The Excitement of Augmented Reality - The Joy of a Four Year Old

This past weekend we took our daughters to Living Shores Aquarium in Glen, New Hampshire. We all enjoyed learning about marine life and watching the otters play. My youngest daughter especially loved the touch tank in which little fish nibbled on her hand. My oldest daughter didn't like the touch tank as much as her sister, but she did find something she really enjoyed. That thing was a coloring station where she could color sea animals then see her drawings come to life on screen through the use of augmented reality. She ended up making seven drawings which filled the screen with seahorses, turtles, and fish that she colored. Each time her drawing came to life on the screen she jumped for joy! 

The technology that was in use at the aquarium was very similar to that found in QuiverVision. The concept of QuiverVision is that kids complete coloring sheets that become augmented reality objects when they are scanned with the QuiverVision iOS or Android app. 

Applications for Education
QuiverVision has been around for five or six years at this point. In fact, I mentioned it in this 2019 article about five directions for augmented reality in education. I was never particularly enthusiastic about it because at the end of the day it is still just a fancy coloring activity. That changed when I saw how excited my four year old daughter got about seeing her coloring pages come to life. It got her excited to learn more about marine animals. That excitement to learn more about something new is perhaps the best reason to try something like QuiverVision with students. 

Thanks to my awesome partner, Jess, for the pictures in this post.