As part of our class we were asked to make an interactive exhibit focusing on how the history was presented using technology. This was a useful exercise because it helped me to think about the visitor’s experience and the benefits of dynamic displays that encouraged visitor involvement. The overall theme of the exhibit was “The Sky” and our section was “Constellations”. Our group sought to portray some of the many different cultural interpretations of constellations throughout the ages. In our section, we used both SMART Board technology and a interactive display containing a microcontroller, to display information and promote interactivity with the material.
A SMART Board, shown above, acts similar to PowerPoint programs, but are manipulated through their touch screen. Visitors were able to select one of the twelve constellation images through a simple touch of the screen. This took them to a page describing the constellation and showing the stars that constitute the constellation.
The visitors loved this page which encouraged them to draw their version of the constellation on the SMART Board, before dragging down the correct image. There was also an interactive game similar to Jeopardy for visitors to play which tested their knowledge. As most visitors were briefly passing through,it seemed the game would be better suited to a camp for children or times where visitors would have more time to use it. Programming the SMART Board was a good opportunity to learn a new technology and how it can be used to present history to the public.
The second part of our project involved a BASIC stamp microcontroller that allowed us to program four constellations with information that would appear on a laptop screen at the push of a button. We built a model of a Greek observatory that had a pointer in the form of a cross-staff carried by Ptolemy. Visitors enjoyed selecting one of the four formations in order to learn more about them.
Both the SMART Board presentation and the representation of an ancient Greek observatory with digital pointer adds another dimension to the user-directed learning experience that our group sought to create. Through creating digital concepts that present the material in a dynamic fashion, we created an interactive exhibit that was modern and educational.
