Dual Reality: blended learning at Coventry University

A press release today details how Coventry University’s Serious Games Institute is going to create a mash-up of the real and virtual worlds to enhance student learning. Apparently, it involves being able to track when and where students are using wireless devices at the University, and pushing appropriate content to them while at the same time allowing students who are there only virtually to meet up with their physical peers:

“These systems will enable students who are visiting a place - either in the real world or online - to meet, despite being physically separated by thousands of miles. The capability is being brought about by real-world and avatar-based positioning.

“Blending mobile and virtual worlds technologies has unmatched potential for producing effective technology-based learning,” commented Giunti Labs’ CEO, Fabrizio Cardinali.”

A blog called ‘Future-Making Serious Games‘ provides more information

    “[...] The Serious Games Institute has partnered with Cisco and Giunti Labs to turn all of Coventry University into a meshed real-world/virtual-world learning environment.

To help the Institute build a platform for modeling the real campus, students at Coventry can activate educational content based on their physical movement across the real campus or the digital movement across the virtual campus.

The system is based on Cisco wireless location services and Giunti’s learn eXact content management system. Any existing digital content can be applied to either mobile or virtual learning devices based on location….”

There must be something in the air then. This ‘dual reality’ as a subsequent post in the same blog calls it is something I’ve been pondering for archaeology and history teaching and learning. My approach was much less tech heavy - and maybe ought not to be considered in the same breath as what is being discussed at Coventry. Still - if it works for a university campus, it ought to work at a major archaeological site like Pompeii or a historic town centre like York…

“Great game, but NOT a study guide”

Truer words were never spoken:

…that’s why people like me are around! More Civ-related comics & wisdom

Civilized Education

An article and two sites:

Jan van der Crabben: ‘Civilized Education‘

From Firaxis: ‘Educators’ Exchange‘

and from Kurt Squire, doyen of Civ-for-education: CivWorld

“This is a site for people interested in using Sid Meier’s Civilization for learning academic content, including history, geography, or even game design. We have custom-designed game scenarios, curricula, case studies, and experts on using Civ for learning. Our goal is to help players, students, parents, and even teachers use the game at home, in after school centers and maybe even classrooms.”

I’m in the process of writing up my latest thoughts on using Civ IV in the classroom (and especially, for distance education!). My biggest mistake in my initial foray (link on my publications’ list) was in not thinking carefully enough about assessment and what exactly I was trying to assess. Who knew that university students would balk at playing a game for marks? Watch this space…

Omeka & Archaeological Survey Project Websites: a good fit?

In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Omeka toolkit might have useful archaeological applications. The Omeka people themselves picked up on that thought, and there’s some interesting discussion on their blog on how smaller institutions (’Beyond the Museum‘) might use Omeka.

“[...]we have always intended Omeka to be used not only for history museum exhibitions, but also by enthusiast collectors, scholars, libraries, and community groups in many fields—really anyone interested in collecting and displaying digital objects in rich visual and interpretive environments. One good example of Omeka’s flexibility is the community site braddockheritage.org, which was developed in concert with CHNM by local volunteers in the Braddock district of Fairfax County, VA.”

I’m reminded again how timely the emergence of this tool is by Bill Caraher’s discussion on the state of archaeological survey project websites:

“[...]survey project websites are a mixed bag[...] It seems to me that since many survey projects tend to be less stable institutional entities with life spans between a few years and a decade and make little investment in semipermanent, physical infrastructure (e.g. dig houses, site guards, fences, et c.), this often translates to instability on the web[...]The preceding links to survey projects show how most (but not all!) have broken links, pictures that fail to appear, or offer little more than static data (nice photos, some maps… in fact, much of this doesn’t count as data at all; of course, some surveys, like the the Sydney Cyprus Survey Project, have archived their data officially in places like the Arts and Humanities Data Service ).

If Omeka can live up to its promise, I could imagine a free-ish hosting service (much like how WordPress hosts this blog) with Omeka installed on it, and survey archaeologists uploading their information to it from wherever they are in the world. I haven’t yet played with Omeka, but if all the various mapping services out there can be mashed in there too, then we can perhaps mitigate the factors that Bill discusses.

Touchgraph: digging through digital data

When I was untangling the social networks in Roman stamped brick, I used the UCINET and Keyplayer programs almost exclusively. These are still probably the best tools out there for doing high-end social networks analyses on large volumes of data.

But what about digital data? Sometimes, it is useful to know how websites tie together, who is linking to whom, other similar sites (based on linkages) and so on. For that, you might want to use Touchgraph. In its early days, it had a handy tool for seeing who linked to a particular site; in the current version, it seems to only have one way out links. Still, it might be handy for someone…

(Touchgraph of Electric Archaeology)

Public Archaeology in Second Life - Remixing Çatalhöyük Day

Just saw this today on the Second Life Education List, regarding the Çatalhöyük project. I’ve written about this project in Second Life before, so am very glad to see it moving on like this!. If only my bloody laptop had a fast enough graphics card so that I could visit it too! Somebody send me a postcard.

