Berlin (GER), November 2013 - Mar Pérez Sanagustín, along with Alejandro Martínez and Carlos Delgado Kloos, recently won the prize for the best demo at the European Conference on Technology-Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL) for their project, "etiquetAR: Tagging Learning Experiences". etiquetAR offers an innovative way to extend and enhance learning environments and was developed in collaboration with researchers, developers, and students of the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. The project will be demonstrated at ONLINE EDUCA BERLIN, which will take place in Berlin 04 - 06 December 2013.
What does etiquetAR involve?
etiquetAR is an authoring tool to support the design of situated learning experiences based on intelligent QR codes. These intelligent QR codes add new properties to traditional ones, extending their interaction opportunities.
First, QR codes generated with etiquetAR can link to more than one resource. This property allows for the creation of adaptive learning activities, providing information personalised according to student profiles.
Moreover, etiquetAR codes can be updated whenever needed without reprinting since the code always remains the same. The ability to easily change the content in the tags supports dynamic learning activities. In addition, etiquetAR tags can be commented so that any user scanning the code can add ideas or suggestions to resources.
etiquetAR is based on the idea that digital tags such as QR codes, when attached to a particular object or location, add a layer of digital information that extends its properties. Objects and locations become interactive means through which learners, using mobile devices, gain knowledge about their environment. etiquetAR QR codes support learners in gaining knowledge about a particular object or location, contributing to this knowledge with their comments, and sharing messages with others to construct and transform their learning environments.
With etiquetAR anyone can transform any venue into an interactive learning space for people to actively reflect, explore, and collaborate.
What benefits does it bring to education?
One of the problems in education is that adopting ICT to change learning practices is not easy. Even when an educational institution wants to innovate, it is usually difficult to discover easy-to use learning tools that can be quickly adopted in real contexts.
etiquetAR’s strongest characteristics are its simplicity and its adaptability. Users, regardless of their technological literacy skills, can create, manage, and personalise their own collections of tags to conduct innovative and interactive situated learning experiences anywhere indoors and outdoors.
etiquetAR offers new possibilities to extend the boundaries of the classroom or of educational institutions such as museums. The aim is to encourage practitioners and educational professionals to go beyond the walls of the classroom and to equip them with a simple and cheap way to create their own tag-based learning experiences anywhere.
