Using Aurasma to Create Book Reviews

This week I've been experimenting with the augmented reality app Aurasma on our iPad, to visit their web site click here.

I wanted the Year 8 students I was working with to create book reviews using the app, this was a challenge because I've never used it before in a class and we only had an hour to do it in.

I split the class into 5 groups, each group had 5 or 6 members. Their first task was to choose a book they wanted to review.

Next, they were asked to write a 30 second book review and to choose two or more students to deliver the review. Another student from each group was chosen to be the videographer.

I was very happy to see how hard they worked to write their reviews after finding out that they'd be playing with the iPad!

 

 

Once they were finished their review, I took each group, one a time, out in the hall to tape their review. I found that doing a 30 second-ish review worked best and the students seemed happy with what they had created.

 

 

I wanted this to be as student-led as possible so I created a sheet on how to get started with Aurasma on an iPad for each group.

 

 

I have included it below, if you click "pop out" on the top right corner it will convert it into a printable PDF.





Once the students had completed their reviews, we took a photo of the book within the Aurasma app.

From there we simply re-opened the app and hovered the camera over the book. Once the app recognised the cover of the book, the video launched.

I wish I had video of the reaction of the students as their English teacher held the book up and they saw through the iPad a video of themselves reviewing that book. There was an audible gasp from the crowd.

Overall I think this app worked very well and was easy to use, I needed more iPads to make the lesson flow better but I think it was a great way to have students interact with their favourite books in a very unique way,