number of companies are currently hiring remote personnel.  In this case, employee management systems and software could be a good solution, one of which is Sense HR.  This HR software solutions in UK,  offer employees the convenience of logging in from anywhere, whether they are working from home, a client’s office, or on the go. This feature empowers businesses to effectively manage employee data, track performance, handle absences, and perform a wide range of other HR-related tasks efficiently.

A more strategic role for managers

As technology reduces the time managers have to spend on administrative tasks, they can focus on things that require hands-on attention. They can use good leave request software to handle days off and avoid any confusion that may arise.  They can also prioritise employee morale and engagement when recruitment, payroll, and record-keeping are no longer big concerns. These aspects matter a lot in the competitive landscape when employer branding becomes the mainstay of talent acquisition and retention. Unless you ensure a positive work culture, you cannot expect people to stay.

HR tech has emerged as a game-changer for organisations. It lets managers secure top talent and retain it for the long haul. Businesses can achieve operational efficiencies and build a strong employer brand. It is clearly an investment no organization should miss out on.

The retail industry has witnessed tremendous growth in recent years owing to its ability to use technology to its advantage.

Following the e-commerce trends, for example, many retail store owners were not only able to meet their customer’s demands during the pandemic but also managed to take customers’ shopping experience to a whole new level.

By making the most of the digital space, retail store owners have given themselves the upper hand when it comes to attracting, retaining, and satisfying their customers.

If you are looking forward to take your retail store operations a notch further, then your best bet is to keep track of the latest innovations and introduce them to your store.

Here we have listed some of the latest tech trends that are being followed by the retail industry:

• Using E-commerce-friendly Point of Sale (POS) systems

E-commerce was literally the only thing that kept the retail industry going during the pandemic. By enabling the retailers to deliver customers’ orders right to their doorstep, the online sales process boomed.

That’s exactly why many retailers felt the need to optimise their e-commerce platforms in order to keep up with the competition.

But that isn’t enough.

According to industry professionals, it is important for retailers to bring in fully integrated POS and e-commerce solutions to stay ahead in the game. The system is actually a combination of both hardware and software that ends up facilitating your regular business operations.

All in all, it tracks and organises your store’s information and streamlines the entire process.

• Introducing Digital Shelf Labels

Gone are the days when retail store owners used to have product labels printed exclusively for each unique item in their store. With the help of electronic shelf labels, retailers can actually get rid of the hassle of attaching those traditional labels in their stores or inventory.

Now, what are electronic shelf labels?

ESL or electronic shelf label system is actually used by retailers to display the pricing of their products on shelves. The best part of using this system is that the pricing of the product updates automatically whenever it fluctuates.

In fact, according to the professionals at SES-imagotag.com, smart and electronic price tags are typically becoming the portal for cloud-based applications that are responsible for focusing on store automation and data analytics.

Not only does it track the customer behaviour, but it also makes things a lot easier for your employees.

• Upgrading to contact-less stores

Most customers still prefer contact-less transactions and self-checkout options in retail stores.

That’s why it would be a great idea to introduce technical vision systems, IoT devices, facial recognition technology, and machine learning into your retail stores.

This way, your systems can easily keep track of all the items your consumers place into their carts and then automatically charge their credit cards during the checkout process.

You can also use barcode scanners or QR codes in your retail stores so that your customers can pay their bills with their smartphones right away.

Concluding thoughts…

The retail industry has been evolving over time, and tools like machine learning, augmented reality, along with data science are definitely streamlining the process.

By embracing the tech trends mentioned retailers are witnessing significant growth in their businesses.

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) refers to the trend in which students/employees bring their own mobile technologies (usually smartphones) into their place of work or study.  BYOD has become increasingly common in recent years owing to the fact that mobile technologies with access to the Internet are now both more affordable and more ubiquitous than ever.  Given the immense potential for learning opportunities made possible by smartphones and other Internet-connected devices, it is only logical to harness and leverage this technology in order to enrich students’ learning.  Improvements in WiFi access has therefore led many educational institutions to implement a clear roadmap for a BYOD initiative.  In my own workplace, this is exactly what we have done. Along with suggestions put forward by Eric Sheninger (2016) in his book, Uncommon Learning, I want to share some of my own thoughts and experiences about what makes a BYOD initiative successful:

1.  Clear Vision & Plan – As Sheninger points out, a consistent focus on student learning and sound pedagogy should be central to any BYOD initiative.  This means that all stakeholders must be on the same page when it comes to having a shared rationale, goals and expectations surrounding BYOD.  Assemblies, PTA meetings and discussions with the Board of Governors, all provide excellent opportunities to communicate what a BYOD initiative means for the school.  In particular, teachers also need support and guidance through professional development workshops, which help them to make the most of BYOD to develop pedagogically sound lessons.  In my own experience, this sort of professional development should be ongoing even after the BYOD initiative has begun.

