Technology Archive

Social Media: Gadgets

Heidi_headshotBy Heidi Bailey

“The fact with which I deal is that, in the field of Interpretation, the gadget has come to stay, and will be used to a much greater extent than is now the case. There will never be a device of telecommunication as satisfactory as the direct contact not merely with the voice, but with the hand, the eye, the casual and meaningful ad lib, and with that something which flows out of the very constitution of the individual in his physical self.

“While I think nobody disagrees upon this, we all know that there will not be enough of those individuals to make the direct contact…. So whether one likes it or not, we are going to have more—and I should hope, better—mechanical devices aimed at multiplying the interpretive effort.”

—Freeman Tilden, Interpreting Our Heritage

I don’t think Freeman Tilden had in mind widgets and wikis when he wrote these words 43 years ago. Yet his words sound like they could have been written yesterday. Social media tools are among the newest gadgets available to interpreters. I believe they are here to stay. Why?

Because of one important reason—social media gadgets give people a voice. These tools are not just a new way for interpreters to talk to the public. Social media is a new way to listen. Interpreters try to influence the way visitors think and behave. Social media is the visitor’s chance to influence the way we think and behave.

Social media is also more than just Facebook and Flickr; it’s an entire suite of gadgets that can be used to multiply the interpretive effort. This article introduces some of these gadgets and offers suggestions on how to use them.

NAI maintains five blogs, including the NAI blog, pictured here.

NAI maintains five blogs, including the NAI blog, pictured here.

Blogs
Blog is short for “Web log.”  People use blogs to write comments about subjects that interest them. Others read these posts and add their own comments. The versatility of blogs has made them wildly popular. Professionals, businesses, and even politicians have entered the “blogosphere.”

Another version of a blog is a microblog, which allows users to communicate through super-short blog posts. The most popular microblog site is Twitter. Many users add posts to microblogs using the text message feature on their cell phone.

Blogs are probably the best social media tools you can use to listen to your audience. Blogs are searchable like any other Web page. You can search for key words related to your work and find out what topics interest the public and what issues concern them. Try blogsearch.google.com.

Microblog sites like Twitter also offer an avenue for conducting market research using online focus groups. Businesses can solicit consumer opinion through product surveys. Twitter is also becoming a tool for monitoring real-time events, such as natural disasters. In both of these cases, listening to what people say can influence management and decision-making processes.

Google Trends
If you want to know what is on people’s minds at any given moment, you can track search engine trends. Google keeps a tally of every search on its site. You can find out what the most popular search term or phrase is for a particular city. This data might give you an idea for a new exhibit or program. Visit www.google.com/trends.

Wikis
A wiki is software that allows multiple authors to build a Web page or online document. The most popular application is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that is created and edited by users. Anyone can add text, illustrations, maps, tables, and links to other sites.
Wikis are great collaboration tools. Designing a new exhibit? Invite professionals, special-interest groups, and members of the public to help using a wiki. Think of the viewpoints you can incorporate, the mistakes you can avoid, and the ineffective material you can revamp before the exhibit goes to press. Try www.wikispaces.com.

Metaverse
This term refers to the digital universe that exists in virtual worlds like Second Life. Users create online alter egos known as avatars that allow them to interact over the Internet. Some universities have purchased virtual land inside Second Life to use for teaching, study sessions, and group projects. Visit www.sl-educationblog.org.

Video Sharing
Anyone can be a film producer these days. Sites like YouTube provide a venue for premiering amateur movies. Many agencies create videos, hoping to gain publicity on YouTube. The key to success is creating something that grabs people’s attention so fully that they can’t help but tell other people about it. People want to watch fun films, not advertisements or educational videos.

Some organizations have succeeded in this arena by hosting competitions to see who can create the most entertaining and engaging video about a subject. This is generally more effective than posting agency-produced videos on sites like YouTube.

Social Bookmarking
Chances are, you have a list of bookmarks or favorites on your work computer. You probably have another list on your home computer. Sites like Delicious.com allow you to create your list of favorites online. You can access it from any computer and share it with other people.

