Mobile devices to raise cultural awareness # 2

Sara Vannini

NewMinE Lab - www.newmine.org Faculty of Communication Sciences

Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

m-training m-serious games

Yesterday’s session

- projects: PSP @ BPS + eTreasure- support learning- anywhere, anytime (location matters)

Location-based Services (LBSs) are services that provide information that has been

created, compiled, selected, or filtered taking into consideration the current location of the

users’ mobile objects.

Their attractiveness results from the fact that their participants do not have to enter location

information manually, but that they are automatically pinpointed and tracked.

- Axel Kuepper (2005) -Location-based Services: Fundamentals and Operation

• Health

• Agriculture

• Census

Educational field activities

photo by Yasser

Tourism as THE informal learning experience

Tourism as THE informal learning experience

• The Odyssey, by Homer

• Il Milione, by Marco Polo (XIV Century)

• XVII - XIX Centuries: “Grand Tour”

• Tristes Tropiques, by Claude Lévi Strauss

• In Patagonia, by Charles Bruce Chatwin

• On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,pray that the road is long,

full of adventure, full of knowledge.

- Ithaca, by Constantine P. Cavafy -

m-tourism

Experiments with several methods for tracking tourists based on several mobile technologies:

- Global Positioning System (GPS);

- Mobile Phones (Cellular Triangulation & Time Difference of

Arrival);

- Hybrid Assisted-GPS.

Cellular phones have some advantaged, especially in urban environments, whereas GPS is far more accurate on the micro-level.

- Shoval & Isaacson, 2007 -Tracking Tourists in the Digital Age

Annals of Tourism Research 34

Use of Mobile Technologies in Cultural institutions and Museums:

- Audio-video guides (TATE Modern, London);

- Guide allowing tagging and bookmarking content while visiting

the museum (SFMOMA).

INLET Project:Introducing Language Enhancement Techniques

(Olympic Games in Greece in 2004)

- Pincas, 2005 -Approaches to just-in-time learning with mobile phones: a case study of

support for tourists’ language needsMobile learning anytime everywhere

INLET Project:Introducing Language Enhancement Techniques

(Olympic Games in Greece in 2004)

- Pincas, 2005 -Approaches to just-in-time learning with mobile phones: a case study of

support for tourists’ language needsMobile learning anytime everywhere

more targeted

‘feel’ a connection to Greece and its people

m-tourism & m-guides

Most recurrent functionalities of m-guides

45.0%!

47.5%!

52.5%!

40%! 42%! 44%! 46%! 48%! 50%! 52%! 54%!

Search!

Near me!

Show on the map!

A point about maps’ use concerns how they are frequently read in advance of getting to the place the map describes. [...] Indeed, this pointed us towards a much–neglected aspect of using maps: their educational function. A major aim of using a map is to learn about a place sufficiently that one can get around without using a map...

- Brown, B. and Chalmers, M., 2003 -Tourism and mobile technology

Proceedings of the eighth conference on European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Survey results

- 121 valid responses

- Stay duration (mean): 2 nights

- all had at least one mobile device

- 71.1% had a mobile device able to connect to the Internet

- 24.0% never access the Internet with their mobile devices while traveling, 24.8% do it very often

Survey results

- 20-30% dedicated some time to extra-work activity, mostly after 6PM

- Proximity to their hotel was important in the choice of those activities to 82.2%

- 30-40% would have been interested in knowing more about different aspects of the destination, were they given the opportunity (especially about events, food, arts).

photo by Yasser

I have no time, but if you tell me more...

photo by Yasser

“A wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently

among the overabundance of information sources that might

consume it.”- Herbert Simon -

m-guide requirements

- time restrictions

- economy of attention

- context-aware

- personalized/customizable

- offline/online

- playful?

m-tourism & m-hospitality

Can we raise awareness in the local population during big events, and train them in tourism hospitality?

So far...

So far...

- emergence of learning

- location-awareness

- anywhere/anytime

- time-awareness

- popular

m-4d

Local Data Gathering on product penetration or prices in specific geographies.

Translations - transcriptions - localization.

Txteagle enables corporations to employ populations who were previously unable to participate in the global knowledge-based labor market.

m-4d

m-4d

Mobile phones are a viable distribution platform for longer form content and for enabling reader participation.

Steve Voslooabout the m4lit project

http://m4lit.wordpress.com/

m-4d

If friar's plan wrks, then romeo wil b able 2 cum nd take juliet wit hm 2 liv hapily 2geda at mantua bt if it fails, sumbdy's gna b dead. Lol!Elsie

Steve Voslooabout the m4lit project

http://m4lit.wordpress.com/

m-4d

I loved the book, wish it didnt have an ending. Shakespear please bring another one like this one. IT WAS MWAAAH!!Blessed 1

Steve Voslooabout the m4lit project

http://m4lit.wordpress.com/

book availability situation is sometimes reflected in the (paper) tourist guides available

book availability situation is reflected in the (paper) tourist guides available

Mozambique: 216 pp.

book availability situation is reflected in the (paper) tourist guides available

Mozambique: 216 pp.

Italy: 948 pp.

Switzerland: 404 pp.

Ireland: 764 pp.

Sweden: 372 pp.

Tanzania: 392 pp.

California: 768 pp.

Traditions and religion: Nguillatun

Objects: Kultrun

Clothes, colors, handcrafts

Food and products

Territory

What’s the story?

What’s the story?

Creating local generated contents and share it with tourists (by using mobile devices);

Responding to tourists’ need for authenticity, and offering important chances for cultural understanding and exchange.

- Economically valuable to the local community

Win - Win

- Recognition of often left-aside cultures

-Added value for the tourist!

- Community’s choice

- Organization (participation is not always quality)

- What devices?

Issues to consider

Are we designing meaningful learning experiences?

Are we exploiting mobile devices for what they offer?

Are we designing meaningful learning experiences?

Are we exploiting mobile devices for what they offer?

Thank you www.newmine.org