The Interactive Field Trip
LIS 490MUG
Spring 2006
Ryan Rafferty
Kim Ulrich
This page is linked to the
museum website. It allows a
teacher/parent (user) to register
for the Interactive Field Trip.
We ask for all this information
for tracking purposes. It is here
the user selects a user name
and password.
We’ll start by seeing
museum created field trips.
Once signed in, the user
has choices of selecting a
field trip that was created
by museum staff, saved
field trips created by fellow
users, or creating one
from scratch.
The user clicks on a link that
will take them to a preview of
a museum created plan.
Each plan will have
brief information
about the piece.
Thumbnail Picture
Author and Title
Click “Edit” and you can
change the question.
Or you can remove a piece entirely
If you click “Edit” you will be
directed to this page, where the
user gets to select the type of
question he/she wants to ask.
The User has the option to give
instant feedback to the
participants (students) about their
answers. Meaning once the
participant submits an answer
they get a response immediately
whether they were correct or not.
Or the user may select to have
the answers stored to be retrieved
and graded at a later time.
At any point in time the
user can Log Out and
their information is saved.
At any point the user can
also choose to accept the
plan and move on.
An educator, or user,
created plan would follow
the same format as the
museum created plans.
Let’s look at creating a
field trip from scratch.
The user can choose to search by
genre, creator, or by keyword search.
If the user selects genre or by a
specific creator all the pieces in the
category will appear. The user will
be able to choose which pieces to
add to his/her plan as well as add
questions at that time.
Once a user has completed their
Interactive Field Trip plan, accepted
the plan and saved it, he/she must
register the participants.
The user will add the names of the
participants here. It’s possible to have
more than one individual name per
group by clicking the “Add Name” button.
Once the participants are entered,
the user submits the list and his/her
job is complete until field trip day!
Interactive Field Trip Day
The following slides show screen
shots of what it is like to use
The Interactive Field Trip
and guides you through the
features and highlights of our
project.
Upon receiving a UMPC you are prompted
to choose one of these options.
We will start by showing you the Student view.
Here a student must enter their
user name and password which is
generated when the user
completes the participant list. By
having the participants Log In you
can track individuals/groups and
their answers to the questions
can be mapped accordingly for
grading purposes.
Upon logging in, the students get this opening
message with a few brief instructions.
These buttons have important
functions during the field trip.
We’ll start with the “globe” icon.
A map of the museum
will appear upon
clicking the globe.
Using GPS technology,
your position will be
shown on the map.
You will be able to click
links to “hotspots” like
bathrooms or elevators
and your path will be
illuminated for you on
the screen.
Let’s look at the “?” button.
Student types a
message here.
The entire
conversation
log is seen in
this text box.
Clicking the “?”
button opens a chat
window with the
teacher/parent. This
can be used to
clarify instructions,
ask a question, or
simply send a note.
By clicking the “+” button you will be adding a
piece to your “favorites” section. At the end of the
field trip the participant will have the option to
send the favorites to him/herself via email,
download them onto a jump drive, or simply leave
them on the museum server and they can access
them wherever they have internet access. The
favorites will stay on the server for approximately
one month after the trip then they will be deleted
from the system.
Clicking the “smiley
face” will allow the
participant to listen
to an audio clip
about a piece. We
plan to utilize the
Bluetooth functions
the UMPC provides
for this feature and
provide the
participant with a
single earpiece
listening device.
Clicking on the
“movie strip” icon
will allow the
participant to
watch a short
video clip about a
piece.
The “$” button will be
explained in further detail
in a just a few minutes.
The participant
can Log Out at
any point in
time and
his/her
progress is
saved.
Let’s learn about
Picasso’s The Old
Guitarist.
Finally! You should
also notice the art
pieces the user wants
the participant to view
on the screen. Each
piece has a thumbnail
picture, the title, and
the creator listed and
each is a hyperlink.
Clicking on the
thumbnail or the
title brings you to
this page.
Standard information
about each piece will be a
slightly larger picture, title,
creator, date, materials,
collection information, and
a question or note from
the user about the piece.
Now that you
are looking at
a specific
piece, if you
were to click
the “globe” the
map would
appear
showing your
location and
the quickest
route to the
piece in
question.
Now the “$”
button. It will take
you to the online
gift store and show
you things that you
can purchase that
are related to the
piece you are
viewing.
You should also notice
that the standard
information is all
hyperlinked to other
information. More on
these features in a
second.
