Community Gardens near me.

Local Food Systems Scenario: Players locate and map where food comes from in their neighborhood. Dairy farms? Community garden plots? Organic Farms and CSA? Canneries? Egg farms? Beef farms? Cabbage? Cranberries? Orchards? Processing plants?

Play: In the map to the right, I’ve outlined in red the community garden plots near me. For going over to them and walking around both sets, I’d get some points, similar to the UNM game Chris Holden created. If I became an expert on the locations of the other community gardens in my city, I’d earn some sort of badge. If I learned more by interviewing some of the gardeners about what they’re growing (and why), and sharing that in the game, I’d earn some further expertise points. I could add restaurants that use local food as well. The game is limited only by what the quests are, and in this game, I can challenge — and accept challenges — from other players, so there really is no limit.

Basically, I have a notion that if we got together with a few interested peers and students/PAs, we could come up with a really interesting interdisciplinary place-based field experience that offered multiple quests at multiple levels of expertise (ala “I’ll take Botany for 200, Alex”) that could be replicated in different areas across the state (and country). Although my initial thoughts center on using ARIS, they only extend as far as using ARIS as a prototyping tool — the actual game might end up in a number of different formats for different technologies.

My goals are these. I’ve been passionate about place-based/embodied learning for decades, and am now in a position where I’ve got access to cool folks and cool tools (Google Maps and ARIS, etc.), and a job where I can finally start to coordinate the creation of something amazing that combines them all. My big evil scheme is to get smart  brains in one whiteboard-filled room, and let ideas cross-pollinate. I imagine a large scalable tour/game/field experience with new quests/activities being continually added as they’re developed.

If we build a structure/frame together, it will be easier to add components individually, as needs/resources arise. And we can recruit players by luring them from other quests (i.e. I’ve played the Astronomy Quest, and like this activity — maybe I’ll try out the Ecology Quest to supplement my points!)

I have no doubt that players would quickly find that many skills overlap from discipline to discipline. So if I kicked butt in and really enjoyed a Probability sub-quest in the Botany line of quests, I might want to jump over an rip through some Probability sub-quests in the Language line of quests (e.g. um… probability of multi-vowel adjacency in billboard ads in Wisconsin?).

Markermusic.com is one of the coolest place-centric mashups of user production that I’ve seen. Wow.

The idea is simply to record a riff based on another riff, ala the famous YouTube video inbflat.net project.

Oh here, let me steal their explanation —

marker/music is an interactive sound and music map created by Darren Solomon, the students and faculty of Northern State University, and members of the community of Aberdeen, South Dakota. From October 18th – 22nd, 2010, the group shot over 70 videos in the area, from which 12 were chosen to be embedded in a custom Google map. The project was inspired by Darren’s inbflat.net, and is intended to explore the concept by producing the entire project locally in a single community, rather than through internet-based crowdsourcing.

<— And here’s the inbflat.net project.

It's Sorry and Parcheesi played outside as fast as you can run!

If you’ve not already read about in the Daily Page or on MacArthur’s Digital Media Spotlight, on April 18-20, we held our first “Global” ARIS jam. There were over a hundred participants from Columbia, the Netherlands, and Spain, and the U.S. including folks from the Minnesota Historical Society, 3M, Oregon Middle School, Whitewater Middle School, Oconomowoc School District, Middleton Alternative Senior High, University of New Mexico Albuquerque, University of Northern Colorado, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Parsons The New School of Design, University of Murcia, consultants from WiseGuys and IdeaMonkey Inc. And in the ensuing 50 hours of work, folks created 127 games (not counting the ones we made in the workshop!).

Pretty Cool, huh?

I held four ARIS workshops in that time. One for the opening group and three for high school and university classes that dropped by. Between teaching workshops and roaming the amazing Wisconsin Idea room in the UW-Madison Education building (thanks for hosting, SoE!!) helping participants work through design logic, I was only able to make one game ———>>>>

Adobe Connect slogged whenever we had more than 9-10 feeds.

Nonetheless, we were mentally and physically exhausted afterwards, and we learned a whole lot about creating interactive place-based experiences for learning through play.

