Importance

Stunning advances in technology now link experiences across boundaries. We take for granted that we can read and send digital files across networked devices seamlessly. Conversational agents listen and respond to our requests without the need to hold a device. Low-orbiting Earth satellites in our environment help us navigate local neighborhoods and provide timely information about routes and traffic conditions. Augmented walls and furniture provide surfaces for collaboration and sharing of representations and thought.

Technology’s wide availability can—and should—permit the same type of seamless flow of ideas and digital data between the learning spaces of museums, schools, and homes to support learning, interaction, and engagement across diverse settings. A well-designed context can engage learners to tinker with ideas and pursue lines of inquiry and practices leading to learning, engagement, and participation in meaningful ways.

Our Learning Everywhere initiative explores conceptual and physical spaces where interaction can be closely examined and then enhanced to support learning across different environments. This work is being done in collaboration with leading museums, including the Tech Museum of Innovation, the New York Hall of Science, the Children’s Creativity Museum in San Francisco, the @Bristol Science Center in the United Kingdom, the Exploradome in France.

Research

Our initial development focused on the crucial topic of energy within the context of renewable energy, energy efficiency, and the use of natural resources. We are currently prototyping and testing mobile extensions and digital augmentations to exhibits; immersive interactions with virtual scientific phenomena; and instrumented learning spaces that provide trackable user interactions and digital artifacts to support closely coordinated learning opportunities.

Videos

View this video and more on the Concord Consortium YouTube Channel.

Learning Everywhere

Publications