The interpretive themes at your site are likely related to topics that people research every day for papers and presentations. Set up a social bookmarking site to guide people on their quest for knowledge. Create a list of favorites that links to websites related to your interpretive story.

Social bookmarking sites also offer a way for people to promote interesting articles. Members of sites like Digg vote on articles as a way of filtering online content. Try posting an article online and submitting it to Digg. Members of this site will then have an opportunity to vote on your article. If enough people promote it, your article could find its way to the “front page.”

Find creative ways to make your story rise to the top: Share an off-beat or little-known fact, relate your site to a current event, or write a story with humor or shock value. Digg says, “We’re committed to giving every piece of content on the web an equal shot at being the next big thing.”

Widgets and Apps
Take a look around your desk. Perhaps you have a calendar from a store or a pen from a bank. The object is useful and it reminds you that you need to stop by the store or bank on the way home. A widget is a computerized version of a freebie that a company gives away as advertising. Widgets can be downloaded to your computer desktop, Web page, or blog.

An app (application) is a little program that offers a fun and interactive way to share your interests with others. An app might be a quiz that identifies your favorite movies or a tool that allows you to calculate your carbon footprint.

Can you think of a widget or app that could be created for your interpretive site? Perhaps a widget that continuously updates your visitors on the weather at your site or an app that allows users to identify their favorite outdoor recreation activities.

RSS Reader
RSS is an acronym for Really Simple Syndication. Most blogs put out notices or “feeds” that alert you when a message is posted about a topic that interests you. This is an efficient way to stay current on blogs that you want to follow.

When you find a blog or website you like, see if it gives you an option to subscribe to a feed. You can use a tool like Google Reader to monitor multiple feeds. Certain sites, such as Technorati, are search engines that monitor blogs. These sites allow you to subscribe to a RSS feed of a specific search term.

Social Media Toolbar
Viral marketing occurs when people spread a message for you. Any content you offer online must be so interesting and easy to share that people can’t help but tell their friends about it. Be sure that people can spread your online content by embedding it in their websites, emailing it instantaneously, or posting it on their blog.

You can do this by creating a social media toolbar that allows users to click and share. Most social media sites offer a button or badge for this purpose.

Social Media Newsroom
Some interpretive sites offer an online newsroom or press page that allows reporters and other interested people to download press releases and photos. A social media newsroom expands this idea to include other types of media. You can offer podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds, widgets, links, embeddable files, photos, and other media. Be sure to display a Creative Commons license that allows users to use, adapt, and share your content (http://creativecommons.org).

Heidi Bailey is the author of the first electronic book published by NAI’s InterpPress, Putting Interpretation on the Map: An Interpretive Approach to Geography. She holds a bachelor of science degree in geography from New Mexico State University and a master of science degree in recreation, parks, and tourism from West Virginia University. Contact her at geointerpretation@yahoo.com.

PowerPoint Pitfalls: Sounds

jon-hooperThis column is a series designed to help enhance your PowerPoint presentations. Each edition pinpoints common pitfalls faced when planning, preparing, and presenting PowerPoint shows.

Pitfall: Unimaginative Show Lacking Music or Sound Effects
Imagine a movie without any music or sound effects. Would Top Gun grab your attention if Tom Cruise took off from the aircraft carrier without the roar of the jet and the dynamic “Danger Zone” music? Most of us would consider such a movie as a step backwards in time.

Even though we love the amazing power of music and sound effects, we often present our PowerPoint shows with nothing more than our human voice accompanying the projected images.

To purge the pitfall: Incorporate appropriate music and/or sound effects into your shows. Inserting a sound file is as easy as inserting a photograph or illustration. You simply click “Insert” > “Sound” (or “Music and Sound” for PPT 2003) > “Sound From File” > then navigate to the appropriate folder containing the sound file and select the file. You can “tweak” the music/sound effects to meet your specific needs by following the directions in a PowerPoint manual or on Microsoft’s online help site.

