1. Augmented Reality and Key outcomes of CONTSENS project
from London Metropolitan University
By John Cook
Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning
Learning Technology Research Institute
London Metropolitan University, KR-2-07 Shoreditch Building
35 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch
London E2 8AA
Direct +44 (0)20 7749 3752
Fax +44 (0)20 7749 3781
Email: john.cook@londonmet.ac.uk
Home page: http://staffweb.londonmet.ac.uk/~cookj1/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/johnnigelcook
Slideshare: http://www.slideshare.net/johnnigelcook
Contents
Key success of CONTSENS......................................................................................................1
Augmented Reality (the development of innovation) ...............................................................3
Key success of CONTSENS
The CONTSENS project (www.ericsson.com/contsens) investigated the use of mobile
wireless technologies for context sensitive education and training. The project involves a
European-wide consortium and is funded by the EU Leonardo Lifelong Learning Programme.
Context sensitive education and training refers to training material which is directly relevant
to the training situation. Location based education and training refers to material which is
directly relevant to the location in which the students find themselves.
Collaborative Visualisation at Cistercian Abbeys
Collaborative visualisation can be used to allow a group of people to explore a visualisation
simultaneously, in order that they can analyse, discuss and annotate it collectively.
CONTSENS made use of the Open Source software MediaScape, which overlays digital
sight, sounds and interactions onto the physical world to create immersive and interactive
experiences. In Workpackage 5 of CONTSENS, London Met implemented a system for
1

2. Adult Learners, in the vocational area of Landscape Architecture, to explore a Cistercian
Abbey in Yorkshire, England. A series of reconstructed 3D models of this world heritage site
(http://bit.ly/7ZP4SO) were used to explore the question of whether more can be learnt about
a specific building or style of architecture if that building is provided as part of location-
based 3D models. The evaluation of this workpackage obtained very positive feedback.
Urban Planning and Education
This workpackage involved training urban planners by exploring their knowledge and
understanding of urban education in a meaningful context. An urban area close to London
Metropolitan University was used to explore how schools are signifiers of both urban change
and continuity of educational policy and practice. The application provides evidence of how
the organisation and re/structuring of urban space worked alongside educational discourses
and policies. The workpackage successfully examine the community from the past, in order
to engage, understand and inform the present, as urban space and society becomes made and
remade. A video describing the project (including the Mediascape process):
http://learning.londonmet.ac.uk/TLTC/carl/urban_planning_and_education.mov
Augmented Contexts for Development
The nature of learning is being enhanced by mobile devices and the networks and media to
which they connect people. As a result of an analysis of the above CONTSENS work
Professor Cook (2010), has argued for the need to re-examine approaches to the design of and
research into learning experiences that incorporate mobile/cell phones in the learning context.
He has describe an educational problem that mobile learning tries to solve, namely the design
of Augmented Contexts for Development, these place context as a core construct that enables
collaborative, location-based, mobile device mediated problem solving where adult VET
learners generate their own ‘temporal context for development’; a case study (CONTSENS)
was used to reify this Vygotskian-oriented initiative.
An important question is this: do theories from the past provide explanatory power in
today’s context? In the 1930’s Vygotsky proposed the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)
as follows:
“It is the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and
the level of potential problem solving as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in
collaboration with more capable peers.” (Vygotsky, 1978/1930, p. 86, my bold)
However, as is suggested above, society is currently witnessing a significant shift away
from traditional forms of mass communication and editorial push towards user generated
content and augmented communication contexts. This has led Cook to conclude that
Vygotsky’s notion of a ZPD, which was developed in the context of 20th
Century Industrial
2

3. Revolution, needs to be extended to what Cook is calling an Augmented Context for
Development. It is noteworthy that the Augmented Context for Development that we have
created for the adult learners appears to act as part of a substitute for what Vygotsky calls the
‘more capable peer’. To summarise, the elements of an Augmented Contexts for
Development (ACD) are: (i) the physical environment (e.g. Cistercian Abbey); (ii)
pedagogical/training plan provided in advance by the tutor; (iii) tools for
visualisation/augmentation oriented approach that create an umbrella ‘Augmented Context
for Development’ for location based mobile devices (acts as part of the substitute for
Vygotsky’s “more capable peer”); (iii) learner co-constructed ‘temporal context for
development’ (see below), created within a wider Augmented Context for Development
through (iv) collaborative learners’ interpersonal interactions using tools (e.g. language,
mobiles etc) and signs; (v) these aforementioned elements (i-iv) lead to intrapersonal
representations of the above functions.
A key question for this project is/could be: What are the implications of the above
conceptually driven (but based on CONTSENS case study analysis) notion of Augmented
Contexts for Development for the emerging field of mobile augmented reality (which tends to
be driven by commercial developments)?
References
Cook, J. (2010). Mobile Phones as Mediating Tools Within Augmented Contexts
for Development. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning. Due
March.
Vygotsky, L. (1978 / 1930). Mind in society. The development of higher psychological
processes. Edited by M. Cole et al., Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press.
Augmented Reality (the development of innovation)
Augmented reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world
environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated
imagery - creating a mixed reality. The augmentation is conventionally in real-time and in
semantic context with environmental elements. With the help of advanced AR technology
(e.g. adding computer vision and object recognition) the information about the surrounding
real world of the user becomes interactive and digitally usable. Artificial information about
the environment and the objects in it can be stored and retrieved as an information layer on
top of the real world view.
3

4. Below some examples of how Augmented Reality is changing the way we view the world,
from: http://gigaom.com/2010/02/02/mobile-augmented-reality-apps-that-will-change-the-
way-we-see-the-world/
4