Exploring Nature with a Mobile Augmented Reality Learning Tool

Mobile augmented reality (MAR) is an increasingly popular technology for enhancing how people interact with and learn about the environment and objects in the physical world. However, little is known about what aspects of a MAR interface can enhance student learning and engagement. Building on field observations and interviews with experts, and formative studies on how mobile learners navigate spaces using different interfaces, the authors have designed, built, and evaluated the GreenHat MAR application to help students learn about biodiversity and sustainability issues in their natural environment. The authors’ evaluation of the GreenHat MAR prototypes suggests that in comparison to a digital map on the same smartphone, MAR encouraged students to more carefully scrutinize physical field sites, and led them to make more personal discoveries to the subject matter being learned. They present the iterative design process, results from the authors’ studies, and discuss the implications for the design of mobile learning tools. DOI: 10.4018/jmhci.2013040102 22 International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction, 5(2), 21-49, April-June 2013 Copyright © 2013, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. learn about the environment and objects in the physical world. In MAR, mobile devices act as the “magic” lens through which people can see the world annotated or augmented with digital information (Bier et al., 1993). Information displayed in MAR is meant to be understood in conjunction with the dynamically changing physical environment mobile users are in. MAR keeps people connected to the physical world via their natural senses (e.g., smelling the air, hearing the ambient sounds, feeling the heat in the environment, etc.) while at the same time having access to, and interacting with, a wealth of digital information. This combination has the potential to be a powerful way for people to learn about the environment or physical objects in situ, in a way desktop computers or other types of stationary displays cannot accomplish. To date, much of the effort made in the field of HCI and Ubiquitous Computing has focused on technical enablers of MAR (e.g., Billinghurst et al., 2001; Cheok et al., 2004; Gleue et al., 2001; Henrysson et al., 2005; Rekimoto, 1997; Viega et al., 1996). However, many questions with regards to how MAR can be used to meaningfully support learning remain. For example, what type(s) of information or situation(s) would most benefit from MAR displays? In what ways can having access to digital information while being embedded in the real physical world contribute to users’ understanding about the environment? In this article, we investigate the potential role MAR technologies could play in engaging students in uniquely mobile and personal learning experiences by providing experts’ perspectives and knowledge in situ (Goodwin, 1994), i.e., the way experts notice things and ask questions about the very environment students are standing in, so that even in the absence of experts, the students could actively investigate and learn about their environment. Using MAR and experts’ videos on smart phones, we explore ways to draw students’ attention to the physical environment they are immersed in, and actively engage them in the subject of sustainability and biodiversity in the specific context of their environment. We report on our iterative design process and evaluation of GreenHat, a MAR system that aims to help students engage with the natural environment from multiple expert perspectives (landscape architecture and conservation biology). The evolution of the prototype design was based on our observations of experts in the field, as well as individuals using the MAR tools in contrast to other mobile tools, such as interactive digital map tools, to navigate and learn about their environment. With multiple iterations of our design of a mobile learning tool, we investigate MAR’s role in enabling increased interaction with the physical environment.