Hidden Histories: a Towards Pervasive Media feasibility study

Hidden Histories:To the Castle!
A riotous happening, orchestrated by Claire Taylor, Elizabeth FitzGerald & Mike Cravenwith People’s Histreh

Developed existing interest between local community history group and academics in School of History
TPM enabled multidisciplinary approach and for other colleagues to be brought into the mix
Investigated how located audio can be used to provide opportunities for historical learning in public history
Case study of the 1831 Reform Riot in Nottingham, content initiated by the community group
Conducted 2 types of guided walk:
People-led
Technology-led
Overview of the project

Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality
Augurscope (Equator, Notts), 2003 – group history tour around to Nottingham Castle using laptop/GPS unit on wheels
- Superposition of past scenes and narration.
Mobile experiences
Riot! 1831 (Bristol, Mobile Bristol), 2004
History Unwired (MIT/Dept. Architecture, Venice), 2005
- Both location aware neighbourhood audio tours using the voices of historical citizens
Examples of related work

Can mobile technology be used to convey historical empathy and learning of contested perspectives from different historical sources, in an history walk format?
Main questions to the participants in the walk:
Who were the rioters?
What motivated them to engage in their direct action?
Academic research questions
Historical focus
Educational focus
User experience
What are we trying to find out?

Historical literacy concerning the Reform Riots in Nottingham, asking: What happened in the period of the riots?
Historical empathy with the people involved: What were this period and these events like for different people?
Historical interpretation: how were these events and their causes viewed from differing and/or conflicting perspectives?
Historical research areas
Attaining historicalliteracy
Experiencing ‘empathy’ with historical subjects
Responding to & evaluating accounts from a variety of perspectives

Learning in location
Whatdifferences arise from learning in location compared to elsewhere (e.g. indoors; round a table etc)?
Factors affecting learner preferences
Do you like learning in location? Why – or why not?
Group versus individual tour guides
How did the audio guide technology affect group dynamics?
Educational research areas

Preferences for location based audio guides
What did you or didn't you like about using the audio guide to learn about the Reform Riot?
Experience of using smart phone technology
What were your experiences (good, bad or neither) in using a handheld (mobile) device to help your learning?
Comparing people-led and technology-led modalities
What were the important differences between the two types of guided walk? How did they affect the user experience?
User experience research areas

Planning meeting [Sept/Oct 2010]
People-led guided walk [Oct 2010]
Recording of audio files [Jan 2011]
Technology-led guided walk [Feb 2011]
Stages in the project

Route, narrative, source materials and handouts were organised by members of People’s Histreh
Emphasis on experiences and aspirations of ‘ordinary people’ of Nottingham as starting point for understanding the riots
Self-directed ‘active learning’ – carried out intuitively
‘Learning by doing’
Use the walk as a way of disseminating what they have learned
Stage 1 – Planning meeting

Stage 2 – To the Castle! ‘people-led’ walk
Photos courtesy of Alan Lodge, Nottingham Indymedia

New audio files recorded by People’s Histreh
What software/platform to use for playback of geolocated audio?
User requirements
Potential tech solutions
TrailsCymru / Peoples Collection Wales
OOKL
Layar or Wikitude
WildMaps
Broadcastr
7scenes
Failsafe – use mp3 files stored on the handheld device with paper map
Stage 3 – Audio: recording and playback

Stage 4 – To the Castle! ‘technology-led’ walk

7scenes – tracing the walk

Difficult to draw comparisons between the two walks – too many variables that could not be predicted or controlled
Still analysing data from user questionnaires
Historical aspects: historical literacy (facts), empathy, interpretation
Educational aspects: informal learning; learning in location
User experience aspects: visibility vs invisibility of tech; group vs individual; affordances of each walk
Main findings

Not without problems

Detailed questionnaire analysis
Academic publications
Explore tensions between amateur/professional and authoring/presentation of media
Issues of trust and authenticity in relation to the source material and how it is presented
Feedback to People’s Histreh – potential for future walks
Future research into different variables relating to pervasive media, particularly in relation to user-generated content
Where next…?

Claire Taylor, School of History
claire.k.taylor@nottingham.ac.uk
Elizabeth FitzGerald, Learning Sciences Research Institute
elizabeth.fitzgerald@nottingham.ac.uk
Mike Craven, MATCH, Faculty of Engineering
michael.craven@nottingham.ac.uk
People’s Histreh
http://peopleshistreh.wordpress.com
A massive thanks to all those who participated in the walks and who gave us valuable feedback on this project, also to Faye Taylor and Robert Jones who assisted in the research.
Thanks for listening…

Hidden Histories: a Towards Pervasive Media feasibility study

by Liz FitzGerald on Feb 28, 2011

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Hidden Histories: a Towards Pervasive Media feasibility study — Presentation Transcript