Mission Accomplished!

Amelia Ijiri
Aug 23, 2017 · 3 min read

An Augmented Reality (AR) scavenger hunt through an historical site for a citywide AR Rally to welcome incoming University Freshmen in Fukuchiyama, Japan

To build community, introduce the city and make friends during the first weekend of university freshman orientation, “ARientation”, the brainchild of Eric Hawkinson, supplied smart phone based interactive activities at sites around Fukuchiyama city in Kyoto prefecture, Japan.

Armed with the downloaded Blippar app and working in teams of about ten, students were deplored to various sites around Fukuchiyama to work together and learn about important places in the city. At Fukuchiyama Castle, Mehrasa and Parisa organized a vocabulary centered challenge for English language learners; at the Fukuchiyama Fire Station, Erin assisted regional firefighters to complete tasks such as CPR, yelling “fire” loudly enough to register on a decibel meter, and navigate a smoke-filled room; at the library/community center, Chris provided VR headsets for students to enter English language worlds, and also set up a padlocked box that could only be opened with the correct historical dates entered from clues found in the building; Eric, back at “mission control” monitored non-stop social media feeds, worked with university staff on logistics, and prepared for end-of-the-day events for returning teams.

Prior to the rally, I helped Eric develop an activity for the Flood Control Museum as part of my graduate student internship for the University of Central Missouri. This museum is important to the community because it preserves the history of controlling river flooding. After an informative tour by the docent and a thorough walk through of the exhibitions, I met with Eric to decide which information would be included on Rally Day and a concept that would tie this information together. Deciding that students who have never lived in a city with seasonal flooding might not understand how it is controlled, our “mission” was to have students move through the two-story house before the water rises by solving hints found on the AR cards. With a correct answer, students unlocked the next card with another clue on it, thus moving through the building and obtaining information. This was a great way to engage students with the exhibits that explained seasonal floods.

The layout for the two story house provided a path through the exhibitions that would end at a terrace overlooking a tower with recorded flood marks on it.

Throughout the day, curious student groups came through the museum. As the facilitator of the activity on Rally Day, I made various observations.

First, I learned to let the students take the lead. Once they understood the concept of the activity, teams worked well to complete the tasks at hand. When they entered dates incorrectly on the padlocked notebooks, the tasks became more intense and more fun. The risk and enjoyment of an AR game enhanced the task of reading through historical information at the museum.

One suggestion for the next time would be to have enough physical space for the whole team to gather around the clue card. The flood control museum, being an old-fashioned Japanese house, had narrow hallways and small rooms that could only accommodate about half the students on a team. However, teams worked around this by passing smartphones with the uploaded AR content to members in the back.

On Rally Day, all teams located the necessary information thus learning important information about seasonal river flooding. Another mission accomplished by gaming the museum was to see student groups — compiled of members who just met — work together to create a memorable experience on their first weekend in their new college town.

Ready Teacher One

Supporting teachers and classrooms with emerging technologies. Associated with the Mixed, Augmented and Virtural Realities in Learning Research Group (MAVR), AR/VR Developers and educational designers worldwide. http://readyteacherone.com

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Amelia Ijiri

Written by

Ready Teacher One

Supporting teachers and classrooms with emerging technologies. Associated with the Mixed, Augmented and Virtural Realities in Learning Research Group (MAVR), AR/VR Developers and educational designers worldwide. http://readyteacherone.com

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