You may say, “But our organization cannot afford to buy the rights to music. So, if we were to incorporate music, we would run the risk of getting nailed for copyright infringement.” The solution to this problem may be found on the Internet. Sites such as www.freeplaymusic.com provide copyright free music for you to use. Make sure you follow the “Terms of Use” listed for your music source.

Pitfall: You Present Your Show and the Sound Does Not Work
Has the following scenario ever happened to you? You proudly get ready to demonstrate your new “sound” prowess yet when you get to the part of the show with sound, nothing happens! Panic ensues! The most common cause of this problem is that your sound files were stored in a different folder than your PowerPoint show when you inserted them into your show, yet you only brought the PowerPoint show folder with you to your presentation site.

To purge the pitfall: Before inserting a sound file into your show, copy the file to the same folder where you have been saving your PowerPoint show. Then insert the file into your show by navigating to this same folder and clicking the sound file. When you want to transfer your show to another computer in the future, simply copy the contents of your PowerPoint folder to a CD or thumb (USB) drive, then transfer the folder to the second computer. If you do not follow this procedure, you may forget to copy your sound files because they will exist in a different folder.

Final Thoughts
Appropriate music and sound effects capture and hold the attention of your audience. Be careful not to over use such special effects, however. They should help you reach your show’s objectives, not just add glitz.

Dr. Jon Hooper has over 30 years of experience helping natural and cultural resource professionals enhance the effectiveness of their communication efforts. He is a professor of environmental interpretation at California State University, Chico, and is the owner of Verbal Victories Communication Consulting. He is a Certified Interpretive Trainer (CIT) and was Project WILD’s national Facilitator of the Year in 2006. Contact Jon at jonkhooper@hotmail.com.

Social Media: Networking with Visitors

Heidi_headshotby Heidi Bailey

Imagine if you could instantly talk to interpreters around the world—share stories, exchange ideas, discuss experiences, and request solutions to problems. Imagine if you could easily talk to your visitors while they are planning their trip, throughout their stay, and even after they have gone home.

How would you like to find out what appeals to your visitors and what they think of new programs and exhibits before you implement them? Would you be interested in multiplying the number of personal contacts you make with just a few keystrokes?

All of this is possible, and other than your time, it doesn’t cost a dime.

Many of our visitors and potential visitors are living in online communities and traveling through virtual spaces. These places exist in the realm of social media. Social media is a burgeoning new communication tool that allows people to interact online. The potential exists for social media to create new opportunities for interpretation.

Social Media and Interpretation
Interpretation is a communication technique that takes place in an informal setting and offers a way to connect people’s minds and hearts to places. Yet interpretation is primarily a one-way process, with programs and exhibits designed by staff sitting behind closed doors. Social media creates an opportunity for interpreters and the public to engage in genuine conversation.

Until recently, I thought of social media as just a fancy form of text messaging and sharing photos—a place that my teenage nieces went to gossip with their friends. Then a colleague of mine returned from the 2008 NAI National Workshop and said, “Technology is huge. You should look into social networking.”  My friend is the lead interpreter at a National Park Service site and her advice is always excellent, so I looked.

In the process, I discovered a dizzying array of terms I didn’t understand—like widgets and Web 2.0—so I bought the book Social Media is a Cocktail Party by Jim Tobin and Lisa Braziel. The premise of this book is that social media is nothing more than a conversation between people. To participate, you must behave as you would at a party—listen and respond with genuine enthusiasm, don’t be pushy, and if you are going to share information or a story, it should be interesting and entertaining.

Social media is not a place for stuffy press releases, slick ads, or tedious education campaigns. Social media is a place for engaging with people in a personal way. This makes it a wonderful avenue for interpretation. Social media is an opportunity to make interpretation what it should be—a two-way conversation between interpreters and the public that allows us to share the delight of discovery.

This article is the first of a three-part series that introduces the tools of social media and offers thoughts on how they might benefit interpreters.

