Back to the activities

Anyway, back to the ecology metaphor and our activities for the week.

Who is the audience for the learning environment?
I think that this environment is mainly aimed at students. Others like historians, architects, archealogists may be interested in it, as would general tourists.In fact a huge amount of work has gone into this Explorer  by the Monticello staff, that far exceeds its percieved use. As a learning tool, some specific activities would need to be set for the student if they were going to use this site.

What ‘tools’ are employed to engage learners?
There are a myriad of tools available, from the join in tools, individual exploration, video clips to further reading. The designers made a concious decision to create this in flash, and have done a good job, but it does mean that it needs to be used by a computer that supports this. The ability to choose how you want to explore the site means that the student can explore how they want – but without guidnace as to what they are doing or looking for, I can see that they may quickly become bored. In essence it is a pretty database.

What role does each component play in developing discovery or transformational learning?
The ability to explore the house and discover pictures and artifacts helps in the discovery element. I do not think in itself that this site provides transformational learning without involving some other external factors. Although, it has been an integral part of my transformational learning this week! There are no guidelines or specific activities within the site, so it needs to be used with some kind of guided support.

Is there support for multi-channel communication?
No. This is not an open site, and is more a tool to be accessed than an online community.

Is there support for porting content and communication across platforms, contexts and devices?
No and you would need to have a device that is flash enabled. I think that the content was not designed to be enabled to do this . It is very much meant to be kept within the the Monticello locality. I have seen some other sites however suport the whiole monticello within a window.

What are the specific instances and opportunities for engaging with interactive mobile technologies in support of informal learning? Although there is a text only version is is not support on my mobile device There is the opportunities to print all the information throughout the site though. It was discussed in the forums about how it could useful to use the Explorer when visiting the site, but I think that unless there were specific activities to do, the exploration of the real site would not need this.

Ecology and the Monticello Explorer

Diversity (be targeted at a wide range of users)
The site does not really allow for a great deal of diversity. Although it could attract a variety of visitors, there is no way for these visitors to become part of the ecosystem. It is a very controlled environment that is developing from the inside only. External inflluence not possible, so more of a biosphere.

Locality (be locally dependent)
This site is completely dependant on it’s place within the Monticello main frame. It was made for them and by them, and although the end users have been considered, it is very much like a museum itself in the way it has been set up. Open to explore but not necessarily to influence. This suits them for now, and there are plenty of ecosystems that are cut off from the world. But the more people visit the more of a mark they will make.

Co-evolution (require the input and assistance of specialist teams of staff/experts to develop)
There has obviously been a great deal of work and co-operation in developing this site. I am not 100% sure whether this is evolution though. The project was to deliver the site, and this would have happened during the devlopment – but has it changed since it’s inception? How has it developed? Do the tech guys still exist and work on staff? There is no doubt a great deal of specialist knowledge and change of skill, as highlighted.  I wonder whether this is less about evolution and more about cross pollination!

Keystone Species (relate to very specific subject matter, be outcome-based and require specific types of resource management).
The keystone is the foundation itself, the experts in curating, archeaology and history within Monticello itself. The site would not exist without them. However, are they still needed to keep the Explorer site alive? Probably not. They have built a stand alone resource, which need the Monticello platform to survive, but if it is not evolving I am unsure what the species might be.

Using the ecology metaphor on the Monticello Explorer is difficult, because it is not an evolving organism. Trying to evaluate this tool outside of it’s wider locality is quite hard. If you put it into the context of the Monticello.org site and the work of the Foundation it starts to make more sense, but you cannot apply an ecology metaphor successfully to an static tool without thinking about the different localities that might use it.