Remixing Catalhoyuk Day
Remixing Catalhoyuk Day
10am to 6pm Pacific Standard Time (GMT-
November 28, 2007
Location: Okapi Island
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Okapi/128/128/0

Join us for Remixing Catalhoyuk Day, a public program sponsored by
OKAPI and the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk. Visit OKAPI
Island in the 3-D virtual environment of Second Life and explore the
past and present of Catalhoyuk, a 9000-year-old village located in
present-day Turkey. OKAPI Island features virtual reconstructions of
the excavation site and multimedia exhibits of research data. The
Island was constructed by a team of undegraduate research apprentices
during the Spring and Fall 2007 semester. The Remixing Catalhoyuk
program includes lectures, guided tours, games, and much more. Mark
your calendars!

Remixing Çatalhöyük Day Activities

(10-10:30 AM, 3-3:30 PM PST)
Guided Tours of OKAPI Island. Tours will be conducted by Ruth Tringham
(Professor of Anthropology, UC Berkeley, and Principal Investigator of
Berkeley Archaeologists at Çatalhöyük) and the Remixing Çatalhöyük team.

(1 - 2 PM PST)
Lecture: “Cultural Heritage Interpretive Videowalks: Moving Through
Present Past Places Physically and Virtually” Presented by Ruth
Tringham to the UC Berkeley Landscape Architecture and Environmental
Planning Colloquium and simulcast in Second Life.

(2 - 4 PM PST)
Turkish Music Mix. Visit OKAPI Island, learn about Çatalhöyük and
build your own remixes in the OKAPI Island Sandbox while listening to
DJ (and UCB Anthro grad) Burcu’s eclectic mix of classical and
contemporary Turkish music.

(4-5 PM PST)
Remixing Çatalhöyük Video Festival. Nine video producers will share
videos about Çatalhöyük. The Video Festival will be hosted by VJ (and
UCB Anthro grad) Colleen Morgan.

(5 - 5:30 PM PST)
Remix Competition. The public is invited to use the OKAPI Island
Sandbox or Graffiti Cube to build and share reconstructions of
Catalhoyuk or “remixes” of archaeological research data. At 5pm PST,
the Berkeley Archaeologists at Catalhoyuk team will review and select
top entries for virtual awards and exhibition on OKAPI Island.

Niagara 1812 - Interactive Arts & Science, Brock University

The class projects from this year’s crop of students in the Interactive Arts & Science program at Brock University are now online… full details here. The theme is ‘Niagara 1812′, when the Niagara peninsula (location of Brock University, no coincidence) was the flashpoint for hostilities between the young American republic and Great Britain. Lundy’s Lane, Queenston Heights: famous battles every Canadian should know!

The projects are very impressive. They come in a variety of flavours - flash, 3d, a mix of text & bird’s-eye battle… the games are aimed at the secondary school level, and each game’s website comes with suggestions for student or teacher use. Well done!

“From November 2006 to April 2007, Brock University students in Professor Kevin Kee’s IASC3F90 course (”Survey of Humanities Computing”, in the Interactive Arts and Science Program) and Professor Vladimir Wojcik’s COSC3F00 course (”Software Development”, in the Department of Computer Science) developed these computer games for elementary and secondary school history education.”

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Learning 2.0 - interview with Garrison & Vaughan

From ‘Inside Higher Ed‘, a short interview with Randy Garrison and Norman Vaughan, authors of ‘Blended Learning in Higher Education: Framework, Principles, and Guidelines’:

 ”As online tools become more ubiquitous inside and outside the classroom, and the growth of distance learning continues, education researchers have begun to focus on how best to harness new technologies. Advocates for the classical lecture experience still exist, of course, but the general trend has been toward incorporating various technologies into the classroom, from course management software to digital photography. One approach, called “blended learning,” mixes traditional “face to face” techniques with cutting-edge developments in theory and technology. A new book, Blended Learning in Higher Education: Framework, Principles, and Guidelines (Wiley, 2008), summarizes the current theory behind blended learning but offers practical guidelines (with examples) on how to transform existing courses into the new framework. The authors, D. Randy Garrison and Norman D. Vaughan, of the University of Calgary, discuss the ideal conditions for a blended learning experience, how a blog and a wiki can enhance a class and how exclusively face-to-face encounters can lead to short attention spans.<more>“

History Canada Game: Mod for Civ III

“The History Canada Game is a game based on Canadian history that lets anyone play the past. Based on the award-winning, best-seller Sid Meier’s Civilization III, The History Canada Game is the “What If” game of Canada… and you’re the author. Will you replay our history or rewrite it? The year is 1534… Play the New World

To Iroquois chief Donnacona, whose 500 followers live just down the St. Lawrence, Cartier’s intentions couldn’t be clearer. But these settlers bring with them powerful weapons, advanced technologies, and promises of great partnership to come. All they want is to take Donnacona’s two sons back to France with him.

