Brett Oppegaard, PhD Locative Learning
Proposal for: 5th International conference on Learning Technology for Education in Cloud (LTEC 2016) By: Brett Oppegaard, PhD, University of Hawai‘i Title of tutorial: Putting Education Back Into Place: Exploring the Potential of Locative Learning Through Mobile Technologies Abstract (182 words): The Factory Model of education in the early 1900s swept farmers from the fields and brought them into nondescript rooms, where they were lined up in rows, forced to face forward, graded like meat, and formally indoctrinated into the prevailing Industrial views of society. A century later, this consolidated model of learning is fracturing under the decentralizing forces of cloud-based Internet technologies, especially through networked smartphones with locative capabilities. As these devices better to get to know their users, and where their users are at, they also are opening up emerging informal learning opportunities. The potential for new forms of immersive and interactive place-based learning creates the sensation of embarking on a never-ending field trip with the Library of Alexandria in your pocket. This half-day workshop will provide an overview of such mobile place-based learning developments, like a Locative 101 class, sharing a sampling of field studies, research projects, and apps, to provide grounding in the field, followed by a group geocaching activity that fosters direct experimentation with locative media in learning contexts as well as reflection and discussion about those experiences. Description of topic and relevance to KMO or LTEC: Despite the relatively sudden surge of consumer interest in mobile technologies and mLearning, traditional educational institutions generally have been befuddled by this societal shift and only have begun to explore the potential of these technologies, especially in terms of context awareness and matters of place. Nyre, Bjørnestad, Tessem and Øie (2012) and Westlund (2013; 2014) have been among those, including Pavlik and Bridges (2013) contending that the digital transformation of media, particularly with mobile devices as the delivery systems, could better engage citizens, create new storytelling forms, and also provide more context, nuance, and texture to proximate events and issues. In turn, this workshop will start with a foray into the potential, as shown by several of my recent design-based research experiments in this field, creating and testing authentic audience experiences, as a way to empirically explore what geographical nearness means to the future of place-based learning. These projects have tested responses to locative texts, audio, and video, in-situ, and found that place does
Brett Oppegaard, PhD Locative Learning matter to audiences and should be of immediate educational concern. Yet related issues – such as resources and technical expertise needed, product maintenance required, and obstacles of accessibility – are complex and have been rarely addressed in any forum. This workshop therefore will illustrate the potential of locative learning, as it is emerging, but also outline the challenges preventing more research and development on this topic, based on first-hand experiences. As a part of this societal transformation, mobile media delivery systems have helped to diffuse proximity’s traditional definition of physical closeness, morphing with evolving ambiguity, including being recoded with meanings well beyond spatial significance, such as through social or emotional or virtual ties (Huxford, 2007). Yet geography and physical nearness remain crucial to our understandings and interpretations of the world. Our places are our interfaces, increasingly integrated with overlapping digital worlds through mobile technologies (Farman, 2012). They generate deep, complex, and personal meanings to us. Mobile scholars, in turn, have been reexamining definitions, collecting data in unprecedented ways, and pursuing novel methodologies for answering the important questions emerging about the enduring value of place. Format of tutorial (1/2 day, 1 day): ½ day Tutorial organizer(s) and their qualifications: Brett Oppegaard, PhD, University of Hawai‘i; the PI on several federal grants funded to explore place-based learning, including two National Endowment for the Humanities grants funded to experiment with new ways to learn at U.S. National parks. A brief discussion of why the topic is of particular interest at this time: Researchers have well-chronicled the rise of smartphones and how pervasive they have become, with around 64 percent of Americans owning the devices, mostly iPhones and various Android-based devices (Smith, et al., 2015). Scholars also have shown how these devices can be used effectively for individual learning (Charitonos, et al., 2012; Marty, et al., 2013). Data from the Pew Research Center show that nearly one-fourth (24%) of teens (ages 13-17) are on the Internet “almost constantly” and 56% go online several times a day (Lenhart, 2015). Though the numbers are slightly lower for younger children, researchers at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop found that “at age 3, about one-quarter of children go online daily, increasing to about half by age 5. And by age 8, more than two-thirds use the Internet on any given weekday” (Gutnick, Robb, Takeuchi, & Kotler, 2011, p. 16). Given how ubiquitous mobile technology has become in the lives of children, learning is no longer constrained to the formal school structures and should be better understood in contextual learning situations.
