AUGMENTED REALITY AS A TOOL IN COMPULSORY SECONDARY EDUCATION

This research is in line with the development and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the classroom within the framework of educational innovation, with this being understood to be those tools that foster the dissemination of information in the classroom and its communication through the use of a digital device. There are different methodologies for the application of the ICTs in the classroom, all of them are based on the creation of multimedia texts that pretend to make the explained subject more attractive. Therefore, the explications of many concepts and work patterns could be simplified applying 3D tools, compared with 2D multimedia models and current print media. It is in this context where augmented reality arises as a resource to fill these gaps.

Augmented reality can be defined as the technology that allow incorporating virtual experiences (text, audio, video, multimedia resources, etc.) through a real world object. Thus, it is a tool that allow extending information available in the classroom through virtual resourses using an electronic device (mobile phone, Tablet, laptop, etc.) with a camera and a software able to process and interpret information through activators of augmented reality.

This technology improves not only the level of interactivity of the studied in the classroom texts extending the perspectives of the student, but also fosters the creativity and increase the quality of the online classes obtaining more practical learning through the manipulation of virtual objects. In this way, tedious language that can appear in some subjects can be avoided awakening the interest and motivation of the students. Although it is true that the application of this type of tools has given a good results in primary education, an appropriate organization of the contents can extend its application to other educational stages. On the other side, this working methodology allows increasing and encouraging of collaborative work.

The paper offers an educational experience carried out in the educational center Salesianos Carabanchel with students of the first stages of Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE), applying some of currently existing tools of augmented reality. These tools were used to improve the visualization of determined geometric figures and to involve students in the management of new technologies in subjects of Technology and Robotics and Plastic and Visual Education, describing the functioning and advantages of using this type of applications at a school level and showing the level of acceptance in students who worked with these methodologies.