Special Issue on Mobile AR & VR: Integrating SOTEL in Learning Design

Abstract

This special issue of AJET explores the critical educational use of the recently popularized technologies of mobile augmented reality (AR) and mobile virtual reality (VR). The advent of Pokemon Go brought the world’s awareness of mobile AR to a brief climax, and the hype surrounding the rise of affordable virtual reality technologies has been driven by social media giants Google and Facebook, and subsequent uptake by the main smartphone manufacturers. With the ubiquity of smartphone ownership among our students this presents a unique opportunity to explore the educational impact of these symbiotic technologies and their emergent ecosystems. While it is early days for research in these domains, we were interested in exploring beyond the technological hype to finding examples of integrating these technologies within learning designs that scaffold learner-generated content and contexts based upon a solid foundation of the scholarship of technology enhanced learning. The six articles in this special issue give us insights into these critical issues.