Mobile augmented reality with audio Supporting fieldwork of Cultural Sciences students in Florence Stefaan Ternier, Fred de Vries, Dirk Börner, Marcus Specht (stefaan.ternier, fred.devries, dirk.boerner, marcus.specht)ou.nl Centre for Learning Sciences & Technologies, Open Universiteit, Heerlen, The Netherlands Abstract In this article the use of augmented reality with a smartphone for fieldwork of Cultural Sciences students is discussed based on two pilots in Florence. A tool named ARLearn developed to support different learning in different contexts using the multimedia capabilities and location based service on smartphones. In the pilots assignments were given in spoken messages and students collected notes by recording their own voice and taking pictures of artifacts in Florence. The use of the tool for fieldwork helped students with systematical collection of data for their essay. The educational design and ARLearn toolkit is developed further to enable individual fieldwork students and other educational scenarios. 1 Introduction: Augmented reality Today, smart-phones, iPods, PDAs and other mobile devices account for a swiftly growing market. In this article, mobile learning is used broadly and points at situa- tions where these devices are engaged to support learning. Mobile learning can sup- port learning while being on the road. For instance accessing learning resources while traveling. Often mobile devices are found equipped with camera, GPS, gyroscope, accelerometer, digital compass and other sensors that frame the mobile context. This makes them compelling to support location based learning, a sub-domain of mobile learning that zooms in on situations where a user’s particular location is important to support the learning process in an authentic context. Augmented Reality is one tech- nique to realize location-based learning. It can be considered a physical real-world environment in which elements are augmented by virtual computer-based sensory input such as images or sound. Although Augmented Reality is often perceived as a technique to project a virtual reality on a video feed, it should more properly refer to any media that is specific to the location and the context of what you are doing [1]. Milgram and Kishino [2] define a Reality - Virtuality Continuum that spans from the real environment to a purely virtual environment. Augmented reality is positioned here as a real environment that is augmented with virtual elements.