OU students learn by mobile phone in Florence

Walking through Florence while listening to your smartphone that gives you information, feedback and tasks about what you are looking at. If something draws your attention, you record a commentary or record the sounds. And all this without having to programme or operate the mobile device itself. That is the goal of the project Audio Augmented Spaces for Learning. 27 juli 2010 the kick-off took place at the Centre for Learning Sciences and Technologies (CELSTEC) of the Open Universiteit.

Study visit to Florence
End of 2010 students of the master programma Cultural Sciences will make a study visit to Florence. They will be kit out with a smartphone. This smartphone registers what they are looking at and provides them with relevant information and tasks. The students can record their own observations and listen to observations of other students on the same object/location. The smartphone registers where they are going and in what direction they are looking, so the student scan focus on their surroundings instead of on the mobile device itself.

Google maps
All the available information is linked to Google maps. This includes the information that the students have recorded themselves on the spot. At home the students can use a webbrowser to virtually return to the places they visited and listen again to the information, tasks and commentaries and thus finish their assignment.

Open Source
The project is executed by the Learning Media programme of CELSTEC in collaboration with the master programme Cultural Sciences. It is financed by the Innovation programme of SURFnet/Kennisnet. In accordance with the OU policy, the technological components and learning scenarios will be published and the software application will be made available on an Open Source licence.

Read more on the project Audio Augmented Spaces for Learning