2.  Sound Policy – According to Sheninger, a sound policy addresses Wi-Fi login procedures, a focus on learning, acceptable use, and absolving the school of any liability for lost, stolen, or broken devices.  It’s also worthwhile getting students involved with this.  On one of our sites for example, the Digital Senate (made up of senior students) put together  this PowerPoint below to guide their peers on how to install CA certificates onto their devices, which keeps their smartphones safe when browsing the web:

[embeddoc url=”https://technologyforlearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/CA_cert_senate_Urca.pptx”]

On my site, I enlisted the help of our Digital Leaders to put together this quick video to show all their peers about how to install the school’s CA security certificate:

3.  Infrastructure – The IT service team needs to be up to speed on the BYOD initiative and the school’s network should be ready to withstand all of the mobile technologies connecting to it.  This is pivotal to ensuring the smooth running of the BYOD initiative.

4.  Relevant Applications – I have already referenced several quality applications for Flipped Learning, which can also effectively be utilised as part of a BYOD initiative:

– Poll Everywhere

– Plickers

– Kahoot

– TodaysMeet

– Adobe Spark 

– VideoScribe

– Explain Everything

– Quizlet 

– Google Slides 

(As I’m continually coming across new apps that can enhance student learning, this list above is actually an addition to the previous list I wrote for the top 10 web 2.0 apps for the school curriculum).

Where they can be usefully integrated into lessons, getting students to install augmented reality apps like Aurasma onto their own devices, can also help to create engaging and memorable lessons.

With the emergence of Google Cardboard and accompanying apps like Discovery VR, we’ve been able to go further still, by making perfect use of students’ devices for the creation of virtual reality experiences for students.  If used well, these can really enhance lessons by bringing to life the subject of study.

This video below, made by one of our students on her smartphone, shows a typical example of how the app, Adobe Spark can be used to create an educational video:

This second video is an example of how students are using the app, Explain Everything, which is also a great app for students to have on their smartphones:

5.  Technology Events – Lastly, raising awareness of what we actually have available to us in terms of Internet-connected mobile device technology, how it should be used and how it can be used to facilitate learning, is very important.  In addition to running assemblies and events related to Digital Citizenship and E-Safety, an annual Technology Week is a great way to get both teachers and students involved in maximising the use of their mobile devices to enhance teaching & learning.

Last week our school had its first official Technology Week, which gave teachers and students the opportunity to use new technologies both within their Computing & ICT lessons and across the school curriculum.  As part of this event, I delivered assemblies to highlight the new technologies that we’ve been using, showcase students’ work and award prizes.

This trailer provides a glimpse of what we did during the week.

The following new technologies were used by teachers and students:

1. Dash & Dot – Programmable robots that provide coding challenges for all ages, the video below shows one example of how students have been using this technology.

2. 3D Doodler Pens – These pens rapidly melt and cool plastic, enabling the user to literally draw 3D models.  We used the GooDee 3D Printer Pen model, and our students had great fun building 3D shapes and hipster glasses.

3. Adobe Voice – This iPad app has been used successfully across our school to create digital biographies.  Easy to use, students just record their voiceovers one slide at a time.  During students’ English lessons, they used the app to put together biographies of famous mathematicians and scientists.  The video below shows a couple of examples.  

4. Makey Makeys – Turning anything that conducts electricity into a remote control, these tools have proved to be brilliant for teaching students about electrical circuits.  Students particularly enjoyed creating a remote control out of playdoh to use with Kodu.

5. Picoboards – Circuitboards that contain several sensors (including sound, light and motion), these tools are accessories for Scratch.  Using the picoboards, our students created several programs that respond to the external world.

6. Plickers – A simple teaching tool that collects realtime assessment data of students’ answers to multiple choice questions.  Our maths coordinator used this tool on his smartphone to scan students’ answers to multiple choice questions.  At the end of the quiz, students were able to see their results from the quiz projected on the whiteboard.

7. Osmo Apps – A fantastic accessory for the iPad, these apps help to bridge the digital world with the physical world, providing students with some challenging puzzles.  Tangram was particularly well received by students.

8. Minecraft – Students created virtual worlds, which posed different maths problems.  By creating various digital artefacts in Minecraft like walls, swimming pools and water fountains, the students made signposts with different questions about shapes.

 9. Google Sheets (for collaborative shape investigation) – Making use of the chrome books, students have been able to work in groups of three or four to complete a mini-project with shapes.

10. Augmented Reality – The augmented reality apps have been used a lot by students in all sorts of different ways – for example, to develop vocabulary, learn about space and develop their understanding of shapes.  

11. Purple Mash software (2DIY 3D & 2Design & Make) – Particularly useful for the younger students, these two Purple Mash apps have been brilliant for helping to develop their spatial awareness and understanding of nets & shapes.  

12. 3D Cube Printer – Having designed a 3D badge in Sketchup to mark our Technology Week, we were able to 3D print many of these to award to students for their work with technology. 

I recently attended a series of workshops on Talk for Writing, a strategy for teaching children to write.  Developed by the English educational writer and poet, Pie Corbett, Talk for Writing is based on the principle that before children can write it, they need to be able to say it.  The approach uses a three-stage pedagogy:

1. Imitation – Engaging activities help children internalise the pattern of language required.  Children recite aloud an exemplar text, supported visually by a story map and physical movements to help them recall the text.

