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Designing PDA Mediated Educational Activities for a Museum Visit
Nikolaos Tselios*#
Ioanna Papadimitriou*, Vassilis Komis*, Nikolaos Avouris#
*ICTE Group, ECEDU Department, #HCI Group, ECE Department,
University of Patras
Introduction
Spread of PDAs in the field of education used in different contexts, serving a variety of
learning tasks considered as a motivation trigger for the
pupils, augmenting their attention and allowing them to engage in learning activities meaningful to them
As information appliances for acquiring, storing, transmitting, editing and visualizing data and information
As communication appliances and they can be used in the frame of formal or informal forms of education
2/17
Educational Usage of PDAs in Museums (1/2)
Mobile technologies can find in museums an important area of implementation learning in a museum context integration, of personal,
sociocultural, and physical contexts over time museum visits are structured around motion, it is crucial that technology will support visitors during and not just
after or before the visit
New possibilities Interaction with the exhibit: reading of information and ‘static’
observation of the exhibit is transformed to a dialectic relationship where the user is interacting with the exhibit through the pda.
active construction of interpretation, information processing and organization, reflection Collaboration and communication
‘Learning on the move’3/17
Educational Usage of PDAs in Museums (2/2)
As electronic guides (Sotto Voce, ImogI, Marble Museum, PEACH project) applications in a form of an electronic guide. These applications provide information on
the exhibits, predetermined guided tours based on certain thematic criteria The children have in their disposal a PDA equipped with location technology capable of
extracting information from the exhibits Different location technologies are used (infrared beacons, RFID, Bayesian
triangulation , see also Raptis, Tselios and Avouris,2005)
As supporting tools (Exploratorium Science museum, San Francisco) the visitor has the possibility to manipulate and experiment with the exhibits, although
the tour and recognition of each exhibit is not an easy task Allows visitors to record their visit path and re-experience it through museum’s website
using specific educational scenarios (MUSEX, Scavenger Hunt Game) A scenario is given to the children and are invited to complete a series of predefined
tasks Typically drill and practice educational system: the children are challenged to answer
correctly a number of multiple choice questions4/17
Activity Design for museums
A novel approach for designing educational activities using PDAs in museums based in social-constructive theories
Influenced by three basic factors: the characteristics of the museum context where the activity is to take place the affordances of the mobile technology to be used the goals of the educational approach to be followed 5/17
PedagogicalGoals Learners
Available content, pedagogical goals, learning theories
Type of exhibits, museum goals, physical layout, appropriate technology
Learner’s characteristics and needs, model of interaction, interaction affordances’ recognizability and understandability
Museum context
Museum context
Historical Museum The majority of the exhibits are paintings and personal
objects of historical Greek persons of the 19th century Direct interaction not available Available content consisted of texts with information
about the exhibits
Specific goals supported by the imposed technology: Highlight the inherent historical interrelation between
various exhibits Provide a way of deeper interaction with the exhibits Design a narrative to integrate the required historical
information into a meaningful story6/17
Technology :proper infrastructure and interaction model
Model of interaction heavily influences the activity’s pedagogical design
positioning and context awareness methods and models to present useful information to the user with respect to the information communicated to him/her by the environment RFID tags to identify the exhibits, using an RFID reader in the pdas to ‘scan’
them When an exhibit is scanned, the PDA sends a request for information to a
server through Wi-Fi infrastructure
models to invert the flow of information The server delivers appropriate content, for the desired exhibit, presented
in the form requested by the user according to her needs (e.g. age, specific interests, etc)
information provided in HTML without requiring text entry7/17
Interacting with the exhibits
Exhibit observation through technology Actions imposed by technology
Actions are associated to physical/virtual space Actions in physical space are influenced and enhanced by technology Actions in virtual space exist only through technology 8/17
Pedagogical Goals
Goal: to engage the students into meaningful problem solving and exploratory learning activities
▪ stimulate the pupils’ imagination▪ allowing them to engage with information extracted by the
exhibits▪ align them towards a synergistic approach to accomplish their
