Augmented Reality, Digital Technologies, Pre-primary Education

Today, digital technologies, and mobile technologies in particular, are already part of the everyday life of children even at the preschool age. Joanne G. Sujansky and Jan Ferri-Reed (2009) in their book Keeping the Millennials claim that today’s young people are continuously multitasking for example, working on a laptop while also watching TV, listening to their iPod, and chat or sms at the same time. Therefore, even in pre-primary education, it is important for educators to explore the uses and opportunities of smartphones and other technologies. Among the currently developing mobile technologies are virtual and augmented realities and their uses in various areas of life. The aim of this chapter is to discuss the possibilities of using mobile apps with augmented reality in pre-primary education. We will introduce some of the most popular and widely used applications with examples of uses in kindergarten. We can use the camera of mobile phones or tablets to explore 3D objects. These applications offer an immersive experience and edutainment. AR technology in education is developing rapidly and we think that the alpha generation classrooms could be enhanced and transformed by this technology.