Experience of the Center for Innovation in Education engaging college professors in the use of new technologies : the "Virtual and Augmented Reality Showroom" project

This paper describes the “Showroom of Virtual and Augmented Reality” project developed by the Center for Innovation in Education at Universidad Panamericana during the spring of 2019. The purpose of this project is to engage professors in the use of new technologies in the classroom. The recent development of instructional models based on simulation has helped education to introduce new tools and develop new teaching methodologies to enhance learning. A study about integrating augmented reality in the classroom suggests that the methodology can foster novelty towards learning and can improve interaction with learning through the establishment of spatial concepts (Mark, Graham and Barbara, 2004). Similarly, research has shown that Augmented and Virtual Reality (VAR) can improve motivation and concentration of students in order to obtain better learning effects ( Yeh, 2004, Chen, Wu, & Zhung, 2006; Yen, Tsai & Wu, 2013). Even though ed-tech experts predict an acceleration of activity including virtual reality in classes, they caution the need of sound pedagogical foundations (McMurtrie, 2019). ©2019 IATED Academy