Social Media Tools
Social media is a suite of online technologies that provides users a podium from which to express their knowledge, experiences, and opinions. Have you ever read an online review of a product or movie? This is social media at work. You are gleaning information from another person’s experience.

Social media allows you to attend people’s online “parties” and listen to their conversations. One of the keys to successful interpretation is to know the attributes of your audience. By listening to what your target audiences have to say, you can learn to give them what they want.

A catch phrase that you may hear is “Web 2.0.” In Social Media is a Cocktail Party, the authors explain Web 2.0 in this way: “Two-way communication has transformed the Web from a place to house brochures into a place to house conversations.” In other words, the Internet has evolved from a static information source into an interactive environment.

The Web 2.0 world has the potential to change the way we run public comment periods, the way we design exhibits, and the way we meet the needs of visitors. A public comment period can become a dynamic discussion forum. Exhibits can be co-designed with a team of people representing different interests. The evolving needs of visitors can be met faster and more precisely.

As an example, a number of years ago, geocaching became a popular pastime for GPS users. Caches started to appear in parks and protected areas, sometimes causing damage to resources. Managers were slow to respond to this new field of recreation because it took them a while to realize what was happening. Eventually, rules and regulations concerning geocaching began to appear and some sites embraced the idea by planting their own caches. By monitoring social media sites, we can pick up on these trends more quickly.

Networking with Visitors
You may have heard of social networking sites like Facebook. People use these sites to build personal profiles and to keep in contact with friends. Sites like this also allow professionals working in similar fields to exchange information and ideas. NAI maintains pages on several of these sites, which you can find at www.interpnet.com. I encourage you to join one of these online communities and start interacting with interpreters around the world.

It’s important to understand that a Facebook page is not a traditional Web page. Nor is it a press release or an ad. A Facebook page is actually more like a coffee house or a pub—a place where people congregate to meet friends, swap stories, share pictures, and exchange information. Your interpretive site can join in the discussion, but networking with visitors online only works if you show up on a regular basis and contribute something interesting to the conversation.

People can also build online communities around photos. Sites like Flickr allow people to organize, share, and even tag their photos with related information such as geographic coordinates. Photo sharing is another form of social networking and these sites can often be connected to sites like Facebook. For instance, Bright Kite is a photo-sharing site that describes itself as a “location-based social network.”

Since photo sharing often revolves around a place, this is an excellent tool for connecting people with interpretive sites. Photos allow visitors to see a place before they embark on a trip or enable them to take a virtual vacation to a place they may never visit. Visitors can also discover new meaning in a landscape by viewing a place from another person’s perspective.

A popular form of photo sharing is called a “map mash up.” A mash up is created by mashing two different social media tools together to create something new. The most common mash up is a custom Google map. You can create map mash ups that attach photos, interpretive text, and visitor information to a map of your site. Check out an example from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum at www.ushmm.org/maps.

Penelope Seal is the official spokes-seal for TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Predators), a project of the Census of Marine Life. Penelope has her own profile page on Facebook that she uses to keep her growing network of friends apprised of her activities.

Penelope Seal is the official spokes-seal for TOPP (Tagging of Pacific Predators), a project of the Census of Marine Life. Penelope has her own profile page on Facebook that she uses to keep her growing network of friends apprised of her activities.

The Five Fs of Social Networking

Fans
Social networking sites like Facebook allow members to join online fan clubs and follow the activities of an organization, museum, or interpretive site. Fans interact with an organization’s profile page by posting messages, photos, and other content. These posts generate updates that let their friends know about new activity on the page. This feature creates a dynamic environment that is more interactive than a traditional Web page. Another way for fans to interact with a site is to become “friends” with an online presence, such as a historical figure, mascot, or animal.

Feeds
Internet users monitor feeds to keep track of new posts. A feed provides a snippet of information that allows users to decide if they want to read more about a topic. On social networking sites, a feed is generated when people make updates to a profile page. To ensure a regular stream of feeds, you will need to make the experience of interacting with your page rewarding for visitors. Think of ways to keep fans engaged—start discussion topics, run contests, or invite fans to comment on programs.

