Digital Learning and Development Environment: NEH White Paper

Wayne State University’s Digital Learning and Development Environment was a research and development project aimed at developing a prototype for a systematic approach to digital learning using image repositories. The repositories used in the project were two of the Wayne State University Library System’s (WSULS) Digital Collections: Virtual Motor City and Digital Dress. The Collections are web portals providing universal access to digitized objects of cultural history from dispersed holdings of WSULS’s institutional partners. The project integrates easy-to-use technical tools with instructional design principles and resources for digital teaching and learning. The result is a replicable web environment where faculty and students can use accessible tools to easily create Digital Learning Objects (DLOs) from collections of digital images. The unique design of the Environment places images from the Library\u27s Digital Collections in context with a tool that downloads the images into a learning object and also provides expert advice in the design of effective digital media for instructional presentations and assignments. Award Dates: 01/09/2009 – 08/31/2009 (no-cost extension until 10/31/2009) Outright Funds: $50,00

Media literacy at all levels: making the humanities more inclusive

The decline of the humanities, combined with the arrival of students focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), represent an opportunity for the development of innovative approaches to teaching languages and literatures. Expanding the instructional focus from traditional humanities students, who are naturally more text-focused, to address the needs of more application-oriented STEM learners ensures that language instructors prepare all students to become analytical and critical consumers and producers of digital media. Training students to question motives both in their own and authentic media messages and to justify their own interpretations results in more sophisticated second language (L2) communication. Even where institutional structures impede comprehensive curriculum reform, individual instructors can integrate media literacy training into their own classes. Tis article demonstrates ways of reaching and retaining larger numbers of students at all levels—if necessary, one course at a time.Published versio

Desire Lines: Open Educational Collections, Memory and the Social Machine

This paper delineates the initial ideas around the development of the Co-Curate North East project. The idea of computerised machines which have a social use and impact was central to the development of the project. The project was designed with and for schools and communities as a digital platform which would collect and aggregate ‘memory’ resources and collections around local area studies and social identity. It was a co-curation process supported by museums and curators which was about the ‘meshwork’ between ‘official’ and ‘unofficial’ archives and collections and the ways in which materials generated from within the schools and community groups could themselves be re-narrated and exhibited online as part of self-organised learning experiences. This paper looks at initial ideas of social machines and the ways in machines can be used in identity and memory studies. It examines ideas of navigation and visualisation of data and concludes with some initial findings from the early stages of the project about the potential for machines and educational work

REDISCOVERING CULTURAL HERITAGE SITES BY INTERACTIVE 3D EXPLORATION: A PRACTICAL REVIEW OF OPEN-SOURCE WEBGL TOOLS

Georeferenced reconstructions can help understand the dynamic evolution of the urban context surrounding a historical site, supporting decision-making processes in the field of urban planning. The development of web applications that allow the interaction between 2D and 3D products, as well as their exploration, can facilitate virtual inspections and foster collaboration in digitization of interventions and site evolutions over time. The article discusses how virtual scene reconstructions and visits can provide alternatives to traditional in-situ tourism promotion, through digital storytelling solutions for the exploration of sites. The article also describes how 3D storytelling technologies are currently being used for dissemination cultural heritage sites. The case study of the Castello Farnese, an old XVI century heritage site in Piacenza (Italy), test the adoption of two distinct free and open-source JavaScript WebGL, Potree and Cesium, for the rendering of photogrammetric and laser scanning georeferenced scaled products and for the integration of narrative features such as annotations, camera animations, texts, and other multimedia contents. Potentials and limitations of both tools are discussed in detail, highlighting how they can be implemented for enhancing user experience in virtual tour and exploration of 3D products. In order to guarantee replicability for other case studies, source code of the implemented application is shared on GitHub along with its documentation for contributions

Storytelling Knowledge Transfer method as an Effective way of Teaching in UTP

Through observations, readings (Journals, Articles and Blogs) the author found out that most of the higher education (Universities and colleges) in Malaysia are using power point slides as the lecturing visual aid. It cannot bedenied that it is one ofthe important and useful aids that the lecturers or the speakers can use to attract and build anunderstanding of the subject domainmat can be transferredto the audience. The author belief that it will be more valuable and useful if it is being used together with some other Knowledge Management tool such as storytelling method (also known asReflective Learning, Narrative orPedagogy Technique). Throughout this report, the author will explain the concept of storytelling and how it can be used in higher education. In the background section, explanations on what is actually storytelling is all about and how it's going to boost the knowledge transfer process. Moreover, there will be a discussion on the type of storytelling method and the stages of telling stories n order to make it more interesting. The problems that trigger the author to come out with this research is because of the current issue that is being faced by students nowadays which is the difficulty of recalling and reflecting the theories into real life situation. They also having a problem in limiting themselves to the power point slides provided by the lecturers during the lecture without trying to think out of the box. The objective of this project is To study whether storytelling method can be used to improve student's performance in higher education, To compare 2 methods which is power point slides teaching session (without related stories or examples) and power point presentation slides + Storytelling method (real life example, related video or analogies), To create an awareness of storytelling method by creating UTP Story Sharing website. Next, the author also will explain on how the research will be conducted throughout the 2 semesters in order to prove the objectives of the research. The specific domain of research area to bewithin the Management and Humanities Department and Fundamental and Applies Sciences Department of UTP since the author needs to focus on one area due to the limitations of time. There are few articles or research papers that the author has referred to in order to come out with this report and all the contents will be discussed in detail in the next few sub topics ofthis report

The Story of the Markham Car Collection: A Cross-Platform Panoramic Tour of Contested Heritage

In this article, we share our experiences of using digital technologies and various media to present historical narratives of a museum object collection aiming to provide an engaging experience on multiple platforms. Based on P. Joseph’s article, Dawson presented multiple interpretations and historical views of the Markham car collection across various platforms using multimedia resources. Through her creative production, she explored how to use cylindrical panoramas and rich media to offer new ways of telling the controversial story of the contested heritage of a museum’s veteran and vintage car collection. The production’s usability was investigated involving five experts before it was published online and the general users’ experience was investigated. In this article, we present an important component of findings which indicates that virtual panorama tours featuring multimedia elements could be successful in attracting new audiences and that using this type of storytelling technique can be effective in the museum sector. The storyteller panorama tour presented here may stimulate GLAM (galleries, libraries, archives, and museums) professionals to think of new approaches, implement new strategies or services to engage their audiences more effectively. The research may ameliorate the education of future professionals as well

Fort Vancouver Mobile

Mobile phones have become ubiquitous yet remain untapped as a storytelling medium. They offer the power of media, text, audio, video, animation, in a fully personalized format. Through GPS technology these devices even can locate a user and share, on the precise spot, data tailored just for that user's particular interest. Users then can add written responses, video or sound about a site or event. The implications for such authoring precision, audience awareness and interactivity pose exciting challenges to the team creating the Fort Vancouver Mobile project, a storytelling environment accessible via smart phones that tells the history of the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site. Phase I, just completed, comprises apps for the iPhone and Android and a story module focusing on Hawaiians who lived and worked at the site in the mid 1800s. Phase II, the focus on this proposal, seeks $50,000 to create modules focusing on gender issues at the site that have, heretofore, gone unexamined