Mapping scenario (8th graders visit a science museum)
Summary
Students go to a science museum for a class project on the big bang and CERN, and they use the museum website and an in-house device to help them.
Who are the actors involved?
Young students ages 13-14 visiting the museum in a group of three.
Where?
This scenario involves a science museum visit. This includes the exhibits on CERN and the automobile collection in the museum.
What technologies are used?
Users are supplied with a handheld device capable of accessing the museum website.
Museum website contains login with username and password, where users can view and edit itineraries and make personal notes on the itineraries.
Users can record their own video, audio, and pictures and associate them with one or more artifacts in the museum.
Website stores video, audio and pictures on personal user space accessible by login.
Museum website contains wiki pages which can be allotted to schools and classes.
Users can use the mobile device to see a list of other groups and students in their class.
Students can tag artifacts for themselves, or to notify other groups about an artifact.
Main Action
The student arrive at their local science museum with not only the hopes of finding plenty of content for their assignment on CERN but also to enjoy themselves. They buy their entrance tickets at 10 o'clock, and they head to the booth handing out mobile devices. They check out one device for the three of them, and they log in to the museum website with their group username. This website they are looking at is the same as the one they were using on their computer earlier. Even though they are looking at it on a mobile device, they find it familiar and know where to find their itinerary. They can view their itinerary either as an agenda or on a museum map, with their stops numbered on the map in the order they intend to visit them. They also see any notes they've made when they were setting up their visit and they are reminded that they need to lookout for a display which explain the different sub-atomic particles. They begin by visiting the CERN exhibit as specified in their itinerary. Upon entering the exhibit, they are able to see a floor plan, with the location and name of all the artifacts for the entire exhibit. The students move through out the exhibit space and find an interesting artifact explaining what kinds of particles exist. This is the artifact they were looking out for! They favorite this artifact so they will be able to easily revisit it on the web later.
They continue their visit of the CERN exhibit and come across another artifact which gives one student a great idea for the presentation they are working on. Her groupmates use the mobile device to film a video of her standing next to the artifact explaining her idea. After recording, they return to the floor plan view, find the artifact and associate this video with its location. Now, when they look at the floor plan, they can see a film strip icon next to this artifact's name indicating there is a video they have made that talks about this artifact. They use this same approach with photographs and voice recordings. By default, the media are saved privately on each group's web space, which gives the students freedom flexibility with how they want to take notes.
They finish viewing their exhibit around 11:15, and they move to the collection of automobiles and airplanes. One of the students finds one airplane really interesting because it reminds him of a conversation he had with a friend, who is in another group. The student looks at the floor plan of the collection on his mobile device and finds the location of the airplane. He favorites the airplane, and he wants to share this favorite with his friend. He pulls up the list of other groups and other students in the class. He selects his friend from the list. The friend will now be notified someone has shared an artifact with him and he will be able to see a picture of the artifact, learn of its location on the museum map and the floor plan, and read the comment left by the student. The students leave the automobile and aircraft collection and they continue to the cafeteria. Then they enjoy the rest of their stay at the museum and visit the gift shop, and then they leave the museum at 2:00.