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Ambient Wood | Ambient Wood II
Ambient Wood II (2003)
Overview
Building on the experiences of Ambient Wood I, Ambient Wood
II continued exploring the theme of augmenting a woodland playful
learning experience with digital tools. New devices were introduced
and an improved system for remote facilitator support was implemented.
Devices
- Pinging Probe
- The Ambient Horn
Infrastructure
- Ambient wood tracking 2.0
The Ambient Wood II took place in Sussex, as in Ambient Wood
I. The field trip was similar to before, with children exploring
and experimenting in a digitally augmented woodland, to learn
about habitat distributions and interdependencies. The experience
again was divided into three stages, but this time it was
structured to encourage children to focus on particular kinds
of information at each stage. In the first exploring stage
they focussed on finding out about plant life in the different
habitats (one pair of children explored a dense wooded area,
the other explored an open clearing).On the basis of their
discoveries they began to think about and predict what kind
of animal life this habitat would support. This took place
in the den, where an interactive screen display was used to
enable them to show their information to one another. In the
third stage they went back into the wood, but this time to
the 'other' habitat, to verify their predictions made in the
den. This design also meant that both pairs of children were
able to experience each of the different habitats.
Technology used
On the basis of findings from Ambient Wood 1, some modifications
were made to the design of the remote collaboration, as well
as the addition of new technological devices. They again used
PDAs which they used to both receive and store information;
a probe tool to measure light and moisture readings (as in
Ambient Wood 1); and GPS tracking was used to record and log
all of the data captured by the children.
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Taking
readings in the dense wood |
A
sound horn (The Ambient Horn) was added in, to enable the
children to have more control over when they heard the sounds
within the wood. The sounds too were tailored more specifically
to relevant information, but still used abstract sounds as
explored in Ambient Wood 1. The Ambient Horn, thus, provided
a way to access sounds representing processes invisible to
the eye or events that had happened at a different time.
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Collecting
sounds in the wood with the Ambient Horn
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In addition the remote collaboration and information triggered
to the children's PDAs was designed to be more driven by the
children's natural explorations in their physical world. Children
used their walkie-talkies to report their findings to the
remote facilitator, who sent additional information including
images to the children's PDA.
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Using
the PDA to receive and record information in the wood
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Information received on the PDA acted both as a source of
information, and as a way of children storing their information,
to use later in the den. The remote facilitator could also
send other relevant digital information to the children if
it was thought to be beneficial to their exploration.
Findings
Studies
involving 20 pairs of children aged 11-12 years learning about
habitat distributions and interdependencies suggest this to
be a highly engaging experience and suggest:
1) Ways in which wireless technologies can support new forms
of collaborative interaction and reflection for learning.
2) That different ways of transmitting and triggering digital
information vary in terms of their pervasiveness or direct
control, which seems to be instrumental in the ways that information
is used and attended to.
In the news (Press)
BBC 'Go Digital' 30th June 2003 - Children explore wi-fi
The Sussex University Bulletin magazine article
Argus
See also
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