Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling

Overview: One of the assessment activities in the Interactive Storytelling course was for students to craft interactive narratives using locative media and mobile technologies that were then playable on cell phones. The assessment addressed three of the objectives for the course:

  • To engage students with conceptual issues surrounding the development of digital storytelling;
  • To engage with fundamental concepts regarding computer technology as a creative medium;
  • To effectively communicate through multimodal ‘writing’ technologies.

The program identified to accomplish this goal was ARIS. ARIS is an open source Augmented Reality and Interactive Storytelling program created by members of the Curriculum & Instruction department of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. VUE, created by Tufts University, was used as a means of mapping or visualizing the flow of the story based on the elements of the ARIS software.

Students were introduced to ARIS in a two hour class session. During that session, the students identified the components of an example game and then constructed the game within ARIS. A second session was held to introduce students to VUE and provide dedicated work time for the groups to develop their project ideas and ask questions. After various rounds of testing, final projects were presented as walk-abouts where the entire class with iPhones in hand experienced each groups game.

  • Course: COSC007: Interactive Storytelling (SP12)
  • Tool: VUE, ARIS Editor and ARIS iOS App
  • Resources:ARIS LibGuide
  • Faculty: Mary Flanagan
  • Instructional Designer: Amanda Albright

Online Human Anatomy Learning Modules – Phase I

Overview: Develop a method for: 1) keeping the online Human Anatomy Learning Modules site uniform in appearance; 2) reducing the amount of time required to add/modify content; 3) making the site mobile device friendly.

Approach: The following site enhancements and support tools were created for this project:

  • A master CSS3 sheet was developed for the site
  • HTML 5 master templates developed for site content
  • Table based style elements were removed and replaced with structural tags, divisions and pseudo-classes

All design materials and sample files were turned over to the department and training on how to use the new tool set was provided to the site owner.

  • Target Population: Medical students at Dartmouth and beyond
  • Tools:  Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop
  • Faculty/Site Owner: Virginia Lyons
  • Instructional Designers: JoAnn Gonzalez-Major

Science Insight Blog

Project Site: Science blog

Overview: Develop a custom WordPress site that allows users to easily upload and maintain multimedia resources (text, videos, audio files, images, digital posters) and graphically reflects the department’s areas of research.

Purpose: Provide an informational site that can be accessed on the web and viewable on touch screens throughout the building

  • Ability to modify data presented in real-time
  • Provide insight into student and faculty research
  • Attract students to program

Target Population: Dartmouth community and beyond

Tools:  WordPress, Fireworks, Dreamweaver

Plugins: All-in-one Event Calendar, GRAND Flash Album Gallery, Broken Link Checker, Tooltips, wiki, Google Map plugin, iPad swipe plugin, News Announcement scroll

Faculty: Mark McPeek

Instructional Designers: JoAnn Gonzalez-Major

Writing Blog Assignment

Course: WRIT 8: Writing with Media

Project Site: Resource Site

Overview: The site was developed to provide  students with scaffolding or the blog activity assigned in their Writing with Media course. The site itself serves as a project example and provides resources for the design and development of their projects.

Student Assignment: The blog that you will produce for this course will be the place where you can practice and experiment with multimodal composition.  You will be free to create a blog on anything topic you like.  The only requirements are:

  1. that your blog is tied together by a set of questions or ideas to be explored,
  2. that each of your posts pursues and analyzes a question or claim, and
  3. that each of your posts will employ several modes.

In other words, it won’t be enough to just write your blog.  You’ll need to include images, videos, and podcasts.  You’ll also want to think very carefully about the design of your blog.  What will you call it?  What tone will you take?  What design elements will you employ?  Remember that this blog will be public.  It should keep its audience in mind.  It should look professional.  It should be something that you can continue to develop after the course ends.

Blog posts will be due every Monday.  You can post more frequently, if you like.  You will also be asked to read, critique, and respond to your classmates’ blogs (not all of them; rather I will assign you different blogs to read as the term progresses).  Every student can elect to take one Monday off — choose any Monday you want that suits your schedule.

Tools:  WordPress, Fireworks

Faculty: Karen Gocsik

Instructional Designers: JoAnn Gonzalez-Major

Classics Department Artifact Site

Course: Multiple Classics department courses

Project Site: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~artifacts/?page_id=2

Overview: For this project we migrated the Classics department digital artifacts library from an older technology to an interactive web based application.  The new platform allow for the department to easily maintain and  update the resource.  The site also allows faculty to create artifact groupings for specific courses and to add student researchers to the site for the development of narratives on assigned artifacts.

  • Tools:  WordPress, Fireworks, Dreamweaver
  • Plugins: GRAND Flash Album Gallery, Broken Link Checker, Tooltips
  • Faculty: Roger Ulrich
  • Instructional Designers: JoAnn Gonzalez-Major