Augmented Reality in Anatomy 12
ARLOON ANATOMY
Arloon Anatomy uses 3D modeling and AR to engage students learning about the major body systems, including:
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Respiratory
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Circulatory
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Digestive
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Nervous
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Skeletal
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Muscular
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Reproductive
The systems highlighted above are directly related to outcomes of the new BC Science 12 Anatomy and Physiology curriculum (Province of British Columbia, 2018). The app offers highly visual and interactive overviews of each system, and provides quizzes that students can use to test their knowledge. The depth that the app delves into each system, however, is limited in details and scope.
Target Audience & Tech Savviness
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Arloon Anatomy is a very easy-to-use app with an intuitive user interface (UI) that guides users through each body system using. A teacher with little to no experience in AR could easily use this application. Similarly, students would be able to easily pick up this application in a classroom and interact with the AR component.
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Commonsense Education suggests that this application can be used for grades 5-12 (Pohlonski, 2015). In our experience, it is probably too simplistic to be used for any significant lesson in a grade 12 high school class; the application would be best used for introducing either a body system or for introducing AR into the classroom and getting students familiar with how it works.
How to Use the App
The AR component of the application can be invoked via two ways:
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Downloading and printing the Arloon Augmented Reality card, or
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Finding a flat surface with a detailed pattern or photo on it, and using it as the background
Once the background photo has been selected, and placed in front of the camera on the device, an AR version of the body system that is currently being viewed on the application is presented. The following short video illustrates how easy this is to do (note: it also highlights how AR works on Arloon’s math app):
Unique Features
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Using the AR feature of the app is a fun and interactive experience, albeit the content within the application is not very advanced. Students can engage with the body system they are studying by moving around it and seeing it in many different angles, and click on any part of the system to pull up facts and information on that component. After interacting with the AR portion of the app, students can then test their knowledge by completing a short quiz.
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Although not AR specific, the “guided tours” functionality on this app provides an interesting way to view each system and is worth highlighting. Each body system has a 3D “guided tour” through each body system - so for example, as the following image illustrates, you can tour through the respiratory system as if you were actually air traveling through the passageways to the lungs.
Image Source: (Pohlonski, 2015)
Challenges & Limitations
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Although the AR technology is an interesting feature, the content in this app is lacking, and without the content, the app falls down as a truly enriching tool. The systems included in the app are not explored in great depth, making the app unusable for exploring advanced anatomical concepts that are part of the grade 12 curriculum. As Mishra & Koehler’s (2006) Technology, Pedagogy, Content, and Knowledge (TPACK) model emphasizes: “content (what you teach) and pedagogy (how you teach) must be the basis for any technology that you plan to use in your classroom to enhance learning” (Soni, Brower, Horne, Morrow, Walbert, & Williams, N.D). Without having sufficient content behind the technology, the knowledge acquired through interacting with the application is limited.
Image Source: H. L., 2017
If we use Dr. Puentedura’s SAMR model (H. L., 2017) to analyze the level of influence that an app with AR functionality has on curriculum delivery in the classroom - the Arloon Anatomy app would at best augment an anatomy lesson with its ability to present systems in a 3D format. While it is an interesting app, it does not really change how the anatomical content is delivered in a class. Specifically, the AR functionality is more of a technology add-on that does not extend the learning experience beyond what is available on the other areas of the app. The “cool” factor is short-lived for a high school student.