Fun
To get involved with social networking sites, you need to adopt a communication style that is conversational and fun. Each time you post new information online, simply ask yourself, “How would I tell this story to a friend?” Social networking is about people chatting with people, not agencies talking at people. Put away your technical writing manuals and pull out your personality—say what you need to say in a fun and engaging way. 

Fascinating
A fun communication style is only part of the social networking equation. Your subject material must also be fascinating enough to capture people’s attention. Think about whether or not the information you want to share is something you would tell someone at a party. For instance, you might tell people about an interesting event that is coming up or wow them with a little-known fact. You probably wouldn’t discuss routine maintenance or launch into a dissertation about an obscure topic—don’t do it online either. Your fans will be more interested in visiting your page if you have something fascinating to say.

Frequent
The most important aspect of developing a thriving online fan group is frequent participation.  Take a moment to think about how you maintain relationships in your personal life. Perhaps you meet friends for lunch or phone family on a regular basis. Your best friends are likely the ones you spend the most time with. Social networking works the same way. You must be committed to making frequent posts on your page and sending out regular updates to your fans. If you do this, your fans will reward you by spreading your message and rounding up new fans. This is the power of social networking.

Heidi Bailey is the author of the first electronic book published by NAI’s InterpPress, Putting Interpretation on the Map: An Interpretive Approach to Geography. She holds a bachelor of science degree in geography from New Mexico State University and a master of science degree in recreation, parks, and tourism from West Virginia University. Contact her at geointerpretation@yahoo.com.

PowerPoint Pitfalls: Resolution

by Jon Hooper

jon-hooperThis column is a series designed to help enhance your PowerPoint presentations. Each edition pinpoints common pitfalls faced when planning, preparing, and presenting PowerPoint shows.

Pitfall: Importing Low-Resolution Internet Images
“Homer, I need photos of ducks for my PowerPoint show.”

“No problem, Marge, I will just grab some images from the Internet.”

hooper-figure-1

Figure 1. Low-resolution images that fill the screen often look “pixelated.”

But there is a problem, Homer! Many Internet sites use small, low-resolution images that allow the website to load faster. When imported into PowerPoint and expanded to a more desirable size, these images become “pixelated.” In other words, the small, square pixels that make up the image become visible to the eye and the image does not look sharp (see Figure 1).

To purge the pitfall: The best “resolution” (har, har) to this problem is to import medium- to high-resolution images. If you do not know the resolution of an image, import it into your show then project the slide at the size your audience will see it. If it looks sharp, you are in business. If the image you need is only available in low resolution, keep its size small on your PowerPoint slide.

Figure 2. Keeping an imported low-resolution image small and adding text around the image can give a more acceptable overall appearance.

Figure 2. Keeping an imported low-resolution image small and adding text around the image can give a more acceptable overall appearance.

Consider adding sharp-looking text above, below, or next to the low-resolution image to give the slide a more acceptable overall appearance (see Figure 2). If adding text is inappropriate, consider importing more than one image onto the slide so you don’t end up with too much “dead space.” For example, Marge might add shots of several different ducks to each slide.

Pitfall: Not Compressing Higher-Resolution Images
“Homer, thanks for only loading higher-resolution images into my PowerPoint show. Everything looks sharp, but now my show takes forever to load—and sometimes it freezes!”

“Marge, don’t sweat it. We’ll just delete the last half of the show to solve these problems.”

While higher-resolution images give your show a sharper look, they also make your show’s file size larger. This increases the time it takes to load the show (it is really nerve-wracking wondering if your show is going to load) and can cause your computer to freeze.

To purge the pitfall: PowerPoint’s “Compress Pictures” feature is a better solution than Homer’s “delete the last half” idea. This feature discards unnecessary data from each picture without reducing the picture’s quality. Before you initiate such a compression, however, give the show a new name (so you will be able to distinguish your compressed show from the original, uncompressed show). For example, you may want to save your “Tahiti.ppt” show as “TahitiCOMPRESSED.ppt.” If, for some reason, you do not like how the compressed show’s images look, you can go back to the original.

