Adopting the use of a legacy digital artefact in formal educational settings: opportunities and challenges

ABSTRACT

This paper explores how a legacy digital artefact can be adopted within formal education settings and looks at the pedagogical and other opportunities created by its use within three primary and secondary classrooms in the UK. Through a comparative case study, the paper investigates the potential of using a virtual 3D model of the 1938 British Empire Exhibition in formal educational settings and highlights a number of salient issues and challenges. As the data suggests, engagement with the model created opportunities for playful learning, facilitated motivation and collaboration, and enhanced student interest. However, participation was often compromised by technical inhibitors as well as the wider pressures of the curriculum, teacher time and assessment regimes. Last, the paper considers the range of actors and factors that influenced the experiences of teachers and students who engaged with the use of the 3D model and concludes by considering the implications of these findings.

KEYWORDS:

• Virtual 3D models
• virtual 3D environments
• schools
• digital technologies
• research data

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the schools, teachers and pupils who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. http://empireexhibition.com/.

2. http://blog.gsofasimvis.com/index.php/research/heritage/revisit/.

3. VSim was prototype software at the time the project was carried out, developed at UCLA and funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. V2 is now freely available from https://idre.ucla.edu/research/active-research/vsim.

4. http://blog.gsofasimvis.com/index.php/research/heritage/revisit/outputs/.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the AHRC Follow-on Funding for Impact and Engagement [grant number AH/N003284/1] https://gtr.ukri.org/project/F9BC5D40-5AD4-4C44-AD53-A75F1A8C8D6F.

Notes on contributors

Anastasia Gouseti

Anastasia Gouseti is a lecturer in digital education at the Faculty of Arts, Culture and Education, University of Hull, UK. Her research focuses on the use of digital technologies in education and critical digital literacies.

Daisy Abbott

Daisy Abbott is an interdisciplinary researcher and research developer based at the School of Simulation and Visualisation at The Glasgow School of Art, UK. Her current research focuses on interactive narratives, digital representations of ephemeral events, performing arts scholarship, digital heritage, digital and participatory culture, interaction design and game-based learning.

Kevin Burden

Kevin Burden is Professor of Digital Education in the Faculty of Arts, Cultures and Education at the University of Hull, UK. His research interests lie in the field of learning, technology and teacher education, where he focuses on the areas of mobility, spatiality and materiality. He has been invited to deliver keynote addresses at several international events and conferences. In 2015 he was recognised as a National Teaching Fellow by the Higher Education Academy in the UK.

Stuart Jeffrey

Stuart Jeffrey is Reader in Heritage Visualisation at the School of Simulation and Visualisation at The Glasgow School of Art, UK. Stuart studied computer science and archaeology at the University of Glasgow and completed his PhD there in 3D modelling of early medieval sculpture. He has widely published in digital heritage.