Mudlarking in Deptford - Futurelab

“When I first came here I didn’tknow any facts about the areaand didn’t bother about theenvironment. But now I’velearned about the environment,history and facts about the Creek”8FindingsOverall, responses to the Mudlarking inDeptford project were extremely positive.Using four nodes to structure the tour allowedstudents to take a break from the technology toconverse with fellow students, and to completeother activities while travelling betweennodes. The students were interested in thetechnology and being able to identify theirposition on a map gave them a sense of beingtruly involved in the tour. It also acted as a‘safety net’ to reaffirm that the tour wasworking even when no particular content wasbeing delivered to the handsets.The students enjoyed taking part not only inactivities they had worked on themselves, butalso those designed by other students. Inaddition, because the tasks are interactive andfun, they are likely to serve as more effectivememory prompts in the classroom. Activitiessuch as the ‘wobbleometer’ and ‘mushrooming’are more memorable than dry fact sheetsoften produced during guided tours.Although the students were divided intogroups and pairs, there was a lot of interactionand collaboration at the nodes along the route.Students shared ‘hidden stories’ from theenvironment, both during and after the tour. Inthis way the flexibility of the experience isdemonstrated.The ability to record their own experiences fora ‘real’ audience was an attractive feature forthe students, and the variety of methodsavailable to record stories meant that allstudents were able to capture at least someexperiences to share with others.Teething problems largely centred on thetechnology, and included:• some students were not able to use therecord facility on their PDA• some GPS transmitters experiencedproblems because of cloudy conditions• some PDA screens were obscured byrainwater or bright sunlight.However, students were not deterred by theseproblems, and all were still keen to completeas much of the tour as possible.