During my work at Awenda Provincial Park in the Natural Heritage Education department, it became clear that there was a gap between visitors and park staff concerning the access and production of information. From the professionals’ point of view, program attendance had been decreasing over the past few years to all time low levels . This problem has many consequences, the most important being: without visitors attending programs, the abundance of stories that accompany the landscape are lost.
The bottom line of the issue is that visitors and professionals are both losing opportunities to create meaningful experiences that connect the past with the present, for the future. The heritage education staff at Awenda Provincial Park started to create a program that would help to address this issue.
Introduction
The idea of the program was to construct a self-guided hike along a popular route, using QR codes that could be scanned along the way. Each QR code linked to a website with engaging information on it, creating a virtual interpretation experience in a real setting. With this tool, the reach of interpretive experiences would no longer be hindered by schedules. Information would be accessible at any time to all visitors with a smartphone.
The project, however, stalled as staff lacked the competent level of digital literacy to make an effective use of time constructing the project to a professional degree, without incurring extra costs. These problems of visitor numbers, digital literacy, and funds, apply to more than just Awenda Provincial Park. Any provincial park, public heritage site, or community has stories that when told, could create links between people and the space they are in. To enable this information sharing, the community informatics project Endless Interpretation, provides tools to learn how to use QR codes to create virtual interpretive experiences that are anchored in real spaces. This process of production also enhances the overall digital literacy of the project’s users.[1] The product of the project is a teaching kit which will enable participants to use open source technologies to share stories by connecting real spaces with virtual ones.
Overview
In this community informatics (CI) project, open source technologies are both the subject and enabler of learning. The project is housed on Mozilla Webmaker’s website, and uses their teaching kit format.[2] The project has two tiers for learning open source technologies. The first tier of skills acquisition is the essentials; this is what a user needs to know create the infrastructure. This includes; how to make a QR code using Google Developer’s Charts API; how to manage website pages to house content; integrating Google Maps onto a website page; creating feedback opportunities with Survey Monkey; and guidelines on the differences and similarities of virtual interpretive content and person to person interaction. The second tier of skills acquisition is using open source technologies to create content. Due to the time limitations of this project’s in-class due dates, the teaching of these technologies is outsourced to their providers. These technologies include: Scribus, for creating professional texts; Popcorn Maker, for easy video creation; and how to create interactive augmented reality images.
While using these open source technologies to produce media that enhances users’ digital literacy, the teaching kit also contains components that showcase through use, the effectiveness of participatory and cooperative learning techniques. The use of these techniques to facilitate learning for the teaching kit, can also be used by participants to create content in their self-guided interpretive experiences. One of the first activities in the teaching kit is for participants to do a brain mapping activity, either in small groups or by themselves. Brain-mapping is a useful tool for creating a visual representation of all the things that one might want to address in the hike. Akin to brainstorming, it differs in that it simultaneously connects and prioritizes information by ordering ideas through colours and shapes. A brain map generated in small groups is the ideal situation for the project so that no member of the group feels intimidated, and does not consequently contribute fully.
While doing these activities individually is possible, engaging a group in the development of the program is ideal, as research has shown that participatory learning greatly improves knowledge acquisition.[3] The varied opinions of group members enrich the content of the program; however, group work can stagnate if a hierarchical structure is in place that designates one person as the source of ideas.[4] Cooperative learning techniques are effective tools for ensuring productive idea sharing. If done properly, participatory and cooperative development can result in a program that seamlessly incorporates multiple learning styles. It also allows a single program to incorporate the talents and knowledge from the entire interpretive staff—which as a team is an extremely rich resource.
Footnotes:
[1] Rafi Santo, (2012). HackerLiteracies: Synthesizing Critical and Participatory Media Literacy
Frameworks. International Journal of Learning and Media. 3 (3). MIT Press, p 2. Available online: http://connectedlearning.tv/sites/connectedlearning.tv/files/Santo_2012_Hacker_Literacies_Synthesizing_Critical_%26_Participatory_Media_Literacy_Frameworks_IJLM.pdf
[2] The project’s teaching kit link: https://cadymoyer.makes.org/thimble/using-qr-codes-for-heritage-education
[3] Brown, J.S., & Adler, R.P. (2008). Minds on Fire: Open Education, the long tail and learning
2.0. Educause Review. January/February 2008, p 18. Accessed online at: http://reed.cs.depaul.edu/peterh/class/hci450/Papers/MindsonFire.pdf
[4] Barkley, E.F., Cross, K.P. and Major C.H (2005). Collaborative Learning Techniques: A
Handbook for College Faculty. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass. p 5.
