Looking Back and Ahead

Looking Back

Overall, I really enjoyed carrying out my action research project. The purpose of this research was to determine if students came away with a deeper understanding of mathematical concepts when presented the content with Augmented Reality (AR) compared to direct instruction. I was also looking to see if students who used AR (the experimental group) in a Geometry unit reported being more engaged than students who did not use AR (the control group). The process of this action research project has been very interesting to me and it's been fun to integrate HP Reveal in my classroom in a variety of ways. Ultimately, I believe students also enjoyed participating in the Geometry lessons. Although not all of them found HP Reveal to be their favorite application, I noticed their eyes lit up the first time an Aura popped out at them -Take a look! If I do this research process over again I would make some changes...of course!

Things I Would Do Differently

1. Novel things excite students: the first day we used HP Reveal, the students had a blast. The looks on their faces were priceless when shapes and videos popped off their iPad screens out at them. As the unit progressed, I noticed that each day the app was used, students became less and less excited to use it. HP reveal really lost its "wow" factor. Partially, it is because they knew what to expect and, as a result, were no longer excited to use it. Larry Cuban, a Stanford Professor agrees; he was quoted in the NY Times saying, “It’s true that there is often an initial uptick in students’ engagement with their studies — interactive apps can be fun. But the novelty wears off…” The other part of the problem stemmed from the way we were using the app, which was mainly to check answers and get assistance when needed. I could have done a better job at varying the way the app was used, which I discuss below. In hindsight, pigeon-holing myself to use the HP Reveal for multiple days in a row was a poor idea. Technology and applications should be used when needed to enhance your lesson, to engage students, and to help students meet their objectives. It should not be something you use just to use, or something that should be mandated for daily use. Andrew Marcinek shares a similar belief on in this Edutopia post.

2. Students made it very clear to in the feedback that they did not enjoy scanning HP Reveal tags from the iPads of their teammates. Typically, I used a worksheet as a tag or handed them a sheet of paper with tags on the paper. Occasionally, (maybe 2-3 times) I tagged pictures that were included on their GoFormative. This required one student to pull up the picture and the other student to scan the picture on their device for the Aura to appear. Perhaps the students don’t like to share, or maybe it was tough for them to see the Aura with their neighbor. When using this app in the future, I will make sure they have something physical to scan.

3. Looking ahead, I absolutely will use HP Reveal again in the future, but I will try to integrate it in the classroom in different ways. My students used HP Reveal to check answers to problems and to get assistance (hints or partial work to get them started) on problems when needed. There were often times that students who perform at a lower level used this tool as a "crutch," which limited the Geometry content they retained along with their conceptual understanding. On the other hand, students that used it correctly did benefit. This is a solid way to use this AR app, but after five consecutive days with the same format of use, it loses its pizazz. Another way I could have used the app differently would be to use it for error analysis. All I would need to do is have an Aura of an incorrect problem, where the intention would be for the student to identify the mistake. I could also show two different solutions to problems and then have the students explain which one is correct. Additionally, a scavenger hunt using HP Reveal would be awesome, but time consuming to make (I typically use Goosechase for scavenger hunts). Using HP Reveal to create a word wall would have been interesting as well! The only drawback with that would be lots of Aura making and more tagging for me to do...

4. Instead of students following my HP Reveal account and scanning things I tagged, I should have made a class account! What’s the difference? By doing this, my entire class could have contributed tags and Auras that we all could have scanned and used. Previously mentioned, my word-wall idea would be much easier to create if sets of vocabulary words were delegated to groups of students. It wouldn’t be very difficult to have a student-created HP Reveal Vocabulary wall. I am curious to see how creative students would be when creating their tags and auras. It is quite possible that they find newer better ways to use the app than I did.

Looking Ahead

We are going to give HP Reveal another go after PSSA testing concludes. As mentioned, I would really like my class to set up an interactive word wall. I am curious to see how creative they can get with the material. Students were initially "wow-ed" by this new tech tool, but it lost its buzz with overuse in such a short period of time. I am curious how the survey results and interactions with the app would have changed if my control group and experimental groups were swapped. However, I don’t think I will ever know.

"Can Students Have Too Much Tech?" by Josh Freydkis is licensed under CC BY 2.0

"Math Vocab Word Wall" By Katie Kim is licensed under CC BY 2.0