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Cross-Context Learning
Abstract
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... Learning is the situation in which the "individuals can be conceptualized as being involved in a continuous, contextually driven effort to make meaning in order to survive and prosper within the world, an effort that is best viewed as a never-ending dialogue between the individual and his or her physical and socio-cultural environment" (Gammon & Burch, 2008). Learning is driven by the interaction between visitors' external and internal conversation mediated by the changing context and by external shared media (Rudman et al., 2008). Museums can be considered as educational institutions that contribute to informal learning, as most people visit museums expecting to learn (Walker, 2008). ...
This chapter describes the evaluation methods conducted for a digital heritage system, called ARCO (Augmented Representation of Cultural Objects), which examines the tools and methods used for its evaluation. The case study describes the knowledge acquired from several user requirement assessments, and further describes how to use this specific knowledge to provide a general framework for a holistic virtual museum evaluation. This approach will facilitate designers to determine the flaws of virtual museum environments, fill the gap between the technologies they use and those the users prefer and improve them in order to provide interactive and engaging virtual museums. The proposed model used not only quantitative, but also qualitative evaluation methods, and it is based on the extensive evaluations of the ARCO system by simple end-users, usability experts and domain experts. The main evaluation criteria were usability, presence, and learning.
... Learning is the situation in which the "individuals can be conceptualized as being involved in a continuous, contextually driven effort to make meaning in order to survive and prosper within the world, an effort that is best viewed as a never-ending dialogue between the individual and his or her physical and socio-cultural environment" (Gammon & Burch, 2008). Learning is driven by the interaction between visitors' external and internal conversation mediated by the changing context and by external shared media (Rudman et al., 2008). Museums can be considered as educational institutions that contribute to informal learning, as most people visit museums expecting to learn (Walker, 2008). ...
This chapter describes the evaluation methods conducted for a digital heritage system, called ARCO (Augmented Representation of Cultural Objects), which examines the tools and methods used for its evaluation. The case study describes the knowledge acquired from several user requirement assessments, and further describes how to use this specific knowledge to provide a general framework for a holistic virtual museum evaluation. This approach will facilitate designers to determine the flaws of virtual museum environments, fill the gap between the technologies they use and those the users prefer and improve them in order to provide interactive and engaging virtual museums. The proposed model used not only quantitative, but also qualitative evaluation methods, and it is based on the extensive evaluations of the ARCO system by simple end-users, usability experts and domain experts. The main evaluation criteria were usability, presence, and learning.
... The proliferation of web and mobile technologies is pushing language educators to reconsider existing teaching and learning approaches (Donaldson & Haggstrom, 2006). Recent educational scholars call for the redesign of de-contextualized learning to "cross-context" learning (Kim, Hung, Jamaludin, & Lim, in-press;Rudman, Sharples, Lonsdale, Vavoula, & Meek, 2008). This exposition meshes well with language learning theories that advocate autonomous learning (Harmer, 2001), contextualized and authentic learning (Mishan, 2005), and social interactions (Min, 2006). ...
This paper reports a design-based research (DBR) cycle of MyCLOUD (My Chinese ubiquitOUs learning Days). MyCLOUD is a seamless language learning model that addresses identified limitations of conventional Chinese language teaching, such as the decontextualized and unauthentic learning processes that usually hinder reflection and deep learning. MyCLOUD focuses on developing new learning practices among students who traverse the in-school and out-of-school learning spaces, in the hope of bridging the formal and informal aspects of language learning. This paper focuses on two stages of DBR across 13 months and traces students’ artifact creations and social interactions facilitated by the design and re-design of the learning environment. The findings indicate that the students’ participation rates and the qualities of their artifacts and online interactions were significantly improved towards the second stage of the intervention. The key implication from the DBR cycle is that the teachers need to plan and enact enculturation activities to systematically promote the motivation and qualities of artifact creations and online interactions. “Facets” of artifact creation and online interaction skills are distilled to guide the enculturation design as a result.
... Talk accounting for the technicalities of the guide (agreeing starts, stops and volume changes) were not counted as on-topic. In related work, the CAGE project, aimed at encouraging visitor movement within a museum (Lonsdale et al. 2004, Rudman et al. 2008), had tested a location aware SMG in the same gallery, audio recording visitors as they went around the paintings listening to the guide and talking together. For each painting, the content of that guide became increasingly " detailed " as it went along, and finished with a prompt for visitors to look at similar or related paintings in the same gallery. ...
