Reflection of MACE15....

Reflection of MACE15....

Presenting at the Mid-America Association for Computers in Education a.k.a MACE is like going home for me.  MACE was the 1st edtech conference I attended in my career in education.  It is currently beginning held on the campus of Kansas State University, which just happens to be my Alma Mater.  I presented twice on the topic of augmented reality in education during this conference. My sessions were hands-on sessions where educators could play and explore the variety of augmented tools I brought along with me. Attendees explored augmented coloring pages, augmented triggers where 3D object would appear, 360° environments, and even creating their own augmented experience.

I enjoyed watching educators walk around the room as they were emerged in a 360° environment from AugThat. One educator's 360° environment had a cave and she tried so hard to enter the cave.  We talked about ways these mind blowing triggers could be used in education from setting the stage for a lesson to talking about a settings for a creative writing assignment.  These triggers can even be used for descriptive writing, comparing ecosystems, and the start of a research project.  Augmented reality is a powerful learning tool. You can almost anything into an augmented trigger and you can add almost anything as the augmented reality experience.  I shared ways I am creating augmented experiences with my students.

When I wasn't presenting I attended a few of the sessions.  I learned about Doctopus and Goobric as well as a few online tools I hadn't tried before.  When I first tried Doctopus was a year or so back and it wasn't very user-friendly so I moved on.  I am glad I sat in on this session with Ginger Lewman as she shared how to use these tools in your classroom.  The developers have made changes and it is so much more user-friendly.  I plan on trying this tool again when I teach spreadsheets.

Dr. James Beeghley was the keynote speaker this year.  I really liked his message for us not just our students to "Think Differently".  We truly need to think differently, how we see the world today will not be how our kids see the world in 10, 15, 20 years from now. 

If you missed my session or any session and you want the handouts MACE does archive them and you can download them off their website or you can access them from the app.

Resources:

• My Augmented Resource Page
• The AR IDEA Board
• MACE's Handout Page
• AugThat's Demo Page