Daisy Abbott

Pedagogical opportunities offered by 3D immersive environments are not restricted to subject-based knowledge but also include non-disciplinary and cross-curricular key skills. This pilot study introduced a large 3D scene of a non-extant architectural exhibition into teaching and learning activities at three UK schools. From observation and qualitative data capture, a comparative case study identified a number of pedagogical opportunities and challenges. Despite diverse teacher and student approaches, a number of common factors were identified including constructionist teaching methods and the suitability of 3D environments for developing cross-curricular key skills and capabilities. In relation to the literature, this paper analyses how subject-aligned use of the 3D model met with differing levels of success, identifies four key skills that emerged from student use of the model across all three schools, and considers how challenges might be translated into further learning opportunities. 1 Introduction Whilst there is a growing body of research that focusses on pedagogical opportunities of 3D environments for the enhancement of particular, curriculum-based learning outcomes, few empirical studies consider their role in developing key cross-disciplinary skills and attributes such as collaboration, creativity, leadership, and emotional maturity. These capabilities are recognized across national curricula as intrinsic to the development of successful learners. Through a comparative case study of the use of a 3D environment in teaching activities in three schools, this paper investigates how 3D environments within the classroom can provide opportunities for developing key cross-disciplinary capabilities.

3D visualization is a powerful tool to increase understanding and experience of the world's cultural heritage. However, where there is incomplete primary material on which to base visualizations there is a recognised danger that 3D models, as absolutist in their representations, can be misinterpreted as a totally accurate replica of reality. Good practice in creating digital reconstructions of non extant architecture leads to researchers meticulously documenting the process and outputs of heritage visualizations, however unless the research sources and methods are made explicit and visible, the danger of misreading visualized data remains. This research describes the development of software that allows research sources, methods, and interpretation to be added as multimedia annotations to a 3D scene comprising the entire British Empire Exhibition of 1938. All real-world and digital objects are semantically described and given a spatial placement within the scene. The software is built on a CIDOC-CRM export-compatible data model and provides a novel interface which allows groups of users to collaboratively and simultaneously create annotations in an intuitive discursive visualization environment using remote tablet PCs. The development of a unique, life-size, stereo visualization of this lost architecture, with spatialised semantic annotations, will enhance engagement with and understanding of this hugely significant event in history.

The virtual reconstruction of heritage sites and artefacts is a complicated task that requires researchers to gather and assess many different types of historical evidence which can vary widely in accuracy, authority, completeness, interpretation and opinion. It is now acknowledged that elements of speculation, interpretation and subjectivity form part of 3D reconstruction using primary research sources. Ensuring transparency in the reconstruction process and therefore the ability to evaluate the purpose, accuracy and methodology of the visualization is of great importance. Indeed, given the prevalence of 3D reconstruction in recent heritage research, methods of managing and displaying reconstructions alongside their associated metadata and sources has become an emerging area of research. In this paper, we describe the development of techniques that allow research sources to be added as multimedia annotations to a 3D reconstruction of the British Empire Exhibition of 1938. By connecting a series of wireless touchpad PCs with an embedded webserver we provide users with a unique collaborative interface for semantic description and placement of objects within a 3D scene. Our interface allows groups of users to simultaneously create annotations, whilst also allowing them to move freely within a large display visualization environment. The development of a unique, life-size, stereo visualization of this lost architecture with spatialised semantic annotations enhances not only the engagement with and understanding of this significant event in history, but the accountability of the research process itself.

This paper explores how a pre-existing virtual 3D model of the British Empire Exhibition of 1938 was used to deliver innovative teaching and learning materials into schools. With digital and mobile technologies now forming an integral feature of schools, a range of tools can be used to support students and teachers in their every day lessons. However, despite the wealth of research on digital technology use within schools, few studies have so far looked at the teaching and learning potential of 3D models and in particular the re-use of the large number of existing digital heritage datasets originally generated for a range of purposes.

Through a comparative case study of three primary and secondary schools in the UK, this paper investigates how the 3D model was used by teachers and students to support teaching and learning activities across different subject areas. In particular, it evaluates the potential and impact of using such a tool in formal educational settings and highlights a number of salient issues and challenges that emerged. These include, amongst others, the wider pressures of teacher time and curriculum regimes, the role of the motivation and interest of individual teachers as well as the drivers for student engagement. In light of the above, the paper considers the range of actors and factors that underpin the outcomes and sustainability of such a project and concludes with some suggestions for the future use 3D models and supporting software.

