Year 10 Latin students were getting to grips with new and old technology simultaneously on Thursday as they studied the properties and design of a Roman shield (a scutum) using an Augmented Reality (AR) model. Using their iPads, they were able to place the virtual object in the room around them and, looking through their iPad camera, could walk around it, examine it and think about the design in three dimensions.

Mr Stretton (Teacher of Classics) was impressed with this technology: “This is a very useful way of students visualising an historical object and understanding its design and use. The Romans were master engineers and it was particularly interesting to view their advanced technology through our own. The students also clearly enjoyed the ability to interact with the shield using AR for a particular purpose – in this case developing their critical thinking and connection finding skills alongside the knowledge they need for GCSE.”

The Classics Department has been working closely with Mr Potter (Director of Digital Strategy) to implement AR for practical use in the classroom and we look forward to further developing our use in the future.

The AR model we used was created by Juani Forn and you can view it on Sketchfab here.