Final Thoughts
PowerPoint shows that contain sharp images capture and hold audience attention better. The guidelines above will help you achieve such shows while keeping file sizes manageable.

Dr. Jon Hooper has over 30 years of experience helping natural and cultural resource professionals enhance the effectiveness of their communication efforts. He is a professor of environmental interpretation at California State University, Chico, and is the owner of Verbal Victories Communication Consulting. He is a Certified Interpretive Trainer (CIT) and was Project WILD’s national Facilitator of the Year in 2006. Contact Jon at jonkhooper@hotmail.com.

Exploring Wi-Fi-Ready Interpretation

by Craig Rademacher

rademacherThe other day, I visited a popular coffee shop around the corner from my home in Marquette, Michigan. I ordered a hot beverage and sat down to enjoy a National Park Service multimedia program (i.e., podcast) called Yosemite Nature Notes.

Now there was nothing unusual about that. Many people download National Park Service podcasts and watch or listen to them on a laptop computer. In fact there are many such programs available. Currently there are 28 individual NPS podcasts available in iTunes, produced by 19 different national park areas (see Figure 1). These 28 shows contain more than 400 individual podcast episodes for park visitors to listen to or view. Back to the coffee shop.

Figure 1. List of NPS produced podcasts found in iTunes. Now there was nothing unusual about that. Many people download National Park Service podcasts and watch or listen to them on a laptop computer. In fact there are many such programs available. Currently there are 28 individual NPS podcasts available in iTunes, produced by 19 different national park areas (see Figure 1). These 28 shows contain more than 400 individual podcast episodes for park visitors to listen to or view. Back to the coffee shop.

Figure 1. List of NPS produced podcasts found in iTunes.

Finding the Yosemite Nature Notes podcast with a laptop computer is an easy search in iTunes (see Figure 2). Once found, simply download Nature Notes to your computer and watch it or sync it (i.e., transfer it) to your iPod. Sounds easy enough. Well, not really.

You see, I didn’t download Yosemite Nature Notes on my computer before I left home. I didn’t even bring my laptop with me. All I had was my iPhone. Like a national park visitor who had left home without his favorite podcast of Mojave National Preserve downloaded from his home computer onto his iPod, I was stuck. How do I get that interpretive program, Yosemite Nature Notes, to my phone when I want it and where I want it while visiting my on-site location?

Figure 2. Yosemite Nature Notes as it appears in iTunes.

Figure 2. Yosemite Nature Notes as it appears in iTunes.

Value of On-site Interpretation
Providing interpretation on site is seen as one of the great strengths of interpretive signs, self-guiding trails, and brochures. The premise behind this is a recognition that getting media messages to park visitors when they need them is our best chance at effective interpretation. The desire to get multimedia interpretation on site and in visitors’ hands in an effective fashion has inspired the recent growth of cell-phone based interpretation and some geo-locating interpretive services (e.g., GPS Ranger®). However, neither of these technologies would help me solve my coffee shop dilemma.

Prior to last November, if I had left my favorite podcast on my computer at home, I was out of luck regarding multimedia access. Multimedia interpretation, for all intents and purposes, stopped at my computer connection. This truth has limited the NPS and other agencies who wanted to provide podcast-style interpretation on site. The iPhone and Wi-Fi access technologies change that.

So, in the coffee shop I sat down and on my iPhone I located a button that connected me wirelessly to the iTunes store. I pressed the button and then searched for National Park Service podcasts. Amidst those listed, I found three about Yosemite, one of which was Yosemite Nature Notes. I selected it for download, and to my delight it downloaded directly onto my iPhone. Within a few minutes I was enjoying an 11-minute video program on Half Dome while sipping my coffee. It could not have been easier.

Now imagine if, instead of me being at the coffee shop in Marquette, Michigan, I had been at Yosemite Lodge. I could have used the hotel Wi-Fi to download the program and enjoyed the Yosemite Nature Notes video just moments before stepping outside the lodge to see Half Dome in all its glory. Or perhaps I could have downloaded the video and waited to view it while standing in full view of Half Dome. This Wi-Fi download technology brings multimedia interpretation onsite in a way never before experienced.

