1. Building a Course with Emerging Technologies
Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference
May 2018

2. Exploring Museum Applications of Augmented and Virtual Reality
Like all Praxis Independent Study Fieldwork Seminars, this course combines project-based fieldwork with a seminar that focuses on academic content related to that fieldwork. In our case, your fieldwork task is to design and develop an augmented or virtual reality museum, cultural heritage, or artistic installation/application. In the seminar, we will explore the issues of access, audience, accessibility, feasibility, and user-oriented design that museum and computing professionals must confront when integrating emerging digital technologies into the world of museums and cultural institutions.
Questions we will consider both theoretically and through hands-on application include:
How might museums and cultural institutions use AR/VR technology to enhance access to knowledge, cultural resources, and cultural capital? How might the use of these technologies impede access?
What contexts shaped the development AR/VR technologies to date, and how might those technologies need to evolve to better serve the needs of cultural institutions and their patrons?
What level of investment (e.g., of energy, time, and money) should museums and cultural institutions make in emerging or cutting-edge technologies and why?
1-2 minutes

3. Student Projects
TwitterVision
Databition
1-2 minutes
Blockroom

4. What do you do with emerging technologies?
“AR/VR for Experiential Learning”
Usually means programmers and subject-area experts develop simulated experiences in for students …
Virtual models students can dissect
Virtual environment for field trip
Augmented reality versions of patient interaction
1-2 minutes

5. But we don’t want students to be only passive consumers
1-2 minutes

6. AR/VR As Experiential Learning
Can we create an experiential learning around having students develop AR/VR applications?
Some worries …
We don’t have enough technical expertise
We don’t have the funding/equipment
1-2 minutes

7. Why Experiential Learning?
Large body of research showing that it
Engages students
Supports retention, persistence, etc.
Improves learning outcomes (disciplinary and liberal arts)
Basis of half of Kuh’s High-Impact Practices
Learning Communities 
Collaborative Assignments and Projects 
Undergraduate Research
Internships
Service or Community-Based Learning
1-2 minutes

8. First Experiential Learning Opportunities
Winter 2016 Internship
Summer 2017 Internship
Fall 2017 Internship
Palak (1-3 minutes?)

9. Leadership, Innovation, and Liberal Arts Center (LILAC)
Communication: articulation of thoughts and experiences to influence, inspire and explain
Conceptual Thinking: creative search for new ideas and solutions
Connection: establishment of authentic, purposeful relationships and collaboration with others
Cultural Competency: respectful engagement with people of diverse identities and backgrounds in different contexts
Social Responsibility: ethical behavior in relation to the groups and communities of which one is a part
Implementation: thoughtful translation of ideas and theories into action
Reflective Practice: intentional synthesis of experiences, both successes and challenges, to make connections, explore meaning and inform future choices
Kelly Strunk (3-5 minutes)

10. Praxis Program at Bryn Mawr College
Kelly Strunk (3-5 minutes)

11. What about those worries …
We don’t have enough technical expertise. We don’t have the funding/equipment. Is this vocational training? Should we be doing this at a liberal arts college? Should students receive academic credit for this?
1-2 minutes

12. Questions?
Jennifer Spohrer Kelly Strunk Palak Bhandari