goals instead of just answering multiple choice questions
Problem solving -Collaborative Learning Active exploration of museum exhibits Harvest information of complementary nature compared to that
presented in the physical space and exchange of information Collaborate to extract meaning from the correlation of their
findings
9/17
the ‘Inheritance activity’:scenario
An historian working for the museum hides his will in his favorite exhibit
Students were asked to help the people of the museum to find the will of the imaginary historian that worked for years in the museum
▪ Come in contact with the historical background of the exhibits
▪ Collect, exchange, manage data▪ Use problem solving strategies▪ Collaboratively examine and reflect upon the
information provided 10/17
the ‘Inheritance activity’: description
Initially, the children are introduced to the scenario and are prompted to exchange a certain amount of information the historian left in order to start their quest
Students are challenged to collect related information from a variety of exhibits through reading and storing of the clues in a notepad
The children try to locate the clues which can lead them to the will Each team has a PDA equipped with RFID tag readers Motivated to read information Collect and exchange data Manage information with criteria communicated by the clues
Towards accomplishment of their goal, the students had to collaborate and exchange data as the teams send clues to each other
Finally, they had to engage into a problem solving process to extract meaning from the correlation of their findings
11/17
Application
(a) (b) (c) (d)Offers a series of functions:a) Scan and read RFID Tagsb) Retrieve and display information from the serverc) Store and exchange data (by pointing to each
other’s pda)d) Examine collected cues and select the ‘favorite’
exhibit12/17
Case Study
In real conditions, inside the museum Observe learners’ behaviors in real setting, validate effective usage of mobile devices, PDA’s effectiveness as instructive tools and
in their repercussions in the learning process
17 children (6 male 11 female), aged 10
In 4 groups of 4 or 5 members each Data collection via
mp3 voice recorders, Video camera, pda screen capturing application essay describing their experience
13/17
Data analysis model-Activity Theory
Learning should be examined in relation to the symbolic tools used to facilitate it (Cobb, 2002)
Activity theory: a conceptual tool used to study human practices from the perspective of consciousness and personal development
We chose to adopt this model of analysis, since such a learning activity is comprised by multiple interacting elements and learners collaborating with each other
It takes into account both individual and collaborative activities, the asymmetrical relation between people and things, and the role of artifacts in everyday life
14/17
Results
Extensive collaboration during the procedure Some of the children were in the border of this process (reduce # of
members?)
Constant scaffolding from the researcher Children needed clarifications concerning the scenario
Adoption of different strategies The groups were united and use concurrently the 2 pda’s to observe
the clues and the information related to an exhibit in the same time
Children were highly motivated
the children had never used a PDA before they did not encountered serious problems during the activity some problems with the time required by the application to provide
feedback to the user’s actions, thus confusing them in some cases15/17
Conclusions
Activity theory as a conceptual tool to facilitate design and evaluation seems ideal in this context focus not only on the subject but also on the context and on the
tools involved
Appropriate support with technology could substantially enhance the learning opportunities This experience, which is in the border between learning and an
entertaining activity, seems ideal to be supported by PDAs Promotes imagination, engagement and alignment
Design decisions are affected and should take into account pedagogical, technological and contextual issues
16/17
Future Work
Proper adoption in different contexts instantiation of an activity is affected by issues
such as the scope of the museum and the type of the exhibits
More research in effective awareness mechanisms and communication issues
Realization of an abstract design and evaluation framework for learning activities in the context of a museum visit
17/17
Thank you for your attention!
Nikolaos Tselios*#
Ioanna Papadimitriou*, Vassilis Komis*, Nikolaos Avouris#
*ICTE Group, ECEDU Department, #HCI Group, ECE Department,University of Patras, Rio Patras, Greece
{iopapad,komis,avouris}@upatras.gr, [email protected]
www.ecedu.upatras.gr
Overview
Introduction Learning opportunities with PDA usage in
museums Design
influenced by pedagogical, technological and contextual issues
Case Study to evaluate the new design approach a typical example of our approach, the
‘inheritance activity’ was introduced to young students visiting a Cultural-Historical Museum
Conclusions19/18