David Pérez-López

Collaborative Development of an Augmented Reality Application for Digestive and Circulatory Systems Teaching

Augmented Reality (AR) appears as a promising technology to improve students motivation and interest and support the learning and teaching process in educational contexts. We present the collaborative development of an AR application to support the teaching of the digestive and circulatory systems. We developed this system with the support of a private Spanish school. The main objective of the application is to show the student in primary school, in the most accurate way, digestive and circulatory systems. By other hand, we also develop our own AR library, HUMANAR, in order to ensure the integration of AR into our game engine and to overcome some drawbacks present in some public libraries. Moreover, our system provides several advantages over the traditional learning as books, videos or practice with animal organs.

An Experience on Natural Sciences Augmented Reality Contents for Preschoolers

Early education is a key element for the future success of students in the education system. This work analyzes the feasibility of using augmented reality contents with preschool students (four and five years old) as a tool for improving their learning process. A quasi experimental design based on a nonequivalent groups posttest-only design was used. A didactic unit has been developed around the topic “animals” by the participant teachers. The control group followed all the didactic activities defined in the developed didactic materials, while the experimental group was provided in addition with some augmented reality contents. Results show improved learning outcomes in the experimental group with respect to the control group.

A VR-Based Serious Game for Studying Emotional Regulation in Adolescents

People all use more or less adapted strategies to confront adverse emotional situations in their lives without being psychologically affected. The emotional regulation (ER) strategies that we use determine the way in which we feel, express, and behave. Moreover, ER strategies are particularly important in adolescents, a population for which ER strategy deficits can be linked to the appearance of numerous mental health disorders, such as depression or anxiety, or disruptive behaviors. Thus, the early detection of dysfunctional ER strategies and training in adaptive ER strategies can help prevent future occurrences of possible behavioral and psychosocial disorders. In this article, the authors present the GameTeen System (GT-System), a novel instrument based on virtual reality and serious games for the assessment and training of ER strategies in adolescents. The results of their preliminary evaluation suggest that this system can effectively train and evaluate emotional regulation strategies in adolescents.

Study on Parent's Acceptance of the Augmented Reality Use for Preschool Education

Abstract Parental influence on childrens development is commonly accepted as essential, while the way how parents affect preschool students’ information and communication technology (ICT) use at school needs a further exploration. This exploratory study is aimed to contribute to a better understanding of parental influence on childrens Augmented Reality (AR) use at preschool education by analyzing interview data collected from parents whose children have worked at school with both; AR didactical resources and traditional didactical resources. The study identified and organized parent’ perspective into five components: motivation, knowledge, reading and writing, creativity and degree of satisfaction. The relationships among these components were often complex with intriguing similarities and differences among the participants. According to parents, the findings suggest that there are a lot of benefits in using a technological competitive tool based on AR: the integration of several components in order to achieve a common goal, the possibility of managing the execution of the exercises in several contexts, or the system availability.

Supporting Learning with 3D Interactive Applications in Early Years

Early years education is an key element for the introduction of children in the education system. In order to improve this process, the aim of this study was to explore how guided interaction with 3D apps can fit into a preschool setting, how it can help children learn through playing and how it can improve their learning outcomes. A study was conducted with six classes of 87 students aged between 3 years to 6 years, over a 12-week period. Children used 10 inch Android tablets with a series of apps developed by our research team, about houses of the world, the skeleton & five senses and, animals. A quasi-experimental design based on a nonequivalent groups pretest and posttest design revealed that an active behavior and better learning outcomes are obtained by children participating in the experimental group.

3D Interactive Applications on Tablets for Preschoolers: Exploring the Human Skeleton and the Senses

Early years education is an important aspect for the future success of children in the education system. From this perspective, this paper describes the results of a study with preschool children using an interactive learning application on tablets. The project is arranged according to a three-phase process to promote the development of: 1 emergent literacy, 2 digital access for early years learners and 3 basic concepts in knowledge of the environment. The study was conducted with six classes of 87 students aged between 3 years to 6 years, over a 6-week period. During this period, the students were introduced to and engaged in the knowledge of the human skeleton and five senses by using a 3D interactive application on tablets. The quasi-experimental design was based on a nonequivalent groups pretest and posttest design. The interactive learning application was designed around three distinct interaction modes: presentation, exploration, manipulation and evaluation. These phases provided scaffolding for the students to engage with the technology and for the class teacher to develop her own skills. The results on the normalization tests for both control/experimental groups before the experiment were similar. The results after the experiment indicate that students who worked with tablets showed a slight improvement in results of learning outcomes.