Primary speaker:
Vasuki Shanmuganathan, PhD, Arts Management
Additional speakers:
Katarzyna Peric, Faculty Lead, Department of French
Akshat Mishra, Senior Manager Information Security, UTM I&ITS
Description:
Our pilot project “Experiments in Collaboration & Learning through Intelligence-Powered Storytelling Environments” (ECLIPSE) is funded by the Experiential Learning Fund (University of Toronto) and seeks to test innovative approaches to learning that motivate students through creative experimentation with augmented reality (AR) technology, to inspire contributions towards connected and collective knowledge building on campus and beyond, and to encourage participatory and applied knowledge acquisition.
Our research is ongoing since Summer 2025 and we are testing our research inquiry in March 2026 in a French language class with up to 20 students. We will be sharing the results of this work at this presentation. For this session, we want to challenge what is identified as a ‘distraction’ in our classrooms and illustrate potentially new ways to focus student attention by utilizing emergent technology. We will reflect based on classroom-based evidence, what worked well and where issues arise: specifically, how the use of AR requires greater understanding of accessibility, learning approaches and evaluation practices.
Our area of focus is innovative learning practices using technology (Augmented Reality) and especially for language acquisition. Rather than see increased reliance on technology as a hindrance to learning in the classroom, we wanted to explore emergent technologies as a gateway to enhanced learning. AR will play an increasing role in the coming years with several sectors (education, retail, healthcare) integrating its presence into user-oriented applications on our phones, glasses and other surfaces. We wanted to test out if the use of AR could lead to greater student engagement and if students were more likely to tackle challenging tasks if they were conveyed through AR rather than a paper-based task.
