UMARG project delivers augmented reality games

Thirty-two schoolteachers and researchers from Greece, Cyprus, Romania and the Netherlands participated at the UMARG project’s Learning Teaching and Training Activity, organized by the University of Groningen, between April 19-23.

The purpose of this two-day professional training was to support teachers and researchers in developing knowledge and skills needed for the design and implementation of curriculum materials that incorporate mobile augmented reality games (MARG) and address the Sustainable Development Goals. The Sustainable Development Goals were set up in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly and include a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to be a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

The project is now entering its final stage, in which teachers and researchers from each partner country will implement 20 games in local school classrooms. The games were developed by the project’s consortium and target specific civic and digital skills of the students under the general theme of sustainable development education. Alongside the implementation, a research study will be carried out that aims to examine the impact of these innovative curricular on students’ development of skills and competencies related to sustainability.

About UMARG

UMARG is an Erasmus+ funded in the field of Strategic Partnerships for school education that started on December 2019 and will end in November 2021. The project uses augmented reality gaming environments that embed virtual, location-specific and contextual information into a physical site. These games require mobile devices to enable game participants to access this virtual information. Instead of putting people in an artificial world, these games augment the physical world by embedding them with digital data, networking and communication abilities, and enhanced properties providing at the same time in-situ or inquiry-based learning experiences.

More information at the project’s site and Facebook page.