The advance of technology and the social distancing requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic have created a boom in the growth of online education this year. A quickly expanding population of online learners has also raised the bar for service providers. While online classes are criticized for lack of interaction and the chemistry of a real classroom, AR technology has provided a possible solution. AR, or Augmented Reality, is an enhanced version of reality created by the use of technology to overlay digital information on images. The submerging experience of watching AR images can help learners live through the classroom with more concentration, and interact with teachers more naturally. The coming of the 5G era will make AR contents even more accessible with better and higher-speed information transmission. Faced with abstract concepts and numbers, children sometimes find it difficult to concentrate in classrooms. Here we introduce to you some AR learning products designed by researchers both home and abroad and proven useful by many. Math Alive is a supplemental mathematics kit that uses AR (3-D without glasses) and gaming technology to teach basic math concepts to early learners. Neobear, developed by a group of domestic researchers, is a comprehensive learning kit targeting children under 6. It teaches them numbers, the alphabet and colors through AR and gaming. Xunfei VR, a Beijing-based technology company, has developed an AR learning product that offers a lot of interaction in physics, chemistry and biology classes by letting students do experiments virtually. Designed by Daqri, the Elements 4-D app enables you to interact with 36 amazing, naturally-occurring elements and learn their names, what they look like, and their atomic weights. Chemistry teachers and students would love this app by Daqri. In addition to the free app, their site also provides free lesson plans for teachers of elementary, middle school and high school students. For those learning biology and medicine, there is Corinth Micro Anatomy, an AR app that teaches about the human body. For example, students can watch a 3-D model of the heart and learn via animation how the cardiac system works. Apart from academic learning, AR systems can also help disabled children to play and exercise. Take iGYM for example, a system developed by researchers at the University of Michigan. It is designed for school and community-based sport and recreation facilities seeking to provide novel and accessible ways for people with different levels of mobility to play and exercise together. Research revealed that AR can also be used to help autistic patients to interpret other people’s facial expressions and therefore enhance their social skills. In India, educators have created an AR textbook to help children with learning difficulties. However, there is also concern about the negative impacts of this technology on the eyesight of children, who are already having more screen time than is recommended. Educators remind people that although AR can help achieve better learning results, the key of learning is cultivating in children the interest in knowledge and the ability to learn, whose success still depends on a good human teacher. (Li Dan) | 