Education is still in the analogue age and the way we teach kids today is not relevant to their tomorrow. We need to move forward. Imagine, looking through a tablet device, when an animated representation appears over the real world setting in front of the students, allowing them to grasp a concept that can’t be seen with the naked eye, heard, touched or smelled. It will be enthralling to see a plant grow from a seed, explore global weather, swim with aquatic fauna, excavate an artifact, gaze at battles, visit monuments, brainstorm through 3D molecules, learn trajectories and facts. A smart phone/ tablet hovering over traditional book would make the whole universe explode outwards. The solar system that keeps expanding as the child identifies a planet which takes them to a distant star somewhere in the Milky Way. Learning just became so much cooler.
Back to reality. Seeing our kids having the same education system as it was 40, 50 years ago Darya Yegorina, Co-Founder and CEO of Cleverbooks decided to change the foundations of education, irreversibly modernizing it in ways we don’t yet fully understand. “Also, think of Augmented Reality as a portable digital education tool. It is like carrying virtual laboratory or zoo right in your pocket, including a travel ticket to worldwide trips", says Darya. Possibilities for augmented reality in classrooms are endless.
Founded in 2016. The Dublin-based Cleverbooks platform brings a transformational AR learning tool to classrooms. AR for good! AR, in various ways, could grant students extra digital information about any subject, and make complex information easier to understand. It also facilitates visual perception of material and improves learning with the help of key modalities i.e. seeing, hearing and doing. The technology eases the ability to teach and do experiments that otherwise would not be possible in real life and increases students’ participation in the class lessons through a fun, interactive and engaging learning environment. However, it is not enough to simply add technology to existing teaching methods. Technology must be used strategically to benefit students with quality digital content backed by strong academic relevance. This helps students develop necessary skills required for the 21st-century workforce. Cleverbooks with its ability to connect reality and digital content is steadily improving, is opening more options for teachers, students and is driving a digital revolution in every classroom around the world. “The 20th-century education system needs to be redesigned to meet the real-time needs of the labor market,” adds Dyara. “We need to develop 21st-century skills, as well as digital literacy, re-skilling and up-skilling programs and using big data to provide accurate information on educational skills. We need to get ready for these jobs and only access to technology will allow that.”