Discovery Education—the worldwide edtech leader whose state-of-the-art digital platform supports learning wherever it takes place – was last night announced as a winner at the 2023 Bett Awards.
Sandbox AR – Discovery Education’s cutting-edge augmented reality app launched at last year’s Bett – was awarded first prize in the Hardware, AV, AR/AV, Robotics and Digital Device category.
The Bett Awards celebrate the inspiring creativity and innovation that can be found throughout technology for education. Recognised by many as the most important awards in the industry, BETT winners are seen to be at the forefront of edtech provision to schools.
Discovery Education’s Sandbox AR app empowers students and teachers to create, share, and even inhabit virtual environments. Within Sandbox AR, users can create virtual worlds and populate them with some of the hundreds of unique objects from history, the built world, science and nature, and more. Sandbox AR also gives students new ways to express themselves and demonstrate their learning through a feature that lets learners take photos or record a video walkthrough with their own voice over. Sandbox AR even offers a mode that allows users to scale up and inhabit their own life size virtual environments.
For those new to AR, Sandbox AR includes many pre-built sandboxes exploring diverse subjects such as ancient Egypt, space exploration, Mayan civilization, road construction, and more, with additional sandboxes coming soon. Discovery Education is also making available several free, pre-built lessons educators can use with the app to familiarize themselves with integrating AR into classroom instruction. Sandbox AR is available for download here.
The development of Sandbox AR was led by Discovery Education’s UK-based Immersive Learning team who have been pioneers in creating Virtual and Augmented Reality experiences for schools for over 30 years.
Sandbox AR received its world premiere at the BETT Show last year, where it was launched on the Main Stage with London-based educator Simon Pile sharing how he has used the app in his school.
“We’re delighted to be presented with a prestigious BETT award, one of the highest accolades in the industry”, said Howard Lewis, Managing Director, UK and International, at Discovery Education. “Since its inception, Discovery Education has been an early mover in bringing innovative technologies—such as streaming video and digital textbooks—into the classroom. We’re excited to put the power of augmented reality into the hands of educators with the Sandbox AR app!”
Find out more about the Bett 2023 Awards at www.bettawards.com .
Explore Discovery Education’s award-winning digital learning services at www.discoveryeducation.co.uk.
