Augmented Reality in Cultural Education: Introducing Balinese Gamelan to Young Learners

Culture is an essential aspect of life, encompassing behaviors, beliefs, and the results of human activities unique to a particular society. Bali, known for its rich culture, has gamelan as one of its traditional musical instruments that needs to be introduced from an early age. PAUD Kuncup Mekar is an Early Childhood Education in Badung, Bali, faces challenges in introducing Balinese gamelan due to limited facilities. With technological advancements, Augmented Reality (AR) can be an innovative solution to this problem. AR combines the real and virtual worlds in two or three dimensions in real-time, thus increasing children's interest in learning Balinese gamelan. This study aims to design and develop an Android-based application for introducing Balinese gamelan using AR for early childhood at PAUD Kuncup Mekar. The design process utilizes UML (Unified Modeling Language) for analysis and 3D object modeling with Blender, and Vuforia for storing markers that trigger 3D objects. Unity is used as the game engine for application development. The implementation results show positive feedback with an average rating of 97.1 % from 15 respondents, where 80% rated the application as excellent, 13.3% as good, and 6.7% were uncertain. These findings indicate that the AR application can be an effective medium for introducing Balinese gamelan to early childhood at PAUD Kuncup Mekar.