The REVISIT project explored how immersive 3D models generated in heritage and research contexts can be used to deliver innovative teaching and learning materials for use in schools. Digital technologies play an integral part in educational strategies and methodologies, with a range of tools being used to support students and teachers in their everyday lessons. However, despite the wealth of research on digital technology use within schools, few studies have so far looked at the teaching and learning potential of pre-existing immersive 3D models, in particular the re-use of the large number of digital heritage datasets. The REVISIT project is a one year collaboration between the Glasgow School of Art and the University of Hull. It was funded as part of a special 10 year anniversary ‘follow on’ funding call from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC).

Through a comparative case study of three primary and secondary schools in the UK, this paper investigates how a legacy 3D model of the 1938 British Empire Exhibition and its associated digital archive was used by teachers and students to support teaching and learning activities across different subject areas. In particular, the project evaluated the potential and impact of this model of access in formal educational settings and highlights a number of salient issues and challenges that emerged. These include, amongst others: the drivers for student engagement; the desire for creative engagement with the 3D and archive data; co-creation of learning materials; modes of learning; and the wider pressures of teacher time, curriculum regimes, and technical issues. In line with the conference themes, this paper considers the range of actors and factors that underpin the outcomes and sustainability of the use of legacy 3D datasets in education and concludes with some suggestions for the future use of these models in this context.

Aims
The 1938 British Empire Exhibition was an architecturally significant event, incorporating over 100 buildings and attracting over 12.5million people to Bellahouston Park, Glasgow over its six month run. Funded by the AHRC, in 2005, Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation (formerly Digital Design Studio) constructed a thoroughly researched and highly accurate 3D digital model of the Exhibition as well as a digital, multimedia archive content relating to the Exhibition, its visitors and its international impact. The primary aim of REVISIT was to attempt to transform these research focussed digital assets into innovative learning tools targeted at school learners and covering multiple aspects of the curriculum; to make these learning tools as widely accessible as possible; and to increase our understanding of what value, if any, such assets have for teachers and learners through a pilot study.

Research context
Virtual environments and 3D models have been used across various disciplines and levels of education since the 1990s. Potential learning benefits in both primary and secondary education include opportunities for rich learner engagement; the possibility to explore, manipulate and construct virtual objects; creative interactions where active participation leads to digital forms of cultural production and user-led innovation and co-production. One 2011 review reported that virtual 3D models and environments are predominantly used in the subject areas of science and mathematics, with a smaller number in the social sciences. There are now several examples in the literature that highlight the pedagogical potential of such technologies across a range of subjects including ecology; foreign language learning; maths; science, epidemiology, and creative writing. As learning in virtual 3D models and environments gains momentum there arises an array of challenges and barriers that need to be considered. Despite the plethora of studies that have explored the pedagogical opportunities of specially created tools, very few research studies have looked at the re-use of virtual 3D models originally designed for other purposes (such as research), how well they fit within educational settings. This is particularly relevant for those producing high-quality 3D datasets from original research and who wish to maximise the learning potential and impact from their work – an ongoing challenge across the cultural heritage domain.

Challenges include the availability and cost of robust hardware and internet connectivity; the pedagogical skills needed for creating relevant and meaningful tasks in virtual worlds and the time to plan and design these tasks; usability and fit within existing classroom procedures. Teachers are reported to perceive digital 3D as a means of enriching existing practice rather than transforming it and innovative practices are limited by the current focus on standards and individual performance. Similarly, teaching practice is highly dependent on confidence with both subject-specific and cross-curricular themes as well as a teacher’s willingness to work outside the ‘curricular comfort zone’.

Results
REVISIT collaborated with three different schools to define appropriate, curriculum-driven themes around which to base immersive, interactive ‘virtual tours’ of the 3D model, which incorporate both learning materials and teaching and learning activities. It became quickly evident that, where there was engagement from teachers and students, there was also a desire to be the producers (rather than passive consumers) of content using both the 3D immersive model, its archive of related material, and additional material created by the students. This resulted in a collection of 3D narratives, created by both the project team and the children themselves, exploring different subjects via different aspects of the Exhibition. Approaches varied within and across age groups and subject interests. Examples include investigations of a very specific subject (e.g. coal) using just one building within the Empire Exhibition model; linking up a series of buildings on a particular subject (e.g. pavilions from Commonwealth countries); using numerical data from vintage radio broadcasts in maths exercises; and adding original photographs comparing how Bellahouston Park looked then and how it looks now. As the project encouraged creative responses to the 3D model, research materials, and delivery technology, REVISIT’s results include a reflection on this creative, non-didactic mode of engaging young learners with 3D research data and the effects of the creative responses created by the students themselves. The REVISIT team used ethnographic approaches including interviews and participant observation to explore engagement, enjoyment, and specific curricular learning outcomes and produce a robust evaluation of the use and impact of this mode of learning. In this paper we will also highlight a number of policy, technical and engagement issues that arose during the research process. Through reflecting on both the positive outcomes and the barriers to educational re-use of legacy datasets, expected and unexpected, we will suggest approaches to 3D dataset creation that will go some way to increasing their utility, and therefore re-use, in educational contexts.

