Proceedings (Nov 2019)

Enhancing the Children’s Learning Experience of Mexican Traditions through Augmented Reality

  • Marcela D. Rodríguez,
  • Katherine Caillahua-Castillo,
  • Hector R. Delgado-Valenzuela,
  • Yue H. Zhou,
  • Ángel G. Andrade

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/proceedings2019031016
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 31, no. 1
p. 16

Abstract

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During the “Day of the Dead” celebration in México, altars are installed to commemorate the dead in different places, such as schools’ libraries. To preserve this cultural tradition, students visit them to know about the meaning of the altars’ elements. In a similar way to museums, children can perceive altars as boring places where they should see objects passively or listen to historical accounts of the past. To address these challenges, we propose using augmented reality to make this cultural tradition a more engaging learning experience. We implemented an augmented reality (AR) prototype which recognizes the altar’s elements/objects to present narrative information through video, text, and images. We evaluated it through a within-subjects experiment to test two conditions: (A) A teacher explaining the altar (the usual method), and (B) Using the AR application. For collecting data, we used the User Engagement Scale (UES), a questionnaire to assess children’s perception about the learning experience, and observations. From twenty-nine students, only nine perceived that condition A was more engaging than B (augmenting reality). A Wilcoxon Signed-ranks test indicated a significant difference between both conditions (W = 124.5; Z = −2.012; p < 0.05). Our results helped us identify new design features in order for AR support learning experiences about this tradition, such as including narratives through multimedia.

Keywords