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Inspiring the Technological Imagination: Libraries and Museums as Mixed Reality in Networked Learning Sites05.29.08 |
Anne Balsamo, is engaged in a one-year exploration of informal learning environments. Research will look to answer questions about how informal learning environments might change to better serve young people, both those who are already engaged with new digital media, and those who are not yet.
To explore this topic, Anne will consider:
- the role of tinkering in the learning process
- the creation of evocative learning objects that meld the physical and the digital
- the cultivation of the technological imagination as a 21st century literacy
One of the salient characteristics of the learning environment for many youth today is that it is no longer fixed to a specific physical location—the formal school classroom, or even the after school program. While this may have always been true to some extent, but the “learning environment” is now better understood as a networked environment that can be accessed from within different physical locations including in the home, on-the-move (with mobile devices), and in informal cultural sites.
This proposal focuses on specifying key learning activities, new kinds of devices and environments, and literacy practices for two important sites of informal learning: public libraries and museums. This project asserts that informal sites such as libraries and museums can become even more important nodes in a networked learning environment through the development of specialized digital learning objects, evocative physical devices, and responsive physical environments.
Tinkering with Mixed Reality Learning Objects: One of the claims of this proposal is that informal learning sites, such as libraries and museums, are uniquely situated to provide learning opportunities involving creative play and tinkering with evocative mixed reality objects. By “mixed reality,” we mean materials, objects, and architecture that combine digital information and physical form. Tinkering with mixed reality objects provides opportunities for a different kind of participatory experience than those typically offered by formal educational curricula, and therefore can serve to complement formal school-based learning objectives.
The educational objective addressed by this proposal concerns the development of the technological imagination builds on media literacy skills to include the abilities 1) to use, tinker, and creatively transform technological objects, 2) to imagine new uses for current digital media, and 3) to invent new cultural experiences that use emerging technologies.
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