Much of our learning unfolds in "abstract" situations or informally; museums, zoos, and marine parks are just a a few of the settings that come to mind. Observations are critical in such settings -- but they're challenging to design and difficult to conduct.
Imagine you've been tasked with observing traffic patterns for a new exhibit at the San Diego Zoo--the goal being to help exhibit planners (and the performance technologists with whom they work) determine what signage to create and how best to position it, ways to ensure visitors also have a clear line of sight, and techniques for "infusing" the zoo's subliminal messages (about the importance of wildlife and environmental conservation) into the mix.
Take a look at some of the resources listed here (and DEFINITELY feel free to share gems you find on your own) ... and then ... share your ideas about protcool design.
What would your protocol look like? On what themes, ideas, or issues would it focus?
-- Bob Hoffman on informal learning (Info-Line)
-- Digital Youth Research (Kids' Informal Learning with Digital Media)
-- VicariousLearning.com
-- Mobile learning in informal science settings
-- A Week in the Life of a High School (a provcative observational sojourn)
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5 comments:
Here's something I've wondered about a long time - how things look or sound in reverse. Not just words, but certainly things like a scripted Zoo experience. When attending exhibits, I make a concerted effort to view things in reverse order, if possible.
So, a challenge would be to infuse your message so completely that a visitor could devine it from a gestalt of impressions, not just the programmed material. A parallel experience would be the EDTEC program. You don't follow any one path to a degree. Sure, each of us starts in the same courses and finishes together, but along the way we take various courses in various orders. (Note to self: controlling for prereqs and semester availability, calculate the number of possible paths to an EDTEC degree...)
In the Zoo situation, I'd make it clear to someone coming in from the back side that they *were* going backwards. Each sign would include a description of the exhibit, but also two parts of the overall message of conservation. Each part would have a sister on another sign, and no two signs would have sister-pairs in common. In this way, the visitor would slowly build their understanding of conservation, asynchronously as it were. If they miss a particular conservation topic on one sign, they'd stand a good chance of picking it up from another sign.
I've used this technique while running events. Participants have made comments such as "I knew that before I read it - how odd!" They were a victim of me infusing the same important information somewhere else in their environment. I normally code the most important administrative messages in several different mediums at several locations. That way I can concentrate on other aspects of my visitors' experience.
In 571, we will have a chance this semester to evaluate an informal learning exhibit.
In my experience, my issue tends to be whether or not I can reach/view the exhibit signage. During busy times (such as the great white shark exhibit at the Monterey Bay Acquarium), people tend to crowd around the exhibit information signs, making it tough to read as people are pushing through. Multiple signage would help alleviate crowding.
My theme would be multiple signs for each exhibit. Signs would stimulate reflection (ask questions) to help learning transfer by internalizing.
John, excellent point about accessibility. The best made signs in the world will do no good if they're blocked by heads. I was at a conference today (San Diego is great for that) and many of the powerpoint slides had text that was blocked by heads from the back of the room. The top of the slides had a nice background image, but no useful information. Always need to test your product in the performance context!
I am most interested in observing social phenomenon in their natural settings. I got interested in this virtually when exploring what teens are doing with their myspace pages in my research study for edtech 690. I looked also at Hoffmans example of the day in the life of a high school student...(here is an exerpt):
The timing of this Tuesday bash is unusual, but the scene isn't. Student parties are a weekend staple in Webster Groves, and along with them come the vices all parents dread. Only a fraction of the students experiment with Ecstasy or LSD, but they do drink. "Basically, a lot of people think there's nothing else to do but drink," says senior Adam Wise.
I have volunteered to do a lot of research studies at Luth research in downtown San Diego and all too often I notice that the natural enviornment is foresaken for the efficient lab one, but doesn't replicate what people really do, where they do it, when no one's watching. Its a constant struggle to only observe without participating because to observe things in their natural environment means you come into their world, not bring them into your lab.
I think if I could do anything for money it would totally be to observe, document and analyze culture. Heres a simpel but insightful site about what I mean:
http://www3.uop.edu/sis/culture/pub/Culture,_The_Hidden_Dimensio.htm
Like Nelly I'm curious about phenomona in its natural setting. I do actually spend a lot of time informally observing with no aim. As it relates to learning environments, I've been noticing note-taking, a common activity, which for me, has increasingly become obsolete in most cases.
I'm very interested in observing "digitally situated" behavior. I'm not sure I'm sold on that term; I'm just not sure "virtual" holds its weight any longer. Anyway...I'm also interested in observing digital situations and their artifacts, the blogosphere for example.
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