Augmented reality (AR) has recently received a lot of attention in education. Multiple AR systems for learning have been developed and tested through empirical studies often conducted in lab settings. While lab studies can be insightful, they leave out the complexity of a classroom environment. We developed three AR learning environments that have been used in genuine classroom contexts, some of them being now part of classroom regular practices. These systems and the learning activities they provide have been co-designed with teachers, for their own classrooms, through multiple cycles of prototyping and testing. We present here the features that emerged from these co-design cycles and abstract them into design principles.

Abstract. Paper interfaces offer tremendous possibilities for geometry education in primary schools. Existing computer interfaces designed to learn geometry do not consider the integration of conventional school tools, which form the part of the curriculum. Moreover, most of computer tools are designed specifically for individual learning, some propose group activities, but most disregard classroom-level learning, thus impeding their adoption. We present an augmented reality based tabletop system with interface elements made of paper that addresses these issues. It integrates conventional geometry tools seamlessly into the activity and it enables group and classroom-level learning. In order to evaluate our system, we conducted an exploratory user study based on three learning activities: classifying quadrilaterals, discovering the protractor and describing angles. We observed how paper interfaces can be easily adopted into the traditional classroom practices.

Designing computer systems for educational purpose is a difficult task. While many of them have been developed in the past, their use in classrooms is still scarce. We make the hypothesis that this is because those systems take into account the needs of individuals and groups, but ignore the requirements inherent in their use in a classroom. In this work, we present a computer system based on a paper and tangible interface that can be used at all three levels of interaction: individual, group, and classroom. We describe the current state of the interface design and why it is appropriate for classroom orchestration, both theoretically and through two examples for teaching geometry.

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