You know us. We love advocating for the use of new mediums in contemporary education. In fact, we’re regularly advocating for the use of augmented and virtual reality in all grades—not just college—and that just so happens to be the subject of this week’s Rising Resources blog. Both augmented and virtual reality (or AR and VR) have such huge potential for advancing learning among today’s students. They have been known to spark excitement, increase engagement, and even enhance retention, making them something today’s teachers can no longer ignore. So, what if we told you there was a way to implement it quickly, easily, and affordably in your teaching? Well, that’s where Alive Studios comes in and can help bring teaching to life!
The first thing that jumps out about Alive Studios is that the educational content kids consume also jumps out at them. Alive Studios is designed to create a brand-new kind of engagement for early learners, helping them discover that they can immerse themselves directly in educational content using the power of technology. For example, rather than learning about animals in the traditional way, Alive Studios allows kids to see their movements, hear the sounds they make, and even learn about the meaning of their scientific name, all of which lead to greater levels of mastery and retention.
Alive Studios isn’t just for getting kids to use technology more, however. The ultimate goal is to make them more proficient in key areas, like reading, writing, and spelling at a more rapid rate. More specifically, Alive Studios can also assist with at-risk intervention, English language learning, and special education in early learning as well. They offer two main solutions—one for reading and one for math. They also have a combined solution that covers both reading and math for maximum benefits among students.
Though Alive Studios is catered mostly towards the early years of a child’s life, it has been shown to have positive effects on the way in which these students learn. In fact, the statistics they show on their website indicate that Alive Studios users progressed in letter naming fluency twice as fast as non-users and users progressed four times faster in letter sound fluency than non-users. They also offer on-site professional development as part of their packages as well as funding assistance and a 30-day guarantee!
Alive Studios was created with the mission of finding a new way to help children learn to read. By capturing their imaginations in a new way, it’s helped many young kids do just that. The founders of Alive Studios want to help ignite a shift in elementary reading proficiency and grow the number of fourth graders who are proficient in reading form 37 percent (where it was when they got started) to above 70 percent. It’s definitely unique to rely on augmented reality to try to achieve this goal, but, in today’s tech-rich climate, it’s something that could certainly work for a lot of students.
Both the reading and the math content comes with various features that help teachers better reach their students. These include supplemental classroom kits, free journals, and online applications. And, there’s always the option for educators to upgrade if they need more! We also don’t want to forget to mention that Alive Studios is very much cross-curricular. Not only are students learning to spell and read, but most of the content that’s presented to them has to do with science. This allows them to learn a lot about the scientific world while they master their literacy skills.
The math and reading kits from Alive Studios range from $995.00 to $1,495.00 and they have bundle options with additional content as well. Like we said, their staff also offers in-depth support and professional development for any teacher who would like it! If you ask us, the premise of Alive Studios is great and reaching students using augmented technology can be a very effective way of educating them in today’s world.
To learn more about Alive Studios or to request a quote from their team, visit their website. After you’ve checked them out, be sure to head over to our EdTech store, where you can find all sorts of STEM, STEAM, and MakerEd technologies for the classroom as well as some more augmented and virtual reality kits! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram, too, in order to keep up with the latest EdTech news, trends, and blog releases.