The bottom line of the issue is that visitors and professionals are both losing opportunities to create meaningful experiences that connect the past with the present, for the future. The heritage education staff at Awenda Provincial Park started to create a program that would help to address this issue.
Introduction
The idea of the program was to construct a self-guided hike along a popular route, using QR codes that could be scanned along the way. Each QR code linked to a website with engaging information on it, creating a virtual interpretation experience in a real setting. With this tool, the reach of interpretive experiences would no longer be hindered by schedules. Information would be accessible at any time to all visitors with a smartphone.
The project, however, stalled as staff lacked the competent level of digital literacy to make an effective use of time constructing the project to a professional degree, without incurring extra costs. These problems of visitor numbers, digital literacy, and funds, apply to more than just Awenda Provincial Park. Any provincial park, public heritage site, or community has stories that when told, could create links between people and the space they are in. To enable this information sharing, the community informatics project Endless Interpretation, provides tools to learn how to use QR codes to create virtual interpretive experiences that are anchored in real spaces. This process of production also enhances the overall digital literacy of the project’s users.[1] The product of the project is a teaching kit which will enable participants to use open source technologies to share stories by connecting real spaces with virtual ones.
Overview
In this community informatics (CI) project, open source technologies are both the subject and enabler of learning. The project is housed on Mozilla Webmaker’s website, and uses their teaching kit format.[2] The project has two tiers for learning open source technologies. The first tier of skills acquisition is the essentials; this is what a user needs to know create the infrastructure. This includes; how to make a QR code using Google Developer’s Charts API; how to manage website pages to house content; integrating Google Maps onto a website page; creating feedback opportunities with Survey Monkey; and guidelines on the differences and similarities of virtual interpretive content and person to person interaction. The second tier of skills acquisition is using open source technologies to create content. Due to the time limitations of this project’s in-class due dates, the teaching of these technologies is outsourced to their providers. These technologies include: Scribus, for creating professional texts; Popcorn Maker, for easy video creation; and how to create interactive augmented reality images.
While using these open source technologies to produce media that enhances users’ digital literacy, the teaching kit also contains components that showcase through use, the effectiveness of participatory and cooperative learning techniques. The use of these techniques to facilitate learning for the teaching kit, can also be used by participants to create content in their self-guided interpretive experiences. One of the first activities in the teaching kit is for participants to do a brain mapping activity, either in small groups or by themselves. Brain-mapping is a useful tool for creating a visual representation of all the things that one might want to address in the hike. Akin to brainstorming, it differs in that it simultaneously connects and prioritizes information by ordering ideas through colours and shapes. A brain map generated in small groups is the ideal situation for the project so that no member of the group feels intimidated, and does not consequently contribute fully.
While doing these activities individually is possible, engaging a group in the development of the program is ideal, as research has shown that participatory learning greatly improves knowledge acquisition.[3] The varied opinions of group members enrich the content of the program; however, group work can stagnate if a hierarchical structure is in place that designates one person as the source of ideas.[4] Cooperative learning techniques are effective tools for ensuring productive idea sharing. If done properly, participatory and cooperative development can result in a program that seamlessly incorporates multiple learning styles. It also allows a single program to incorporate the talents and knowledge from the entire interpretive staff—which as a team is an extremely rich resource.
Footnotes:
[1] Rafi Santo, (2012). HackerLiteracies: Synthesizing Critical and Participatory Media Literacy
Frameworks. International Journal of Learning and Media. 3 (3). MIT Press, p 2. Available online: http://connectedlearning.tv/sites/connectedlearning.tv/files/Santo_2012_Hacker_Literacies_Synthesizing_Critical_%26_Participatory_Media_Literacy_Frameworks_IJLM.pdf
[2] The project’s teaching kit link: https://cadymoyer.makes.org/thimble/using-qr-codes-for-heritage-education
[3] Brown, J.S., & Adler, R.P. (2008). Minds on Fire: Open Education, the long tail and learning
2.0. Educause Review. January/February 2008, p 18. Accessed online at: http://reed.cs.depaul.edu/peterh/class/hci450/Papers/MindsonFire.pdf
[4] Barkley, E.F., Cross, K.P. and Major C.H (2005). Collaborative Learning Techniques: A
Handbook for College Faculty. San Francisco : Jossey-Bass. p 5.