Bridging Children’s Reading with an Augmented Reality Story Library

Abstract

AbstractIn educational settings, physical objects or artwork are commonly used to convey meanings. These designs can be enhanced in ways which provide dynamic information overlay and context for children’s stories, such as how augmented reality technology (AR) uses created overlay digital information on the realistic object for enhancing interactions in learning and reading. The recent advancements in mobile AR have attracted a great deal of attention in the area of children’s learning and reading. In this context, a mobile AR story library (containing 228 picture books created by young artists from secondary schools) was developed for children’s reading. An AR platform (Hp Reveal) was used with Drupal for the management of story video clips, with children invited to immerse themselves in the artwork and stories in the library. Specific research questions were raised in this study: (1) how did teachers and the library implement the AR stories for children’s reading and (2) how did children react to AR reading? Observations and questionnaires were used to gather research data, while themes for scaffolding children’s reading in the mobile AR reading environment are summarized. It was observed that adults learned to use the AR mobile application and set up physical reading spaces (the library and classrooms) for children. When children were reading with AR, adults provided guidance and support for scaffolding children’s reading processes. The children were positive about the use of tablet with AR for reading stories and enjoyed reading the story content triggered by the AR technology.