Augmented Reality as an Educational Resource Applied to the Teaching of Pre-Columbian Cultures Settled in the Pumapungo Archaeological Park

Abstract

The objective of the project focuses on the use of Augmented Reality and free software applied to a playful, puzzle-like game that serves as didactic support in the teaching and diffusion of archaeological patrimony in museums.

For the study case, we choose The Pumapungo Museum and The Archaeological Park located in the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, which have an important archaeological and patrimony reserve and are also located on one of the most important Inkas settlements in the country. According to its statistics, around 164,000 thousand tourists visit it annually, and 14.64% of them are children; therefore, based on these data, the defined audience of users for the study were primary school children between 6 and 8 years of age.

As a pedagogical methodology, the learning theories in education were used, by Seymour Papert (Constructivism) and John Dewey (Learning by doing), tools that have improved the learning process through exploration and experience. Likewise, we worked with formal and non-formal learning schemes that allow improving the interaction of children with the museum environments, reinforcing the knowledge from the guided visits.

The results show that the use of Augmented Reality in the learning process arouses the interest and curiosity of children in a given topic because it allows them to get involved in real time in historical contexts and therefore learn about the material and intangible heritage or patrimony of their country.

The research and development of the project was carried out in 2015, so the technological and bibliographic references correspond to that date.