The Six Technologies are no surprise to those of us who have been advocating and developing mobile learning practices and tools. They are:

1. mobile computing
2. open content
3. electronic books
4. simple augmented reality
5. gesture-based computing
6. visual data analysis

If these look at all familiar, it may be because you are already using them via your smartphone. They are all  fiercely personal, socially connecting, and deeply embodied. The iPhone and iPad has ushered in an era of apps that take advantage of the geo-locative technologies, brilliant displays, touch screen and accelerometers of these devices to make many of the items listed already either mainstream or nearly-so — highlighted in popular “near-future” media representations.

What they do no explicitly mention, but what is implicit in the current uses of many on this list is games. Mobile games are huge, often rely on complex visual data analysis and gesture-based input.

I’ll be adding more commentary to this as I have time.

The iPad is essentially a blank slate. We’ve not seen it before, and we’re not exactly sure how we’ll use it. But for whatever reason, we’ve recognized that it *could* be useful, so we got one.

Well, it’s been five months since they shipped, and it’s time to reflect a bit. How are we using them? What do they do well, and not do well for us? Is anyone teaching with them? Presentations? Conferences? Thought organization? Concept mapping? Drawing?

Personally, I use the iPad in the following ways:

Visual Thinking: I tend to think visually, but need kinesthetic manipulatives for effective idea generation and organization So my history of thinking involves note cards, Legos, blocks, pen and paper, white boards, etc. I bought iThoughts (concept mapping tool), and am finding that the ability to easily put ideas down, but then group, move, and rearrange them is very helpful.

Drawing: Because I think with my hands, the iPad solves a problem that I have with computers. It allows direct interaction with the images I create on it. Even with my Wacom tablet, my computer doesn’t allow for such a direct interaction. The Wacom is better than the mouse for drawing, but it’s too unintuitive for me to draw on surface, and see the results only on another one. For the iPad, I bought SketchBook Pro, and have used it for a number of drawing projects, but I’m also a big fan of the much much simpler Adobe Ideas for quick sketches and idea generation. The biggest issue in drawing on the iPad is that the screen doesn’t offer any real “tooth” — it’s too slick, like writing on glass. The other issue is drawing with fingers. Even though I can zoom in and create some amazingly detailed work, then zoom out and add broad strokes, I’ve just not had drawing experience without a pen (finger painting days excluded). I bought a Pogo pen but the tip is too squishy for me, and it feels like drawing with a soggy pickle in a tube. I suspect I just need to practice with my finger.

Commuting: I use the excellent iPhone app Locomatix (free) to find out when and where to catch the next bus, then use the iPad’s 3G to check email, Facebook, etc. The form factor of the iPad works on the bus (and train and plane). It’s not too big to fit on my lap, and it’s quick to pull out or stow as needed. It works where the laptop didn’t because it slips easily in and out of my bag, and comes on instantly.

Conferences: The iPad has been a fabulous companion for me at conferences. I use Google Maps to find my way to conference hotels (no budget to actually stay in the conference hotels, I find cheap Skid Row hotels), and to navigate the public transit. The 3G network is far more reliable (and cheaper) than the conference center and hotel wifi service. The battery life of the iPad far exceeds that of my laptop for outlet-scarce conferences. The form factor works better for me when taking notes in conference sessions. The screen keyboard actually works better because it auto-corrects my misspellings (I’m a bad typist). I’ve never been successful at using MS Word’s auto-correct, but Apple seems to do an acceptable job in their mobile OS. And after a long day of attending sessions, my back isn’t killing me because I’m only carrying a 2lb iPad (I love my Marware Eco-Vue portfolio, even though it’s a bit heavy) in my bag.

Casual: There are more casual browsing moments with the iPad than laptop. It works better in my backyard, and couch, and bed — and I feel safer taking it out with me to some places than I do a $2000 laptop. Additionally, some browsing experiences are better on the iPad than on the browser (e.g. Craig’sPro+ is a much better Craigslist experience than the web version).

Although I use it for many things, there are many things that I’ve either not tried, not though of trying, or tried and found to work less well than other things.