We describe the building and testing of a museum audio tour with content recorded as spontaneous interactive dialogue between two curators as they walked around an art gallery. The aim was to produce a guide which would increase the amount of topically relevant talk shared by people visiting a museum in groups of two or more. Conversation analysis is used to show how a pair of visitors engaged more with the content of the guide than they would have with audio produced as traditional scripted monologue. Examples of a variety of engagement types are detailed and a supporting rationale drawing on Goffman‟s theory of „footing‟ is discussed. The approach potentially offers a low cost way for organisations involved in informal learning to produce flexible in-house audio content for mobile and e-learning, which improves visitor engagement both with the content and with one another, and leads to a more enjoyable visitor/learner experience than traditional forms of audio.
... One possibility might be to provide a brief overview, followed by the option to hear more detail if the user requests it. This technique was used in the CAGE study, carried out in an art gallery, although user interest (and subsequent provision of more detailed information) was inferred implicitly by the length of time the user spent at one location before moving on [15]. It is also possible to provide different audio tours geared towards different target end users e.g. ...
This paper describes and compares two audio guides used to inform the general public about local historical events, specifically the 1831 Reform Riot as it happened in and around Nottingham in the UK. One audio guide consisted of a guided walk, organised and produced by a local community history group, where members of the group performed spoken narratives at specific points of interest around Nottingham city centre, delivered to a large group of participants. The other guide was a trail of geolocated audio files, created by the same community history group and delivered via location-aware smartphones to a smaller group of participants. This second guide provided similar historical information at the same points of interest as the guided walk, authored using a third party software app that employed a mapping facility to trigger audio events at specified locations. Our central research question was to examine how these experiences differed, or were similar; whether they provided an effective means of learning by the general public about local historical events; and how these kinds of techniques can be used in the future or by other community groups.
... Original article learner participation (Walker 2008), cross-context effects (Rudman et al. 2008), as well as communityknowledge base (Collins et al. 2009) have been variously discussed and explored. Novel technologies have also been developed and utilized in museum learning (Kusunoki et al. 2002; Mantyjarvil et al. 2006; Ghiani et al. 2009), where advanced devices, such as multimedia phones, have been applied (Vavoula et al. 2009). ...
Mobile devices have been increasingly utilized in informal learning because of their high degree of portability; mobile guide systems (or electronic guidebooks) have also been adopted in museum learning, including those that combine learning strategies and the general audio–visual guide systems. To gain a deeper understanding of the features and limitations of these guide systems in a museum-learning context and also to provide new designs that better guide learners in interacting with peers and exhibitions, in-depth exploration of learners' actual visits and analyses of their behavioural patterns is crucial. This study was based on empirical observation and analysis of the learning behaviours (recorded on video) of 65 elementary-school students who were placed into three groups: mobile guide with problem-solving strategy, audio–visual mobile guide and paper-based learning-sheet guide. By coding and analysing the video and conducting sequential analysis and frequency analysis of learning-related discussion content, behavioural interaction patterns were determined by which the features and limitations of the different types of guides were compared. Among the findings, it was discovered that the students in the problem-solving mobile guide group showed a higher level of two-way interactions with their peers and the exhibits, as well as more learning-related discussions. Relevant suggestions for teachers, researchers and guide-systems developers are also given.
... Students would often collect unwieldy amounts of information and struggle to make sense of this information when they returned to the classroom. The researchers suggested that students needed more structure and guidance to help them make meaning of the museum experience during and after their visit [26,31]. These efforts have suggested a strong affective and conceptual value of having the opportunity to revisit museum experiences after a field trip [11]. ...
Nomadic scientific inquiry -- technology-supported authentic inquiry done on-the-go, across settings -- has the potential to engage students in learning new concepts and practicing essential science skills. We developed the Zydeco system to support nomadic inquiry in part through enabling the collection and annotation of multimodal data (photographs and audio notes). The system was designed to bridge school and museum contexts through project-based science inquiry. In this study, we explore how Zydeco influences student behavior and sensemaking in the museum. We compared the behaviors of middle-school students who used either Zydeco or paper worksheets to perform inquiry in a museum, and found that, while both the worksheets and the system engendered heads-down behavior, the Zydeco system increased active sociocultural engagement.