Brett Oppegaard, PhD Locative Learning Overview of content, description of the aims, presentation style, potential/preferred prerequisite knowledge: 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.: Fundamentals of locative learning, including its foundations in placebased learning and a description of the academic topic’s development at this moment, including important projects, prototypes, theories, methodologies, field studies, experiments, and research questions under current examination. 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.: App demos and related discussions will include a geocaching activity to a nearby educational site, in which the group can explore the sensations of mixing digital media and physical settings, and talk about what could be done, how it could be done and possibly forge collaborations to getting some project like that done together. 11 a.m. to Noon: Those in attendance then will return to the workshop site and work on forming a shared research agenda and building partnerships among attendees that can be enduring and meaningful and lead to new research and more advancement of the field. Required materials (e.g. will you need internet access, lab access, specific software installed?): Internet access for the presenter, and attendees should have Internet access as well as a mobile device upon which to experiment (preferably Apple or Android). Intended audience and expected number of participants: Learning technology researchers and professionals interested in the impact and potential of informal and locative educational innovation. I could accommodate as many as 20 people in this workshop. Data regarding the presenter(s) (name(s), affiliation, email address, homepage) and short description of their expertise, experience in teaching and tutorial presentation: Brett Oppegaard, PhD, University of Hawai‘i,
[email protected] Tenure-Track Academic Appointments: University of Hawai‘i, Assistant Professor (Fall 2014 - present), on the tenure track at a Tier 1 research institution (Carnegie Classified as RU/VH), on the Manoa campus, the flagship of the 10-campus system; part of The School of Communications, The College of Social Sciences, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, Honolulu HI. Washington State University, Assistant Professor of Communication (Fall 2011 – Summer 2014), on the tenure track at a Tier 1 research institution (Carnegie Classified as RU/VH), on the urban campus in Vancouver, WA; part of The Creative Media and
Brett Oppegaard, PhD Locative Learning Digital Culture program, in partnership with The Edward R. Murrow College of Communication in Pullman, WA. College Classes Taught: • Media and Community (Jour 402, UH): Spring 2016 (in progress) • Special Topics: Locative Journalism, Media in the Here and Now (Com 691, UH): Fall 2015 • Journalism Projects / Production (Jour 401, UH): Fall 2015 • Workshop in Editing (Jour 390, UH): Summer 2015 • Visual Journalism: Multimedia (Jour 320, UH): Fall 2014; Spring 2015 • Reporting Across Platforms (ComJour 333, WSU): Spring 2013; Spring 2014 • Writing in Communication (Com 295, WSU): Spring 2012; Fall 2012; Spring 2013; Fall 2013 • Mass Communication, Society and Theory (Com 101, WSU): Fall 2011; Spring 2012; Fall 2012; Summer 2013; Fall 2013 • Digital Storytelling (DTC 354, WSU): Fall 2010 • Language, Texts and Technology (DTC 375, WSU): Spring 2009; Fall 2009; Spring 2010; Spring 2011 • Information Ethics (DTC 338, WSU): Fall 2008 • Writing Family History (ComEd, CC): Fall 2008 • Electronic Information (DTC 338, WSU): Spring 2008 • College Newspaper (Jour 121-123 / 221-223, CC): Fall 2003; Winter 2004; Spring 2004 • Opinion Writing (Com Studies 463, UP): Spring 2002 • Feature Writing (ComEd, CC): Spring 2001 Keynote addresses: •
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Audio Description Webinar for the National Park Service (live streamed to parks throughout the Pacific West Region, 2015). A keynote presentation, “From Unigrid to Unidescription,” simulcasted to audiences in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, California, and Hawai‘i. “Mobile magic: Demystifying ubiquitous computing by deconstructing mobile affordances through the lens of technology,” Hamilton Library, keynote as part of the University of Hawai’i’s Faculty Lecture Series, sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (Honolulu, HI, 2015). “Tending a Place: Growing Interpretation Services Through Mobile Technologies,” Washington State University Extension Master Gardener Program keynote address (simulcasted throughout Washington state, 2014). National Association for Interpretation workshop (Vancouver, WA, 2013) Keynote address: “Embracing Mobile: How Integrating Ubiquitous Computing Technologies Can Help to Develop New Voices, Engage With Diverse
Brett Oppegaard, PhD Locative Learning
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Perspectives, and Attract New Audiences," simulcasted to audiences in Seattle, Vancouver, BC, and Anchorage, AK. “Kanaka Mobile,” a keynote presentation of my research into mobile interpretation of the Hawai‘ian history in the Pacific Northwest, to attendees of the 3 Days of Aloha festival, sponsored by the Ke Kukui Foundation (Vancouver, WA, 2013). “Planes, Mills, Factories, and Forts: Exploring Technological Heritage in the 21st Century” speaker series, as part of the Public Archaeology Field School at Fort Vancouver (Vancouver, WA, 2013) Keynote address: “Embedded Remnants: How Mobile Technologies Can Document, Preserve, and Share Archaeological Findings in the Places They Matter Most.”
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Digital Humanities Summer Institute, “Creating Digital Humanities Projects for the Mobile Environment,” an all-expenses paid instructor, part of the team (with Dr. Dene Grigar, Dr. John Barber, Will Luers and Nicholas Schiller) that taught a week-long course in mobile app development to faculty members from throughout North America, sponsored by University of Victoria (Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, 2012 and 2013).
