In this blog post, I'd like to comment on some observations I made while the students were exploring the exhibitions and using different technologies. I'm going to focus on 3 areas of discussion:
- Rio Tinto Cinema Volcanic 3D Movie
- Use of interactive screens
- Students' use of their own technology
It should be mentioned that there are many interactive digital technologies in these exhibits and that students were given activity books designed by me to guide them through their exploration. Given my interest in EdTech I tried to pay special attention to students' use and perceptions of the technology as they engaged with topics addressed in Year 8 and those that would be visited in Year 9. I won't address students' perceptions in this post, as this is a topic for later.
Rio Tinto Cinema Volcanic 3D Movie
The 360 degree screen shows how Earth came into being from the Big Bang to the formation of the Hawaiian Islands. Students are taken from the tops of mountains to the bottom of the ocean. Images of formations resulting from tectonic plate movement are highlighted.
Although the students were encouraged to explore Dynamic Earth in no particular order, it was interesting that the whole class seemed to come together at the same time to watch the movie. My Year 9s waited patiently for a class of primary students to leave the theatre before entering. As the movie was shown, I was delighted to hear squeals of excitement and comments of wonderment which illustrated a collective thinking in the act of watching.
What's that? Is it the Moon? The Sun? That's Earth, it's [showing] the Big Bang! [Referring to a pyroclastic flow] It doesn't look like it's travelling that fast... Woah, it is! Hey, we've seen those minerals! Do animals like that really exist at the bottom of the ocean? How long did it take for the islands to form?
This made me think of the brain activity when watching TV versus sleeping. What would the brain activity look like while students engage in this way?
Use if Interactive Screens
Throughout the day, there were several interactive screens that students could engage with:
- A map showing where meteorites had struck the Earth at different locations, students could press on a location and learn about the meteorite and crater formed
- Creatures of Victoria's geological past were illustrated and could be manipulated using a touch screen to gain an understanding of the anatomical structure
- A map showing places of interest where Victoria had undergone significant changes was projected onto a topographic map. Students could touch an area of interest to have information - photographs and text - overlay the map
It was interesting to watch the students engage with these technologies. The students at this school generally play along when the content is interesting and the tech easy to use. At some points I found myself using the grandmother approach (Sugata Mitra) to scaffold them when things didn't work quite like their phone or tablet technologies.
For me, the most interesting thing coming from these interactives were the conversations as many of them only required the user to press a button and read.
This animal has a beak like a...? Bird, octopus...
What do the points on the map mean? Just places where meteorites landed.
Why is that interesting? It's not...
Students took more away from some interactives than others and I wondered whether there was competition between digital technologies within the exhibits. For example, the meteorite screen was almost opposite to the 3D movie and near an area where students' weight in gold could be calculated. Students seemed to find these particularly engaging and probably more so than the touch screen.
Students' Use of their own Technology
By the end of the day, the students were exhausted and, to be honest, so was I. I felt this way when I came to the museum last Sunday to design the activities for them to complete. My final stop was the 600 Million Years Victoria Evolves exhibition. I wanted to include this for students to have an idea of what Victoria's geological past would've been like. I settled on having the students explore 1 creature they found interesting. They needed to learn about the structural features enabling it to survive in the prehistoric environment. As a bit of fun, I asked that they take a photo of the fossil and a selfie with the model of what the organism would have looked like.
To be honest, I was so exhausted that I totally forgot I had asked them do this. When I saw a student taking a selfie, I asked her why she was doing that! She said: Miss you asked us to! After a giggle, what was interesting was that the student confessed that she was enjoying taking the selfie! I have no idea why I asked them to take it in the first place other than perhaps to acknowledge a common practice that has evolved with the use of mobile technologies. What does it mean to youth to take nerdy selfies and does this alter their identities in any way? It would be interesting to see where these selfies end up whether they become part of their so-called personal brand or archived in a folder on their phones. Unpacking our trip to the museum might yield student feedback that's interesting in this regard.
If you got this far, thanks for reading this musing! Any thoughts would be welcome!
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