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Hand-held computers and learning in public spaces
By Ben Williamson, Learning Researcher, Futurelab |
It is often the case with technology that what proves good in the way of entertainment and leisure eventually gets used for a variety of other purposes. Location-sensitive, mobile computing and communication devices are no different, and an increasing number of technically innovative projects are beginning to demonstrate their potential as tools for learning.
In the late 1990s, the Swedish games developer It's Alive! were among the first to exploit the capabilities of mobile technology for something other than calls and text messaging. Their game BotFighters pitched players against each other in a virtual version of paintballing, each armed with a selection of weapons and a radar accessed through their mobile phones from an internet-based games engine. Radar could be activated to locate other players in public places, and weapons deployed when enemies were in proximity, merely by sending text message commands.
Something of a hit with technologically savvy young men in Stockholm, BotFighters demonstrated what could be accomplished with just some mobile phones in communication with the internet, but as an action game played primarily after dark on the streets, was bound to remain only a niche interest.
A number of newer projects, however, are demonstrating the wider range of interests that these technologies can serve.
A current project by the Mixed Reality Lab at the University of Nottingham and games developers Blast Theory is aiming to broaden the potential of mobile technology for augmenting experiences in public spaces as part of the Equator Project (a six-year research collaboration between eight UK institutions to explore the integration of physical and digital interaction). Uncle Roy All Around You is played simultaneously by street players armed with location-aware hand-held computers, and online players working in a virtual model of the same street environment. Players then choose to compete against each other or cooperate to find the elusive Uncle Roy.
Originally trialled in Westminster in summer 2003 with 300 street players and over 200 online players, Uncle Roy is intended explicitly to heighten ambiguity, to make its players consider their interpretation of game instructions and commands, as well as the input of other players (online or on the street) in the game. Rather than promoting linear, straightforward experiences, it aims to thwart easy interpretation, to provoke players into creating meaning out of the game's messages, and even to make them reconsider their everyday relationships in public spaces.
Such ambiguity is evident clearly in many artistic works, and the Uncle Roy project attempts to harness a similar aesthetic through its use of text messaging, audio clips, and video delivered to players away from a desktop computer. While this may not be learning in the normal sense, it might certainly be regarded as a way of disturbing everyday assumptions and provoking new awareness of the relationships between space and the people in it. Further trials are planned for Manchester in late spring 2004.
Less unsettling but no less innovative is the Ambient Wood project, also developed under the Equator banner. The Ambient Wood is a natural wooded space augmented with digital data in the shape of sensor technology placed in the natural environment. In the Ambient Wood, children are equipped with hand-held computers, a probe to measure light and moisture, walkie-talkies, and a global positioning system (GPS) which tracks their location and their measurements in real space.
This technology 'makes the invisible visible', and allows the children to discover information actively through intentional use of their probing instruments, and unintentionally by exploring the space.
The children involved collect data in a variety of forms, communicate and work with each other to discover more about habitat distributions and inter-dependencies. The experience is designed to support collaborative learning and to encourage independent enquiry, exploration, discovery, and reflection.
Making the invisible visible is also the aim of Riot 1831, a project managed by Mobile Bristol (a consortium of the University of Bristol, HP Labs and The Appliance Studio) and taking place from 15th April-4th May 2004 in Bristol's historic Queen Square. It brings particular historical scenes back to life in the space where they originally happened.
Riot 1831 recreates the actual riot that occurred in the square 170 years ago through a mixture of art, audio, and performance delivered to a hand-held computer and headphones. Conceived as a play for voices, it retells the story of the defeat of the Political Reform Bill of 1831, and the denial of the vote to ordinary people. The uprising that followed saw ordinary people plunder and burn buildings on the square, before the Dragoon Guards charged and slaughtered many of them.
But Riot 1831 does not simply tell one story. Visitors to the installation are equipped with GPS that is able to track their location. According to where the visitors stand, they will hear different voices and scenes from the riots. Further, the sound files delivered to each visitor can be defined in a specific order according to which regions on the square they have walked through and in which order they did so. The experience of the riot is shaped by the visitor's actual participation in the environment, recreating it almost as if it were being experienced first-hand.
The capacity of handheld computers and location-sensitive devices to augment the experience of space with a layer of digital data has interesting implications for informal learning experiences either outdoors or indoors. Many museums are experimenting with such technology to bring exhibits more to life.
The Hypertag project trialled at the National Space Centre in Leicester, Explore At-Bristol, and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, for example, allows visitors to determine the depth of information they receive by pointing hand-held computing devices at installations they find interesting. Through the device they can then access textual, pictorial and audio information to augment the museum space itself.
In a collaboration with Mobile Bristol and the BBC Natural History Unit, Futurelab has also been experimenting with this technology to deliver the experience of being on the African Savannah to children on a school playing field.
The capacity of such technology to transform the experience of public and outdoor space, then, has moved in just a few years from action gaming on the streets of Stockholm, to the recreation of historical and environmental events for artistic, performance, and educational purposes. It has allowed museums, educators and artists to explore delivering content not just as something static to be viewed, read, or heard, but as something to be actively experienced as if it were still unfolding.
Links
Ambient Wood: machen.mrl.nott.ac.uk/Projects/Digitalplay/Ambientwood-II.htm
BotFighters: www.botfighters.com/welcome
Equator: machen.mrl.nott.ac.uk/Home/ABOUT.HTM
Hypertag: new.hypertag.com/Visitor/Home.view
Riot 1831: www.mobilebristol.co.uk/QueenSq.html
Savannah: www.futurelab.org.uk/showcase/show.htm
Uncle Roy All Around You: machen.mrl.nott.ac.uk/Projects/CitywidePerformance/Unlceroy.htm
April 2004
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