Oulu uses 5G and aug­men­ted rea­li­ty to enrich lear­ning at school

DNA, Business­Oulu, the Educa­tio­nal ja Cul­tu­ral Ser­vices, City of Oulu, Oulun Digi, Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra school and Play­sign will toget­her imple­ment a 5G pilot at Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra school in Oulu. The pilot is part of the “Sus­tai­nable Futu­re” the­me of phe­no­me­non-based lear­ning and it aims to dee­pen lear­ning by enric­hing it through means enabled by new tech­no­lo­gies.

Aug­men­ted rea­li­ty and 5G con­nec­tions are used to int­ro­duce the stu­dents of Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra school with natu­ral phe­no­me­na which, befo­re the 5G era, you could main­ly explo­re only through text­books.  

“Stu­dents at Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra school will stu­dy the Sus­tai­nable Futu­re phe­no­me­non during the rest of this spring. Each gra­de has its own cur­ricu­lum-appropria­te emp­ha­sis. In the 5G pilot, we use aug­men­ted rea­li­ty to illustra­te to stu­dents the various aspects of the phe­no­me­non, such as the water cycle and forest eco­sys­tems,” says Anne Moi­la­nen, Princi­pal of Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra school.

Paral­lel world revea­led for explo­ra­tions

Aug­men­ted rea­li­ty is brought to the flexible lear­ning envi­ron­ment at the school, which is whe­re stu­dents nor­mal­ly ope­ra­te. A paral­lel world will be built in the lear­ning envi­ron­ment, with its landsca­pes selec­ted direct­ly from the cur­ricu­lum. 5G tablets and high-speed 5G con­nec­tions allow stu­dents to explo­re that world.

“Aug­men­ted rea­li­ty is a flexible tech­no­lo­gy that allows us to int­ro­duce various phe­no­me­na so that they dee­pen lear­ning in a func­tio­nal man­ner. The aim is to inc­rea­se the stu­dents’ moti­va­tion for the things that are taught and to have tech­no­lo­gy sup­port lear­ning in a new way,” Moi­la­nen explains.

“The phe­no­me­non-based lear­ning imple­men­ted in Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra is a great example of using STEAM peda­go­gy in teac­hing. STEAM schools are also acti­ve­ly imple­men­ting co-deve­lop­ment, whe­re schools and com­pa­nies work toget­her to deve­lop new inno­va­tions. The pilot imple­men­ted with DNA and Play­sign will bene­fit all par­ties invol­ved in the deve­lop­ment work,” says Maik­ki Man­ni­nen, ICT deve­lo­per teac­her at the City of Oulu.

5G boos­ting the city’s ope­ra­tions

The pilot will be imple­men­ted during April and May. The City of Oulu also wants to uti­li­se the pos­si­bi­li­ties of 5G tech­no­lo­gy more wide­ly, with a simi­lar pilot plan­ned for Oulu’s main libra­ry in ear­ly autumn.

“5G crea­tes busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties for new industries as part of other digi­ta­li­sa­tion deve­lop­ment,” says Heik­ki Huh­mo, Liai­son Mana­ger at Business­Oulu. Business­Oulu acts as a faci­li­ta­tor of co-deve­lop­ment in the city and wants to offer com­pa­nies pilo­ting and expe­ri­men­ta­tion oppor­tu­ni­ties in genui­ne envi­ron­ments toget­her with part­ners.  

Radio tech­no­lo­gies of the futu­re play an impor­tant role in enhancing, enric­hing and enabling the City of Oulu’s own ope­ra­tions. For uni­ver­si­ties and research ins­ti­tu­tes in Oulu, 5G pro­vi­des plen­ty of things to explo­re and think about – not only because of tech­no­lo­gy, but also because of its inter­discipli­na­ry effects.

“The grea­test added value of 5G stems from busi­ness applica­tions that uti­li­se 5G’s high capaci­ty and low lag times in mobi­le, real-time use. The Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra pilot has been an inte­res­ting oppor­tu­ni­ty for DNA to deve­lop new 5G-enabled ope­ra­ting models toget­her with an inno­va­ti­ve cus­to­mer and part­ners,” says Tuuk­ka Toi­vo­nen, Vice Pre­si­dent, Busi­ness Mana­ge­ment & Stra­te­gy, Cor­po­ra­te Busi­ness at DNA.

DNA’s 5G network now covers more than two mil­lion people in Fin­land in 86 towns. DNA imple­men­ted the 5G indoor cove­ra­ge at Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra school at 3.5 GHz frequency and pro­vi­ded the tablets with 5G con­nec­tions for stu­dents to use.

The City of Oulu has an acti­ve “STEAM in Oulu” network, which covers more than 30 compre­hen­si­ve schools. STEAM stands for Science, Tech­no­lo­gy, Engi­nee­ring, Art and Math. In teac­hing, STEAM means com­bi­ning sub­ject groups and tech­no­lo­gy into exten­si­ve lear­ning modu­les. Stu­dents are invol­ved in their crea­tion, with coo­pe­ra­tion between teac­hers playing an impor­tant role.

Furt­her infor­ma­tion for the media:

Heik­ki Huh­mo, Liai­son Mana­ger, Busi­ness Oulu, +358 (0)50 360 5940, heikki.huhmo@businessoulu.com

Tuuk­ka Toi­vo­nen, Vice Pre­si­dent, DNA Plc, tel. +358 (0)44 044 3333, tuukka.toivonen@dna.fi

Anne Moi­la­nen, Princi­pal, Hiuk­ka­vaa­ra school, tel. +358 (0)40 838 2828, anne.j.moilanen@ouka.fi

Maik­ki Man­ni­nen, ICT deve­lo­per teac­her, City of Oulu, tel.+358 (0)40 614 9138, maikki.manninen@ouka.fi

Play­sign specia­li­ses in using game design and tech­no­lo­gies to illustra­te phe­no­me­na and data rela­ted to the real world. The com­pa­ny has pre­vious­ly pro­duc­ti­sed a publis­hing plat­form for par­tici­pa­to­ry urban plan­ning and data visua­li­sa­tions of the built envi­ron­ment, for example, for com­mu­nica­ting the ener­gy con­sump­tion of buil­dings and indoor air qua­li­ty to schoolc­hildren. In this expe­ri­ment, Play­sign furt­her deve­lops the softwa­re plat­form to sup­port the illustra­ting of the ener­gy and resource cycles of both natu­ral and tech­nical sys­tems by com­bi­ning aug­men­ted rea­li­ty and the school’s phy­sical pre­mi­ses.