Developing the Elements of “Learning As Play:” an Interactive Digital Project SITES.PSU.EDU/PLAY

First an idea… A professor used materials from Special Collections in her class She suggested, “Wouldn’t it be great if someone could animate images of these unique folding objects?” Could be manipulated virtually, helping preserve the originals and making them available for all scholars?

Yes, we got movement!

Off and running… Website was next, since the faculty member had a scholarly bibliography that we could publish, too. Partnerships beyond Penn State since other collections have complementary materials? Funding - small start-up grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities

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Curriculum Uses - Children’s Versions, ages 6 & 11

We enlisted some expert assistance Professor Carlos Rosas and later students from some of his classes in Penn State’s Interdisciplinary Digital Studio used Unity gaming software to create digital movement.

Curriculum Uses - Undergrad students created their own original books

Lots of People Assisted As of now, our thank you list includes over 40 participants, including: Student programmers, numerous library people, institutions who let us use their materials, teaching faculty, metadata, digitization and imaging experts, translators, system & web developers, and server providers.

Lessons Learned Collaborations inevitably take longer, are richer for a variety of participants. Contributors sometimes self-identify (e.g. publisher map, current publisher sites in London) Expectations need to be managed and revisited regularly, especially when a project is highly experimental.

Lessons, cont. A project like this really never ends. Defined phases are a good practice. Scope creep always an issue. Development technology is a big decision (e.g. plugin downloading an issue for some testers.) This one has great potential for more grant-supported phases, more uses of experimental technology, and more external partnerships if we can make it a priority. Development of a complex project will *always* take longer than you ever expected in the beginning so keep stakeholders well informed of progress & milestones.

More to come… paper dolls, harlequinades, etc More to come… paper dolls, harlequinades, etc. (this one from Princeton’s Cotsen Children’s collection)

Presenters & Website http://sites.psu.edu/play Sandra Stelts sks5@psu.edu Carlos Rosas crosas@psu.edu Linda Friend lfriend@psu.edu http://sites.psu.edu/play

Leave you with a recent PSU acquisition dated 1794, probably created in New England