Put yourself in the shoes of a 6 year old. You’ve moved to Norway from the Middle East and your parents both speak Arabic at home. On the other hand, most of your new friends to speak Norwegian, so does your teacher. Going to school is both fun and interesting, but it is becoming increasingly challenging due to a language barrier that leaves you feeling lonely at times.
To build the necessary bridges across cultures, Aschehoug Publishing House has created a series of fairy tales through AR that students can explore together. It is through this technology that students and educators will be able to share the experience of immersive scenes from famous Nordic, Greek and Asian fairy tales coming to life before their eyes, adding a touch of magic within the walls of any ordinary classroom.
The different parts of the fairy tales are animated and designed for children, with subtitles and a companionable voice that appeals to children, one that can speak in 7 different languages. This will allow children to jump between their native language and the language of their friends, whilst exploring the different chapters of the fairy tales together.
The children, parents and teachers can choose to read or listen to their native language or the language they want to learn, or they can even have a combination of both, listening to one language whilst reading another. The fairytales have been translated to Norwegian, English, Arabic, Pashto, Dari, Swahili and Tigrinja.
The AR Fairytales can either be explored in AR books, where the scenes are played on the relevant pages. Another alternative, that doesn’t require textbooks, is to simply place the fairy tales into their surroundings, like this:
The app can be found on app store HERE, and the available fairytales in the app include:
The goal of creating this app has been to help to spark curiosity for different cultures, and include learners with minority backgrounds. According to the publisher, it's been an exciting project where the editorial team has learned a lot in the process.
"It is particularly motivating to see how AR can help to engage students and increase their interest in reading" says Liza Antufyeva from Aschehoug Publishing House
Thor Walter Kristensen, Head of Primary Education at Aschehoug Publishing House adds that
"Many children from minority cultures struggle with deeper understanding of concepts in the majority language. Unfortunately, their needs have often been overlooked or met with educational materials below the standards of the rest of the class. I’m so happy to be a part of a project that uses cutting edge technology to meet some of their needs in a fun and engaging way."
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If you would be interested in knowing more about what it takes to bring your textbooks to life in augmented reality, please contact our co-founder and CMO Ingrid F. Skrede at ingrid@ludenso.com
