One of the ten big topics to be covered in detail during the Practical Ed Tech Virtual Summer Camp is how to use augmented reality and virtual reality in education. It’s important to note that while these topics are similar, there are some distinct differences between them. The biggest of those differences being how the content of AR and VR is experienced. 

A couple of years ago I created this video to explain the differences between augmented reality and virtual reality. The ideas that I shared in the video are still accurate today. In the video I utilized a handful of slides. Those slides are embedded below. 

Click here to learn more about the AR app that I mentioned in the video.

Applications for Education

One of my favorite uses of augmented reality is to help students explore historical artifacts. Some of elements of the Google Arts & Culture app make that possible. The BBC’s Civilisations AR app is another good app for interacting with historic artifacts in an immersive, 3D manner. And rather than just setting students off to explore these apps on their own, I like to provide a short list of objects for them to observe and give them some questions to think about much like if they were viewing a primary source document or image. 

This post originally appeared on FreeTech4Teachers.com. If you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission. Sites that steal my (Richard Byrne’s) work include CloudComputin, TodayHeadline, and 711Web.