A recently-launched augmented reality app for Grade 10, 11 and 12 textbooks enables learners to interact with their textbooks.
The LivingPages app was launched by Via Afrika Future, a division of Via Afrika Publishers.
The LivingPages app works by enabling certain pages of Via Afrika textbooks to come alive by enhancing printed words with digital content that can be streamed directly to a mobile device.
Augmented reality makes this possible and helps the learner to see and hear additional content related to the pages.
Using this app, learners will be able to watch experiments, explore photos of world destinations, see problems being solved, enjoy poetry being read to them and a host of other fun functions.
LivingPages is available for Android and iOS devices and can be used with English, Afrikaans and eight African language Via Afrika textbooks.
Micheal Goodman, group publishing manager for Via Afrika, says: “With this app, we were looking to develop a more engaging and meaningful learning experience. By using the highly interactive augmented reality technology, this app creates a mind-stimulating experience for learners in a digital language which for them is a primary tool to interact with the world.”
Goodman cites a report on Forbes.com which states that, by 2015, mobile app development projects will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of four to one.
“Technology has changed not only what we learn, but also how we learn and work. While augmenting the learning experience, the LivingPages app which Via Afrika has created also assists in ensuring that learners are equipped to handle a digital world,” Goodman concludes.