• I’ve not tried to present with it. I’ve just obtained a VGA adapter, and will try this soon.
• The laptop works better at a table/desk. Of course, that’s what the laptop was created for. The iPad was created for other places.
• It’s too heavy to be a good eReader. Others will disagree with me on this, but I hold books up to read them. The iPad gets too heavy to hold for extended reading.
• The iPhone is better on the bus. Simply because it’s easier to slip the iPhone into my pants pocket than it is to slip the iPad into my bag (bag has a zipper though). I also feel less out of place looking at my phone than I do looking at my iPad on the bus. I expect this will change as tablets proliferate.

I think that many of the faults I find with it, or places where I am disappointed with it, are due more to a familiarity with other tools, like the laptop (my first was an Apple Duo 230), or my iPhone (still using the first generation Edge iPhone), and my own overblown expectations/hopes/dreams of it. There is far to go to get to my Dream Device, but the iPad — after 5 months of use — seems to be a useful stop along the way.

What are your thoughts on it?

Wild Moose (Martin, 2005), and Mitchville (Martin, 2006) were both AR games that used GPS equipment and a handheld computer to mimic a communication device, which relayed up-to-the-minute information to the trip to help them in their task (Martin, 2008). What happened was that the game narrative motivated campers to move beyond the ease and safety of trail hiking. The difficulty of actually hiking off-trail, coupled with the uncertainty of what one might find there, challenged the campers, and pushed them to move slightly beyond their comfort level.

Here’s a description of what was done in the past:

Towards the end of each summer, while the older boys were doing manly things on the Allagash or at Katahdin, we others took part in the wild pursuit of thieves, kidnappers, and other nefarious individuals.

That first summer of mine, quite unexpectedly, as we were about to set out on our regularly scheduled trips one Tuesday morning, we were all called together and the cold facts were put before us. Something terrible had happened; I am sure that I don’t remember what. Plans had to be changed at the last moment, and all our energies were to be devoted to helping the local authorities, whoever they were, hunt down the criminals and bring them to justice. At the same time we would uphold the honor of the camp, and in all probability bring fame and fortune to ourselves and our counselors.

Assignments were quickly made. For the sake of expediency, the original trip groupings would be maintained, but we would travel unexpected paths. All of this had been well arranged beforehand; and I can visualize the counselors now constructing the complicated plot in the evenings after we had gone to bed. Now they were ready to play it out.

I can’t remember much of that first Mystery Trip except that it rained. It rained all the time. The villains, whoever they were, had left clues and trails as they challenged us to track them down. Coded messages were found and deciphered. The net was slowly tightening. In tracking those undesirables, we learned more than we at the moment wanted to know about following trails in the woods. I clearly remember looking for stone cairns on the mountain side under what were certainly not the most favorable conditions (Price 1986).

Diana Rhoten, of Startl, speaks of the need to cater to the learning demands of the current generation of learners who, she argues, are following “Interest-driven Learning” — achievable now, and driven by the creation of an unprecedented technical infrastructure. Kids now prefer to follow a learning path of consumption, production, and participation. It starts by finding their interest and coaching them through their development of it. Although Rhoten focuses on younger kids than we find in higher education, much of what she says applies to the demographics that we serve. Indeed, higher education (and programs such as UW-Madison’s Digital Media Assignments) may be a grand testing ground for this, due to our demographic of already “plugged-in” students — an exceptionally large population of tech owners/users compared to the under-12 set that Rhoten works with.

It’s a beautiful video. Watch it and let me know if you think it makes sense.

• With 24/7 access to trusted sources of information in their pockets, students no longer need to have information imparted to them. Instead, they need teachers to help them 
  • filter out the good from the bad (determine quality)
  • see the relevance of the good to their lives (determine value)
  • learn how to apply the good, relevant information to solve problems
• This requires a significant shift (disruption) in the nature of instruction that will make the disruption of having people surf, Facebook, and Tweet in class seem like small potatoes.
• Of all the learning technologies that we can use, the ones students already value and are experts with (phones) seems like a no-brainer to embrace.