My coffee shop experience got me thinking. What is the interpretive potential of this new technology?

Wi-Fi Reach in National Parks

Figure 3. Results of search for NPS podcasts on an iPhone (left) and Yosemite Nature Notes podcast as it appears on the iPhone and iPod Touch (right).

Figure 3. Results of search for NPS podcasts on an iPhone (left) and Yosemite Nature Notes podcast as it appears on the iPhone and iPod Touch (right).

The potential to deliver rich media experiences to visitors at interpretive sites is huge if the infrastructure for Wi-Fi technology continues to grow in national parks and recreation areas. Currently, Wi-Fi reach in most NPS areas is limited. For example, it is provided in Yosemite National Park and Death Valley National Park by concession services (e.g., lodging services). We can expect this type of Wi-Fi growth to continue as lodge-based visitors seek Wi-Fi as part of accommodation packages.

In an article in the Los Angeles Times, Nicholas Riccardi asked the question “How wired do we want our national parks?” Within the article, Riccardi reported that the National Park Service has directed all 391 park areas to consider telecommunication proposals as part of their planning. Some NPS officials see Wi-Fi access in Yellowstone hotel rooms as a way to convey relevant park information and therefore an important interpretive resource to visitors. So, Wi-Fi reach into NPS areas is occurring. But it appears that wireless telephone and Wi-Fi Internet access is being restricted to developed areas, which is probably good.

As interpreters, we should be aware that video download over cell-phone networks has significant restrictions. Wi-Fi is really what will effectively enable the download of the larger video interpretive messages, such as podcasts.

Most Promising Wi-Fi Interpretive Devices
Recently an NPS staff member suggested to me that the cell phone will be the portable interpretive device of the future. Although I don’t doubt that, I can tell you my experience with cell phone interpretation as it exists is somewhat mixed. I like the convenience, but the quality of sound and lack of visual support are real limitations. In my mind, the future of portable interpretation is the Wi-Fi-enabled device, typically a smart phone.

A smart phone is a mobile phone with computer-like capabilities. With it users can access the Internet via wireless phone signal or via Wi-Fi connection. In addition to Internet access most smart phones also provide e-mail, text messaging, and other services. Results of a recent survey by The Kelsey Group (TKB) reported that smart phone penetration in the mobile phone market is now at 18.9 percent. A survey by TKB on purchasing trends suggested that 49.2 percent of all respondents were planning to purchase a smart phone in 2009. North America is the fastest growing smart phone market. Growth in smart phone sales is expected to continue even in these difficult financial times.

A number of smart phones currently on the market have Wi-Fi capabilities. However, only the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch devices have tight integration with the most popular digital media store in the world, iTunes. So let’s look at the iPhone as an example of a smart phone that could be a future Wi-Fi interpretive media device.

The iPhone 3G is Apple’s smart phone. As a smart phone, it is becoming more and more popular, though it is not the leader in worldwide smart phone sales. However, more than 10 million iPhones have been sold. The strength of the iPhone as a portable interpretive device is its position as a cell phone with a built-in iPod. Its sibling is the iPod Touch, which is an iPod with no cell phone but with Wi-Fi capabilities.

Both of these Wi-Fi capable devices are tightly integrated to iTunes. iTunes holds the largest catalog of portable media programs, or podcasts, in the world. This is where you will find the best collection of NPS podcasts.

Currently, only iPhones and iPod Touch devices can directly download podcasts wirelessly and without a computer. Using this system, podcasts could be distributed to park visitors onsite from a central Wi-Fi location within a park, like a lodge or visitor center. This on-site distribution model has yet to be fully explored in a national park but has tremendous potential.

What this Means to Interpretation
Interpretation via Wi-Fi connectivity is in its infancy. As smart phones and other portable media devices become more universally Wi-Fi capable, we should expect more demand for this type of interpretive service. We are now seeing the development of interpretive software, websites, and portable media that take advantage of Wi-Fi access.