What would you do? Welcome the French as your newest allies? Or defend your homeland with extreme prejudice, and probably your life?

What’s next? You decide.

The History Canada Game lets you relive, replay and even rewrite Canada’s history. Play as the English to expand your empire. Play as the Huron to defend your homeland. Wage wars, make peace and explore new lands…the future of Canadian history is in your hand.”

‘The Past Present: Augmented Historical Reality’ - a lesson plan sketch

In a previous post, I briefly considerd how something like Semapedia or Smartpox might be used archaeologically. I’ve recently been thinking about how they might be used in teaching in history. Below is a brief lesson plan I’ve written for a roughly 15 hour project… what I’m curious about is, has anybody else tried to incorporate this kind of thing into their actual teaching practice?

‘The Past Present: Augmented Historical Reality’

Hook: Every place contains an echo of its past. Whether it’s a particular architectural detail on a heavily renovated building or a depression in a field marking the foundation of an abandoned farm house, there are clues everywhere. The problem is how can we see them? How can we train ourselves to read the past in the present?

Concept: To mash up the internet with the real world, tying them physically in such a way that a passer-by can be alerted to the presence of the past in a particular place.

Technology: There are at least three different ways this could be accomplished, with varying degrees of richness and immersiveness and requiring various degrees of technological know-how:

1. Semapedia (www.semapedia.org )
2. Smartpox (www.smartpox.com )
3. Mediascape (http://www.mscapers.com/)

All three methods rely on ‘tagging’ or creating ‘hot-spots’ in the real-world that then can be used to trigger the more-or-less automatic retrieval of information or multimedia from the internet. Semapedia and Smartpox both rely on creating 2-dimensional bar-codes that are then attached to a mail box, wall, tree, etc, while Mediascape depends on global positioning system coordinates.

Semapedia connects the bar-code to an article in the wikipedia. You go to the Semapedia website, type in the relevant wikipedia article URL, and Semapedia provides multiple copies of the barcode. Then, the user attaches the bar code to the building. Semapedia provides the software to enable a camera-phone to read the bar code. A person might be wandering along, spot the bar code, and take a photo of it. The camera decodes the bar code, which causes it to retrieve the relevant information from the wikipedia. You are not required to sign in or register with Semapedia in order to create the bar codes.

Smartpox is a bit more sophisticated, in that it allows you to encode links to any website, other phone numbers, email and text. The process of creating the barcodes is very similar to Semapedia, but it requires the user to be a registered member of the website.

Finally, Mediascape works in much the same fashion, but requires a gps-enabled personal digital assistant. The user sets up ‘hot spots’ in the realworld beforehand; whenever a person using a gps-enabled pda that has the Mediascape software installed on it wanders by the hot spot, it trips the delivery of audio, video, text etc to the PDA.

All three services are free, but the Mediascape requires expensive hand held computers to work, whereas camera phones with web access are more or less standard these days - so Semapedia or Smartpox would be the best option, at least initially.

What would the students ultimately create? There might be a number of options. For instance:

1. Historical tours – the students could research the history of the people for whom the campus buildings (or town) are named. They would then write Wikipedia articles on these people – or update existing pages – and created bar codes for them. Then, they’d place these all over campus. (using Semapedia?)

2. Treasure hunt/scavenger hunt/game – develop an augmented reality game, where the barcodes are used to provide clues, unlock information, played on campus (or around town). Can involve decision-making, branching narratives (ie, choice a, go to this building, choice b, go to that building) (Smartpox?)

3. Recreate the past landscape of the campus through a Mediascape. What was here before? What did it look like, what did it sound like? Tie these things to the appropriate place…

So what would the teacher do with the students?

1. walk about on campus, pointing out ‘hidden’ dimensions (ie: plaque on wall, famous event, who was this person who donated the money to have this building built, why is this building named after this person, what an odd depression in the ground over there)
TIME: 1 hour

2. point out one response to that sort of thing: explore annotated maps etc on Google Earth
TIME: 28 minutes

3. ask students to notice the links between google earth and wikipedia (also wikimapia.org)
TIME: 2 minutes

4. ask students how are wikipedia articles written? What gives them authority? Why are they useful? Write an article
TIME: 2 hours – research, etc

5. observe, Too bad you can’t take google earth with you, as you wander the planet – or can you? Barcodes, semapedia, smartpox, mediascape
TIME: 30 minutes to show how they work, get set up

6. get students to design an application (tour, game, etc) using these
Time: 6 hours

7. get students to swap with other students, play the game etc
Time: 4 hours

8. get students to reflect and give feedback – what works, what doesn’t, do the barcodes help you see the past present? landscape as palimpsest, etc…
Time: 1 hour

Total time: 15 hours