Ambient Wood I

The Ambient Wood I study took place in an outdoor woodland setting in Sussex. Groups of four children aged 11-12 years from Varndean School, Brighton worked in pairs, in two different woodland habitats to learn about habitat distributions and interdependencies. The experience was designed to support collaborative learning and to encourage independent enquiry, exploration, discovery and reflection.

The experience was divided into three stages: exploration in the woodland; reflection and hypothesising in the den (a purpose built area for informal discussion); and experimentation, again in the woodland.Children had a variety of devices with which to explore and experiment in the wood.

A probe tool enabled children to collect readings of light and moisture in their habitat. The readings were displayed on a handheld computer as an image showing relative rather than numerical values.

A 'periscope' in the wood also enabled children to access digital information about 'invisible' aspects of the wood such as seasonal changes or creatures not normally visible to the naked eye.

In addition information about the children’s position in the wood was recorded using GPS. On the basis of their location relevant information about living organisms in the wood was transmitted to their handheld computer. Children were accompanied by an adult facilitator in the wood and were given walkie-talkies to report the findings to an adult facilitator in the den.

A purpose-built ‘den’ was used for children to reflect upon and discuss their findings from their explorations. To help them to reflect, compare their habitats and begin to hypothesise, they could reaccess their moisture and light readings on a computer, as well as using tagged tokens with digital feedback.

During the experimentation phase children were able to test their hypotheses about the effects of the introduction of other organisms on the habitats that they explored. To do this they used tagged objects in conjunction with the periscope to view those potential effects in the environment.

Testing hypotheses using tagged objects on the periscope

Findings

Analysis of studies of children in the Ambient Wood show ways in which wireless technologies can support new forms of collaborative interaction and reflection for learning. New technologies offer different ways of transmitting and triggering digital information. Our studies suggest that these vary in terms of their pervasiveness or direct control, which seems to be instrumental in the ways that this information is used and attended to.

[Exploring and reflecting with readings and remote support ]

The MacroMedia Director file for Ambient Wood may be downloaded here. Other Ambient Wood support tools may be found here.