Let’s click on the
creator and see what
happens.
Information about the creator is displayed, a picture (if
possible), birth and death dates, country of origin,
important information, etc. And, again, you’ll notice
many more hyperlinks to more detailed information.
Let’s return to the piece.
Let’s click on the date
the piece was created.
This page will contain a timeline
that displays thumbnails of the
paintings by the artist as well as
major world events surrounding
the completion dates of those
paintings. You will be able to scroll
through the timeline by “mousing
over” one side of the line or the
other. Each art piece or noted
event will also be hyperlinked to
more in-depth information.
Next is the materials.
Like you would expect, a brief
description of the materials used
is present and links to further
information are available.
Collection information
is next on the list.
Upon clicking the “collection
information” link, you are taken to
a page that displays thumbnails,
titles, and creators of all the
pieces in that collection. The
participant then can choose to add
certain pieces to their favorites for
further exploration at a later date,
or they can simply tangent away
from the Interactive Field Trip and
explore their new discoveries!
Finally, the question.
When an answer is submitted by a participant this
message appears. You’ll notice a “correct” answer is
given. This provides instant feedback to the
participant, however the teacher can choose to NOT
have the correct answer displayed.
When the participant returns to the field trip,
they’ll notice the pieces for which they’ve
answered questions have been marked through,
or displayed in a way that will help them keep
track of which ones they’ve completed.
When the participant
completes all his/her
tasks a final message
appears. Notes can
also be added to this
message.
At this point the
participant is
encouraged to use
their remaining time
to explore the rest of
the collection.
If they make this choice the link takes them to the default
or “public” use version of the Interactive Field Trip.
Now we’ll take you through the
“Teacher” features on field trip day.
Just like the participants (students), the
users (teachers/parents) have to Log In.
This welcoming page has
several notes to the user
about the features available.
We’ll show you the
Map Room first.
The Map Room
displays each
individual/group.
Double clicking on a
name will open a
chat window.
User
Sam
Mark
Jill
Bob
Ashley
Patty
Kyle
Now for the Chat option.
The user can quickly send a note to
an individual/group by clicking on
his/her name. The user can also
choose to send a message to
multiple participants by checking the
boxes next to the names.
You’ll notice this chat window looks
like the interface the participants
use. A subtle difference is a list to
whom the message is being sent.
That does it for the features the
User has available to them
during the field trip.
Now we will briefly explain the
interface available to the public.
A member of the
public will have the
opportunity to select
one of the museum
created tours.
Or they can choose to
walk the museum
independently and
receive the information
wirelessly about the
artifacts they are near.
They can preview the tour
here or choose to tour the
museum independently.
The interface during the public tour
uses the same buttons as the
student trip.
A brief tutorial of those buttons is
given after they have chosen a tour.
After that tutorial, their tour begins!
Post Trip
After the trip the user/teacher has several
options available. We will show and
describe those to you now.
First, the user/teacher
will have to return to
this page to Log In.
Once logged in they will
return to a familiar page.
However, it will now contain
a link to information about
the completed field trip.
The summary has several features:
Access to the participants answers.
Access to a time chart that graphically shows the
time it took to complete the assigned tasks.
Access to a traffic map that shows the routes
each group took through the museum.
Access to the favorites the participants chose,
which will help plan future trips or even lesson
planning for future topics.
If the teacher chooses to supply
answers to the questions from the
start, then it is possible for those
answers to be “graded” as the answers
are submitted. Therefore when the
teacher gets to this page they would
see a grade “5/6” or something to that
effect for the participants.
This page is more for future planning
than any other. We think it will help the
teacher prepare future trips.
This information is primarily for
museum staff. However, we feel a
teacher might have a use for it as well.
By giving the teacher access to the
“favorites” the participants choose, he/she
can plan other field trips in the future, plan
for future lessons in the classroom, or
simply supply an individual with more
information about a particular artist, genre,
art piece, etc.
The Interactive Field Trip is a dynamic
design, but we feel it is simple to use. It
provides many features to both the users
and the participants. Its’ greatest asset is a
virtually unending stream of information
which is available to the participants. Thus
their learning opportunities are practically
limitless.
We think a tool like this in a museum
provides a unique and fun learning
experience that will also help promote lifelong users of the museum.
The Interactive Field Trip
LIS 490 MUG
Spring 2006
Ryan Rafferty
Kim Ulrich