Ambient Wood is a multi-site project, within the learning and playing theme of the Equator IRC, that builds upon the experiences and lessons gained from the Hunting of the Snark project (Rogers et. Al 2002). A playful learning experience was developed where children explored and reflected upon a physical environment that had been augmented with a medley of digital abstractions.
The latter were represented in a number of ambient ways, designed to provoke children to stop, wonder and learn when moving through and interacting with aspects of the physical environment. A variety of devices and multi-modal displays were used to trigger and present the 'added' digital information, sometimes caused by the children's automatic exploratory movements, and at other times determined by their intentional actions.
To this end, a field trip with 'a difference' was created, where children had to discover, hypothesize about and experiment with biological processes taking place within a physical environment.
Two experiences formed the basis for studies involving 40 pupils aged 11-12 years learning about habitat distributions and interdependencies. The second was followed by a classroom study exploring the use of a tabletop display and physical tokens to support children in moving from their informal learning in the wood to more formal learning in the classroom.
Publications :
S.Price,Y.Rogers, (in press) Let's get physical: the learning benefits of interacting in digitally augmented physical spaces. To appear in a Special Issue of Computers and Education.
Price, S., Rogers, Y., Stanton, D., and Smith, H. (2003) A new conceptual framework for CSCL: supporting diverse forms of reflection through multiple interactions. In (eds) B. Wasson, S. Ludvigsen, U. Hoppe, Designing for Change in Networked Learning Environments. Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning 2003. Price S,Marshall P, (2003) Exploiting physicality: linking action and effect'. Position paper for Workshop on Real World User Interfaces, Mobile HCI, Udine, Italy.
Marshall, P., Price, S., & Rogers, Y. (2003). Conceptualising tangibles to support learning. Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, Preston, England, July 1-3, pp 101-110
People
Yvonne Rogers, Geraldine Fitzpatrick, Sara Price, Eric Harris, Ted Phelps, Mia Underwood, Danielle Wilde (RCA student) , Hilary Smith,
Paul Marshall.
Partners
Sussex University (Interact Lab, Informatics) :
Bristol University (Computer Science Dept.) :
Henk Muller, Cliff Randell.
Nottingham University (Mixed Reality Lab):
Danae Stanton, Helen Neale,
Southampton University (Computer Science Dept.):
Mark Thompson, Mark J. Weal and Danius T. Michaelides.
