Certain students are just more prone to asking insightful questions in the classroom than others. Not necessarily because the latter students don’t have those questions in mind, but rather because they might be more timid in nature. Spanish professors have decided to tackle the problem, for these students to have a more inclusive environment where they can communicate directly with the professor privately. This is done during class and without interruption.
Researchers from la Universidad Carlos III of Madrid (UC3M) have built just such a system which lets a professor receive feedback from students and know which ones have questions by using augmented reality technology, allowing them to continue with class while taking note of the needs of individual students.
It works by useing students’ smartphones combined with the capabilities of augmented reality smart glasses. An app connected to the system’s server lets students indicate when they do or don’t understand a concept or explanation on a questions, whether or not the professor must explain the concept more slowly or that no further explanation is needed.
An icon indicating which action the student has taken then displays over the students’ heads on the smart glasses display. This sidesteps the need for the professor checking the answers on his/her own device, which would waste precious instruction time. According to researchers, the professor can the also push predefined questions to students’ phones and control presentation slides with hand gestures and a Kinect.
Is this the future of tertiary instruction? I’ll keep my reservations at this stage, but it sure is an interesting idea. What do you think of the augmented reality instruction of students?