Can virtual environments enhance the learning of historical chronology?

Historical time and chronological sequence are usually conveyed to pupils via the presentation of semantic information on printed worksheets, events being rote-memorised according to date. We explored the use of virtual environments in which successive historical events were depicted as “places” in time–space, encountered sequentially in a fly-through. Testing was via “Which came first, X or Y?” questions and picture-ordering. University undergraduates experiencing the history of an imaginary planet performed better after a VE than after viewing a “washing line” of sequential images, or captions alone, especially for items in intermediate list positions. However, secondary children 11–14 years remembered no more about successive events in feudal England when they were presented virtually compared with either paper picture or 2-D computer graphic conditions. Primary children 7–9 years learned more about historical sequence after studying a series of paper images, compared with either VE or computer graphic conditions, remembering more in early/intermediate list positions. Reasons for the discrepant results are discussed and future possible uses of VEs in the teaching of chronology assessed. Keywords: timeline, chronographics

Exploring the Roles of Technology and Social Play in Art Museums

This co-written chapter was included in an edited book featuring invited authors from different countries and different areas of museum research and practice. The chapter uses a theory of play by Johan Huizinga (1938) to frame case studies of play-based interactive experiences in museums in various countries. The aim was to use theory to ground museum practice, in order to evaluate existing practical implementations as well as to inform the design of new ones. The book was nominated as one of the 10 best museum education books of 2011 by Museum Education Monitor, and the chapter led to a subsequent technology residency the author undertook in the Spike Island gallery, Bristol in 2012, funded by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, Arts and Humanities Research Council and Arts Council England. It also informed his subsequent postgraduate teaching, an example of which is a recent MA project, which deconstructs play from a computational perspective. Collaborations have continued with the co-author, which have resulted in a number of invited lectures. In this chapter the authors explore play as a structure for supporting visitor learning, drawing from international research in museums and interaction design. Four aspects of play first proposed by Huizinga are explored – the free-choice aspect of play, play as distinct from real life, play as an ordering structure, and the role of play in bridging communities. The chapter argues that play provides museums with ready-made structures and concepts, which can help planning for visitor learning. The research was equally divided between the co-authors, who developed the conceptual and theoretical aspects of the article by drawing on their own research alongside key examples of museum design and digital media.