Atlanta Kindergarten Tries Augmented Reality for Reading, Math

  • By Dian Schaffhauser
  • 04/19/16

An Atlanta school has adopted augmented reality in its kindergarten classes. Birney Elementary will be teaching with a reading and math curriculum from Alive Studios that uses cards with letters and numbers that "come to life" in 3D form on a computer screen when placed in a particular position on a board.

Augmented reality takes real life — in this case, the cards — and augments it. The reading portion of the program, "Learning alive," for example, uses 26 animated 3D animals, each representing a letter of the alphabet, to teach to Common Core learning standards. The kit, which comes in multiple configurations with or without hardware, includes curriculum for a full school year.

"The kids love, love, love all the features — and so do the teachers!" said kindergarten teacher Christy Hackney in a press release. "Teaching sight words with this program is super easy, and the kids don't even realize how much they're learning!"

Other schools that have worked with the Alive Studios products include J.E. Moss Elementary School in Antioch, TN; Lorena Falasco Elementary School in Los Banos, CA; and Audubon Park Elementary School in Orange County, FL.

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

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