ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION IN THE ERA OF MOBILE AUGMENTED REALITY TECHNOLOGY

Humanity has witnessed a series of revolutions that transformed history. Today, the world lives
in the era of technological revolution seen in scientific knowledge and the optimal utilization of
the information influx. Technological development has swept across all societies into the everyday
life, especially that of youths who are fascinated by anything new. Technology has become a
fundamental aspect, it is difficult to disregard it due to the facilities and benefits that offers in all
areas of life; especially education. As much as it has affected education, it did similarly to
architectural education.
Although technology has revolutionized education in many countries of the world, in local
practice to the present, there are ways of architectural education and teaching used traditional
methods that no longer fitting the digital age or modern learner/ teacher thinking in that era, it is an
obstacle to the development of education. In addition, architectural education lacks the on-the-job
training that helps students understand the environment and practice the profession effectively
after graduation. In fact, many different technologies have been integrated in the global
educational arena that provide opportunities to design an attractive learning environment. One of
these technologies is the use of Augmented Reality (AR) on mobile devices on a large scale. It is
one of the latest technologies that provide a new educational method due to the popularity of
mobile devices. It is also a new educational model to generate greater self-learning capacity on the
student‟s part.
This study focuses on assessing the integration of mobile augmented reality (MAR) technology
in architectural education by presenting some global applications. First, to explore their potential
in architectural education. Second, study the impact of their application in some architectural
courses on both ends of the educational process: the student and the university educators. Finally,
to complete the vision, the difficulties of use are examined. Then study their applicability in the
local reality. The study concludes with the most important research findings and proposed
recommendations.