Semiotics, memory and augmented reality: History education with learner‐generated augmentation

Abstract This study describes an approach to history education which leverages augmented reality (AR). Currently, most learning interventions with AR are designed from the paradigm of an expert‐led model of teaching, where the AR artefact is created by a domain expert; under such a paradigm, the learner has limited ownership of the process of artefact production. The project reported in this paper aimed to broaden the application of AR in education, specifically to history education, by exploring the affordances of such technology in mediating student‐led learning activities, using an approach known as learner‐generated augmentation. The current Singapore Secondary History syllabus adopts an inquiry‐based approach. The need to memorize key facts is still an important part in formulating historical arguments. The study involved the design of a learning activity to help students memorize historical information more effectively by building upon the established memory technique of Memory Palace/method of loci. In this activity, students used a free AR mobile application— Just a Line —to sketch out memory palaces of key information from a prose passage. This activity was trialled on student‐teachers who are majoring in History at the National Institute of Education, Singapore. After they had sketched their memory palaces in three dimensions, they were interviewed on their experience. Samples of their learning artefacts (their sketches) and analyses of their comments, are reported. No claim is made with respect to the absolute efficacy of the approach, given the limited number of participants in the study. The intent of this paper is instead to invite exploration and debate around the wider affordances of AR for learning. Practitioner Notes What is already known about this topic So far, initiatives which use augmented reality (AR) in learning have been designed from the paradigm of an expert‐led, rather than student‐centred, model of teaching. The learner‐generated augmentation approach offers a possible way of designing student‐centred learning interventions with AR technology. One of the known challenges of learning history is the accurate recall of historical facts. Memory palace/method of loci is one strategy that can be used to aid memorization, but it suffers from certain limitations. What this paper adds The study described in this paper aims to address the challenges of accurately recalling historical facts, through the use of freely‐available cross‐platform AR software for smartphones. The study takes advantage of the affordances of AR to improve the memory palace/method of loci strategy by providing ways for learners to represent their tacit imaginations of the memory palace more explicitly. Learners can be encouraged to understand that their everyday environments are actually potential contexts for more authentic learning. Implications for practice and/or policy This study demonstrates the possibility of using AR technologies as part of student‐centred learning. This study demonstrates the feasibility of applying the Learner‐Generated Augmentation approach to subject disciplines such as the Social Sciences, which emphasize the socially‐constructed interpretation of events. The study demonstrates the feasibility of using AR technology to build upon the memory palace/method of loci strategy, so that the effectiveness of the latter is less dependent on the abilities of the learner for abstract imagination, thereby making the subject discipline more accessible to a wider cohort of learners. The study suggests that the memory palaces which result from the approach may be used by learners and their peers/teachers as part of Assessment for Learning. As this is the second application of the approach of Learner‐Generated Augmentation to a subject discipline (the original application being in Chemistry) the study suggests that the approach may be translated beyond its original application in the Natural Sciences to the Social Sciences as well.