This workshop will look at the logistical, ethical and practical issues arising from co-production work with both pre-existing community groups and communities of interest in the humanities sector, with a focus on heritage/digital technology.

By the end of this workshop, participants will:
• Understand issues of participant information, consent and ethics.
• Gain an insight into how to practically organise community work, including co-production and focus group/evaluation activities.
• Have a deeper understanding of issues arising from community politics and how groups understand and engage with perceived ‘experts’

This workshop will be of particular interest to Doctoral researchers in all disciplines of the arts and humanities who envisage working with community groups, particularly collaborative or co-production work.

RATIONALE
Games have been shown to be powerful complements to classroom-based education, enhancing both learning and motivation to learn. However, game design requires significant specialist knowledge, and can be very time-consuming and costly. Furthermore, transitions between instructional design and game implementation is acknowledged as lacking methodology (Hauge, et al, 2015) This hackathon focusses on how teachers can adapt existing games and effectively implement them in a variety of learning situations. By teaching teachers how to analyse widely available, inexpensive games and match game mechanics to pedagogic actions, this event will enable informed selection of games which are appropriately aligned to pedagogic goals and provide examples of how to then modify these games for particular learning outcomes.
PROPOSED ACTIVITIES
The hackathon will begin with an in depth analysis of game mechanics in a variety of mainstream board/card games using gameplay loop analysis (Guardiola, 2016) and Gamebricks (Djaouti et al, 2008). Worked examples will lead to participants undertaking their own analyses. Then, identified game mechanics will be aligned with learning behaviours using the Serious Game Mechanics card game (Hauge, et al, 2015). These activities will allow participants to practice game analysis, understand which game mechanics are most suited to encouraging particular pedagogical goals, and gain an understanding of intrinsic integration in game-based learning and its importance (Arnab, et al, 2015). In the latter half of the hackathon, participants will select a learning situation from their own practice, define their desired pedagogic behaviours, and propose a modification to an existing game to align it directly with their chosen subject. Finally, the group will work together to discuss how ‘modded’ analogue games can be most effectively integrated into teaching activity, within time and cost limitations.
By documenting the workshop and inviting participants to feed back in the months following the event, this hackathon will create a legacy of material and relationships on techniques and successes when modding existing games for learning purposes.
WHO BENEFITS
This hackathon is suitable for anyone who wants to use game-enhanced learning but does not consider themselves a game designer, or does not have the resources to design a game from scratch. The techniques learned are applicable for all levels of education from primary to post-graduate. The workshop team has significant experience of modding board games and publishing in the field of serious games and game-based learning and this hackathon builds on expertise gained in previous events.
SUMMARY
Modding existing analogue games is a fast and inexpensive way of implementing GBL in the classroom. This hackathon will showcase this technique and develop participants’ critical skills, ensuring that games are selected and modified appropriate for the best possible learning outcomes.
REFERENCES
Hauge J.M.B., Lim T., Louchart S., Stanescu I.A., Ma M., Marsh T. (2015) Game Mechanics Supporting Pervasive Learning and Experience in Games, Serious Games, and Interactive & Social Media. In: Chorianopoulos K., Divitini M., Baalsrud Hauge J., Jaccheri L., Malaka R. (eds) Entertainment Computing - ICEC 2015. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 9353. Springer, Cham
Arnab, S., Lim, T., Carvalho, M. B., Bellotti, F., de Freitas, S., Louchart, S., Suttie, N., Berta, R. and De Gloria, A. (2015), Mapping learning and game mechanics for serious games analysis. Br J Educ Technol, 46: 391–411. doi:10.1111/bjet.12113
Guardiola, E. (2016) The Gameplay Loop: a Player Activity Model for Game Design and Analysis. In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, ACM New York, NY, USA. doi:10.1145/3001773.3001791
Djaouti, D., Alvarez, J., Jessel, J.P., Methel, G., and Molinier, P., (2008) A Gameplay Definition through Videogame Classification. In: International Journal of Computer Games Technology, Volume 2008 (2008), Hindawi Publishing Corporation, doi:10.1155/2008/470350