... The CAGE system was a prototype movement-based guide designed for a city art gallery (Rudman, Sharples, Vavoula, Lonsdale, & Meek, 2008). The location of the user was determined automatically by an ultrasonic positioning system that was accurate to about 10cm (Figure 3). ...
A consistent finding of research into mobile learning guides and outdoor learning games has been the value of audio as a medium of communication. This paper discusses the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. Three types of audio learning experience are distinguished, based primarily upon differing levels of narrative cohesion: audio vignettes, movement-based guides and mobile narratives. An analysis of projects in these three areas has resulted in the formulation of guidelines for the design of audio experiences. A case study of a novel audio experience, called 'A Chaotic Encounter,' delivers an adaptive story based on the pattern of movements of the user.
A consistent finding of research into mobile learning guides and outdoor learning games has been the value of audio as a medium of communication. This paper discusses the value of location-based and movement-sensitive audio for learning. Three types of audio learning experience are distinguished, based primarily upon differing levels of narrative cohesion: audio vignettes, movement-based guides and mobile narratives. An analysis of projects in these three areas has resulted in the formulation of guidelines for the design of audio experiences. A case study of a novel audio experience, called ‘A Chaotic Encounter,’ delivers an adaptive story based on the pattern of movements of the user.
This experience report shares lessons learned from a multi-staged
prototyping process, over a five-year period, that involved the
creation and iterative development of a mobile platform and dozens
of prototype examples of interactive locative-media artifacts,
including locative journalism. Thematically linked to a public art
collection, the mobile app was designed as a research instrument
aimed at an external audience of passersby, actively using
smartphones. This paper documents and outlines key decisions
made about the platform and content in response to observed
experiences. It also identifies emergent areas of research potential
intertwined in the undertaking of such a prototyping process.
Radio is a major part of our media heritage, but it is seldom featured in exhibitions or as part of museum collections. Museums traditionally operate with a material concept of artefacts, but with the advent of electronic and digital media the need for a broader concept to accommodate intangible forms of heritage, such as radio, has become apparent. This article outlines the challenges of conceptualising the sounds of radio as artefacts of cultural heritage to be exhibited in a museological context. These challenges range from the purely theoreti- cal matter of delineating intangible artefacts to more practical and methodological concerns about presenting these kinds of artefacts in exhibitions. An appreciative understanding of radio heritage calls for didactic strategies for bridging the knowledge gap that exists between the majority of modern audiences and the historic radio material. This article proposes possible responses to this challenge based on insights from learning and design theories.
While tourism presents considerable potential for the use of new mobile technologies, we currently have little understanding of how tourists organise their activities or of the problems they face. This paper presents an ethnographic study of city tourists' practices that draws out a number of implications for designing tourist technology. We describe how tourists work together in groups, collaborate around maps and guidebooks, and both 'pre-' and 'post-visit' places. Implications are drawn for three types of tourist technology: systems that explicitly support how tourists co-ordinate, electronic guidebooks and maps, and electronic tour guide applications. We discuss applications of these findings, including the Travelblog, which supports building travel-based web pages while on holiday.
Research into learning in informal settings such as museums has been in a formative state during the past decade, and much of that research has been descriptive and lacking a theory base. In this article, it is proposed that the human constructivist view of learning can guide research and assist the interpretation of research data because it recognizes an individual's prior knowledge and active involvement in knowledge construction during a museum visit. This proposal is supported by reference to the findings of a previously reported interpretive case study, which included concept mapping and semistructured interviews, of the knowledge transformations of three Year 7 students who had participated in a class visit to a science museum and associated postvisit activities. The findings from that study are shown in this report to be consistent with the human constructivist view of learning in that for all three students, learning was found to be at times incremental and at other times to involve substantial restructuring of knowledge. Thus, we regard that the human constructivist view of learning has much merit and utility for researchers investigating the development of knowledge and understanding emergent from experiences in informal settings. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for teachers and staff of museums and similar institutions are also discussed.