Creator: Andrew Roth, Harriet Tubman Centre and AR Lab

Organization: Future Stories

Description:

Augmented Reality Freedom Stories – true stories of the Underground Railroad for JK- gr.12

Augmented Reality Freedom Stories highlights seldom told African Canadian histories from the era of the Canada/US Underground Railroad including Harriet Tubman’s efforts to bring American slaves to freedom in Canada. Primary and secondary documents have been hand-crafted in consultation with community partners into a unique experience that has been approved for use in schools as part of an Ontario primary school curriculum as part of the Breaking the Chains history project. Built in Unity + Vuforia, Augmented Reality Freedom Stories is free to download and uses only paper markers, reproductions of historical photographs in our case — making it easy and affordable for schools to begin using AR as part of the standard curriculum and to imagine how AR can communicate new stories and become an expressive tool for children to use to tell stories about their own lives.

The architecture of these 30 original stories is simple and designed to mimic a child’s pop-up or magic tunnel book. The small scale of the AR Freedom Stories makes it possible to hold these small storyworlds — and history — in your hands.

Install the app on your iPhone or iPad for free and download the markers at: http://futurestories.ca/tubman/

This experience works best on iPhone 4s or later.

Community Partners: Essex County Black Historical Research Society; North American Black Historical Museum, Amherstburg; Windsor Public Library; NorthStar Community Centre at Windsor, Ontario; the Michigan Underground Railroad Network to Freedom; Detroit River International Historic Site Initiative; Nathaniel Dett Memorial Chapel and the Norval Johnson Library at Niagara Falls; Central Ontario Network for Black History; St. Catharines Museum; Salem Chapel, St. Catharines; Sandwich Baptist Church; Wellington County Historical Society; Black Pioneers of Wellington County; Buxton Museum and National Historic Site.

Where to find it:

download from the app store – search Augmented Reality Freedom Stories

Platforms:

Mobile, Gesture Device, Internet of Things

Additional Screenshots: