The JSET-AECT 2018 Summer International Research Symposium, to be held on September 7–9, 2018 at the Future University Hakodate and Takuboku-Tei, aims to advance the work of researchers who are actively involved in the field of educational technology. It will bring together experienced and young researchers in this field to exchange and share their research results and engage in a lively discussion on issues related to their research topics.
At this symposium, the keynote speakers will introduce approaches to the design of learning environments in order to describe the factors in building a learning community and in cultivating their community of practice. These approaches can also be applied effectively to schools and local communities in order to identify the current issues and problems. For example, one approach, in particular, emphasizes the pedagogical concepts of “collaborative meta-learning” and “social motivation.”
During the symposium, Eric Cesar E. Vidal, Jr., ALLS Researcher and Ph.D. Student, will be presenting on his project entitled, Mobile Augmented-Reality Game Engine for Instructional Support.
MAGIS (Mobile Augmented-Reality Game Engine for Instructional Support) is an engine for producing location-based augmented-reality (AR) educational games using a smartphone or tablet. Augmented Reality refers to real-time superimposition of virtual objects on the real world (Azuma, 1997), such as through a smartphone camera feed augmented with 3-D graphics on the smartphone’s screen. Location-Based AR additionally considers the user’s real-world location (Reitmayr & Schmalstieg, 2003), i.e., using the smartphone’s GPS. Location-Based AR offers a new form of learning environment where learners physically travel to locations relevant to the learning content, such as historical monuments or museum exhibits. MAGIS facilitates the development of location-based AR educational content, using a narrative-based adventure game format (Neitzel, 2005).
MAGIS has been used in two released games, Igpaw: Intramuros (Rodrigo, Caluya, Diy, & Vidal, 2015) and Igpaw: Loyola (Vidal et al., 2018 {to be published}). MAGIS’s technical framework is composed of a game scripting language, a mapping subsystem to facilitate user location tracking, a device-sensor-based AR tracking module, and an analytics subsystem capable of monitoring users’ learning progress (Vidal, Ty, Caluya, & Rodrigo, 2016). These modules are coupled with Vuforia’s vision-based AR library and the Unity game engine.
MAGIS is currently being upgraded to support newer AR technologies such as Google ARCore and Apple ARKit, as well as integrating Hand Gesture Recognition as a novel way of interacting with AR. Usability studies are being performed on MAGIS-powered games (e.g., Rodrigo, Vidal, Caluya, Agapito, & Diy, 2016) to measure their impact on student learning and engagement.
