# A Review on Augmented Reality in Education and Geography: State of the Art and Perspectives
## 4 Augmented Reality in Geographical Education  
One of the most important subdomains in the educational field in which the AR applications can help the students to learn better and in a more practical way, is the geographical education [24]. Geographical education is defined as the process of learning the geography subject in a formal way, through school, high school, or college, or in an informal way, through home schooling, family, or society [25]. The geography topic refers to the study of the lands, the features of the Earth, and the way in which the components of the Earth interact with each other. In the formal way of education, the students who are in primary school learn about introductory notions related to simple orientation and localization, maps, waters and terrains, and how to protect nature. Then, in middle school, the students learn about the movements of the Earth's crust, the internal and external structure of the Earth, oceans and seas, and economic geography. Finally, in the high school part, the students learn about the detailed structure of the Earth, how the population is spread around the globe, global problems, and the detailed geography of the world's economy. For all these topics related to geographical education, the AR applications can come in handy and can help the students and the teachers in their development. [PERSON] [26] proposed an experiment in which some students learned about animals and plants and their location on the globe in the traditional manner (control group) and some of them used an AR application called ARETE (experimental group). The students were given an initial test, such that a reference point could be set. Then, after both groups learned the topic in their given way, another test was issued. The results showed that both groups achieved higher grades than the initial test, but the experimental group achieved even higher grades compared to the control group. Moreover, the test concluded that the students who used the ARETE AR application learnt and retained the information more easily and held the attention of the students for a longer period of time. Unfortunately, there were also some disadvantages raised by the students, such as a slow internet connection and difficulties in understanding the topic presented. Another study [27] proved the advantages of using AR applications in geographical education. In the research, the author involved 24 participants, students, who were divided into six groups of four students. Each of the groups had to complete an initial test about their experience, and then they had to use the FingerTrip application, an AR game composed of robots and tangible maps, to complete some given tasks. After each group completed their tasks, the students received another test to record their experience. The test contained 25 questions that needed to be graded with maximum 7 points: the ease of use of the system (3 questions), the autotelic experience (3 questions), the perceived language (3 questions), the user focus (3 questions), the learning environment for practicing educational robotics (3 questions), pragmatic quality (4 questions), Hedonic Quality-Stimulation (3 questions), Hedonic Quality-Identity (3 questions). The author presents the results of the tests before and after using the AR application, as seen in Table 1, showing that using the AR application improved the learning outcomes in the geographical domain. Moreover, the students claimed that the use of the AR application helped them understand the details of the geomorphology topic better and more easily and to relate better to different geographical positions. Another advantage that can be formulated in favor of using AR applications in geographical education is that the users can interact through different types of applications and devices with simulated 3D models of environments and terrains, real or fictional. The students can use these models to observe changes to the topographical map and environment, if some transformations in the simulated terrain occur.