Exploring situated knowledge building using mobile augmented reality

Abstract

Emergence of 'smart' mobile technologies has the potential to challenge our current understanding of digital tools and environments as means for knowledge building. Within this framework we have explored experiential and situated knowledge building that is contextualized across physical locations and digital environments by means of mobile augmented reality.  We report from a co-design experiment with a science teacher in 9^th grade. The topic was set to be socio-scientific issues related to climate change, and we designed a mobile augmented reality application based on a 3D situated simulation including, historical cues, and open questions for the students to inquire. This environment was accessed on the school campus and on the proper location in the vicinity of the school. The findings show that students are able to connect experiential learning and knowledge building to curricular subjects at several levels. We discuss the exploration in context of emergent 'smart' technologies that can facilitate higher-level outcomes such as more coherent explanations.