Young children’s use of an augmented reality sandbox to enhance spatial thinking

ABSTRACT

Augmented reality (AR) technology is being introduced in educational settings for its ability to overlay virtual information onto physical environments. The AR Sandbox is a conventional sandbox with depth coloured representations projected onto the sand’s surface. This research investigates how 4- and 5-year-old Australian children use an AR Sandbox to enhance their spatial thinking through play. Participants were four children, their two educators and the first author as a participant-observer researcher. Data were collected over an 8-week period during 2015 and included observation, child conferencing, photography, educators’ perspectives, and the researcher’s perspectives. Vignettes are presented to demonstrate how children’s spatial thinking was enhanced through exploration and representation in the AR Sandbox. Children’s active and dynamic manipulation of the space of the AR Sandbox, along with a range of socio-cultural contexts and tools, assisted in enhancing their spatial abilities.

KEYWORDS:

• Spatial thinking
• augmented reality sandbox
• young children
• play
• Mosaic approach

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge the school, teachers and children who kindly and enthusiastically participated in this research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Christine Howitt http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7125-9496

Grace Oakley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1177-1738