2. Innovation – Shared writing is the key activity at this stage, helping children become independent writers by “doing one together first”.  By developing their ability to choose appropriate words and phrases, this stage enables children to then write their own versions.  After working in response partners, the whole class can discuss some of the more successful writing with the aid of a visualiser.

3. Invention –  This stage provides children with an opportunity to alter, develop and polish their writing in light of what they have learnt.  The teacher continues to focus on the next steps necessary to support children’s progress, so that they can become independent speakers and writers of the text being studied.

Technology for learners…

In order to facilitate this pedagogy, the following five iPad apps are perfect tools.  I have put together some quick video demonstrations and tutorials below to explain how they can be used for the teaching & learning of Talk for Writing:

Action Movie FX – A great special effects app for providing “hooks” to engage reluctant writers!

Aurasma -Using augmented reality, Aurasma can bring stories to life (think Harry Potter-type newspapers) and help to develop children’s use of ambitious vocabulary.

VideoScribe – This app is perfect for creating story maps.  By providing an animation in which a hand visually draws out the text, children are more engaged and more likely to remember the text they have just read.

Adobe Voice – Particularly good for non-fiction writing, this app provides an efficient way for children to quickly make engaging presentations.

Puppet Pals – Using this app, children can easily create their own animated stories.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a type of virtual reality that blends the real scene viewed by the user with a virtual scene generated by the computer.  This composite view is designed to enhance the user’s sensory perception of the real world they are seeing or interacting with.

The technology, as most of us know it today, is still in its infancy.  The explosion in the popularity of smartphones and other touch screen devices though, has led to the creation of various augmented reality applications.  When most people first interact with augmented reality, they are amazed at what the technology can do.

As the video below shows, AR technology can completely change our perception of the world around us.

It’s not just in the commercial domain that augmented reality has potential.  By layering data and information on top of the real world, augmented reality presents some exciting possibilities for the classroom as well, as it can help to increase student engagement and understanding of a lesson.

Below I list the best AR apps that I have discovered for use in the classroom:

1. Aurasma allows people to turn everyday objects and images into an interactive opportunity.  Using an iPad for example, you simply take a photo of an object, and then choose one of the many animations or images (or photos/videos that you have taken yourself) to overlay on top of the object.  Whenever you then scan the object using the Aurasma app, the object’s image triggers the augmented reality – whichever animation you have chosen suddenly becomes visible.

There are many ways Aurasma could be used in the classroom.  For example, teachers could create an interactive word wall – for every word on display, a relevant photo or video could be triggered by the Aurasma app, which helps students to remember the words.  Another possibility is to create an interactive newspaper article – just like in the Harry Potter films, the photo in the article could be programmed to turn into a video.  Below, I have put together a video showing a few examples of how a teacher might use Aurasma in the classroom:

I have also created this tutorial video, which shows how to create digital auras (overlays) that are activated by the trigger images you choose:

2. CyberChase Shape Quest – This app is aimed at children ages 6 to 9, helping them to use their geometry and spatial reasoning to develop problem solving skills.  Once the app is installed, you just need a printout of the game board.  The children can then hover the iPad over the game board to trigger the augmented reality gaming experience.  Unlike other games out there, this gets the children moving their whole bodies around the game board in order to interact with the game.

3.  Spacecraft 3D – A great app to accompany any topic on space, Spacecraft 3D enables you to find out about the variety of spacecraft that are used to explore our solar system.  Using printed AR images and the camera on the iPad, you get to see the robotic explorers close up.

4.  The AR Flashcards are great for early years.  Simply print out print out the AR cards (provided as a PDF document on the developer’s homepage), and you’re ready to go.  The developer has the following apps available that are well worth using with younger children:

• AR Flashcards Animal Alphabet – with this app, you get 26 augmented reality animals, one for each letter.  The app also includes dinosaur cards to help you learn the names of some of the different dinosaurs.

• AR Flashcards Space – this app includes 10 augmented reality planets to help you learn the solar system.  By tapping on each planet, you can hear its name, and tapping on the info button provides an interesting fact.

• AR Flashcards Shapes & Colors – this is a basic app to learn the names of the 3D shapes.  As with the other apps in the AR Flashcards series, you can interact with the objects by tapping on the screen.  This app has a colour bar at the top of the screen that will actively change the shape’s colour, helping children to learn the colour names as well.

5. Quiver is a brilliant app for all ages, but can be especially useful for younger children.  Making use of a variety of colouring pages, which are available from the Quiver website for all subject areas, the colouring pages become 3D on your iPad just as you have coloured them!

Concluding thoughts…

Teachers are still pioneering how augmented reality can best be used in the classroom.  One thing is for sure though, that with the right apps, students’ engagement and overall level of understanding can be increased.  By providing a completely different interface in which to interact with the environment around us, there are many many possibilities for how AR technology can be used in the classroom and developed in the future.  The apps discussed here provide a good place to start.