R. Shumaker (Ed.): VAMR/HCII 2013, Part II, LNCS 8022, pp. 170–178, 2013. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Picking Up STEAM: Educational Implications for Teaching with an Augmented Reality Guitar Learning System Joseph R. Keebler 1 , Travis J. Wiltshire 2 , Dustin C. Smith 1 , and Stephen M. Fiore 2 1 Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 2 University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida {joseph.keebler,dcsmith}@wichita.edu, {twiltshi,sfiore}@ist.ucf.edu Abstract. Incorporation of the arts into the current model of science, technolo- gy, engineering, and mathematics (STEAM) may have a profound impact on the future of education. In light of this, we examined a novel technology at the intersection of these disciplines. Specifically, an experiment was conducted us- ing augmented reality to learn a musical instrument, namely the guitar. The Fretlight® guitar system uses LED lights embedded in the fretboard to give di- rect information to the guitarist as to where to place their fingers. This was compared to a standard scale diagram. Results indicate that the Fretlight® sys- tem led to initial significant gains in performance over a control condition using diagrams, but these effects disappeared over the course of 30 trials. Potential benefits of the augmented reality technology are discussed, and future work is outlined to better understand how embodied cognition and augmented reality can increase learning outcomes for playing musical instruments. Keywords: STEAM, augmented reality, embodied learning, music education, Fretlight® guitar. 1 Introduction The STEAM education movement is currently building momentum towards incorpo- rating the arts into the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) thrusts [e.g., 1]. To justify the benefits of the Arts, recent efforts by the Dana Founda- tion [2-3] have organized multi-university consortiums of leading cognitive neuros- cientists in order to examine the relationship between learning, arts, and the brain. The consortiums have established that the arts play a critical role in the development of generalizable cognitive skills that can serve as a benefit to learning. One form of art related to a number of neurological and educational benefits is playing a musical instrument. More specifically, music training may lead to increases in brain plasticity across the lifespan [4], processing of both musical and non-musical auditory stimuli [5], and demonstrable improvements in reading comprehension and math skills [6].