Three aided schools and a public school in Ernakulam district under the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly will offer online classes backed by augmented reality, adding a new dimension to virtual classrooms.
While normal online classrooms rely on two-dimensional images on screens to communicate, augmented reality adds a new dimension, bringing ideas and concepts virtually alive in three dimensions. Augmented reality helps stimulate the senses better, and it helps children grab concepts and ideas faster and easier, said Liju P. Alex, principal, St. Antony’s Public School, Kizhakkambalam. She added that the school was equipped to offer online classes with augmented reality for students of LKG to Standard XII.
Augmented reality classes will be available also to students of St. Antony’s LP School, St. Joseph’s High School, and St. Joseph’s Higher Secondary School, said Father Francis Areeckal, who is leading the new technology drive in schools.
The technology is used as a tool to visualise concepts. In normal online classes, students are required to visualise the concepts or, for example, the structure and functions of the human heart. But in augmented reality, the student can see the heart in its dimensions and experience its functioning as if she or he were an actual heart, said Ms. Alex. She added that all types of learners — auditory, visual, and kinesthetic — will benefit from the use of the new technology.
Fr. Areeckal said augmented reality classes were an addition to the string of activities the church has taken up amid the spread of COVID-19.