As the National Park Service plans for the future of interpretive programming, Wi-Fi delivery ought to be considered. This is the true horizon of multimedia-based interpretation in our national parks.

For the visitor, Wi-Fi-delivered interpretation is important because it is engaging and context-relevant. Importantly, it is also low cost to the visitor and has a strong convenience factor. Wi-Fi-delivered interpretive programming is portable, rich media that can incorporate narration, music, photographs, video, and sound. It has value to the visitor on site as well as having souvenir value.

My coffee shop experience confirmed that Wi-Fi-delivered interpretation is real. It will not be long before people begin to actively seek it out in national parks and recreation areas. Maybe not this coming season, but soon. Will your interpretive site be Wi-Fi ready?

For More Information
New Media in National Parks. http://newmedia.nmu.edu

Harpers Ferry Newsletter: HFC onMedia. June 2008 Issue on New Media. http://www.nps.gov/hfc/
hfc-onmedia.htm.

Hardy, Ed. 2008. Smart phone sales increasing, just not as much as usual. http://www.brighthand.com (accessed December 21, 2008).

Rademacher, Craig. 2008. Research Brief: NPS Podcasting Today. http://newmedia.nmu.edu (posted November 21, 2008).

The Kelsey Group. 2008. New TKG data: Smart phone penetration nears 20%. http://blog.kelseygroup.com (accessed December 1, 2008).

Craig Rademacher is an assistant professor of outdoor recreation leadership and management at Northern Michigan University (NMU) in Marquette, Michigan. He is the producer of the New Media in National Parks project (newmedia.nmu.edu) at NMU.

Community History in the Canadian Rockies: Students Combine Stories and Technology to Map Their Town

by Laura Silver

Into the woods: Students check out the technology near the Bow River. Photo by Angus Leech.

Into the woods: Students check out the technology near the Bow River. Photo by Angus Leech.

It started beneath the earth, 175 million years ago. The Pacific tectonic plate inched under the North American plate. Land masses collided and enormous slabs of rock were forced upwards—the Rocky Mountains. Backdrop, destination, and testament to the area’s rich geological and social history, the snow-capped peaks surround the town of Banff in Alberta, Canada, and occupy a central spot in its past—and present.

A Town, A Park, A Landscape
Situated entirely within the borders of Banff National Park, the town is home to nearly 9,000 locals and welcomes three million visitors each year—not to mention the wolves, elk, and bears that live in the park and occasionally wander into town.

But it wasn’t always like that. According to the town of Banff, the first human settlement in the area dates to approximately 11,500 B.C., at nearby Lake Minnewanka. By 1750 A.D., mountain passes in the area provided fertile hunting and fishing grounds for Cree, Kootenay, and Plains Blackfoot tribes. The European presence in the area started 100 years after that, when representatives of the Canadian Pacific Railway Company descended on the Bow Valley to lay tracks that would connect British Columbia with the country’s other provinces. The town’s name comes from Banffshire, Scotland, the birthplace of two of the original directors of the Canadian Pacific Railway. But cars had a presence too. In 1911, the Banff-Calgary Coach Road made it possible for automobiles to access the mountain hamlet.

Today, Japanese restaurants, souvenir shops, and bars punctuate Banff Avenue. The town is also home to a dozen art galleries and several museums. The Buffalo Nations Museum chronicles the resilience and traditions of native peoples in the area. The Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies highlights the natural and human history of the area and features modern-day representations of Rocky Mountain life in the arts.

Walking down the tourist-dominated main drag—rugged, towering Cascade Mountain on one end, the formal Cascade Gardens on the other—it’s easy to forget that people actually live here. But a group of students is helping to change that.

Charting the Past

The town of Banff in Alberta, Canada, has a rich and interesting history—told by a team of youngsters in a unique way. Photo by Doug Leighton/Travel Alberta/Banff Lake Louise Tourism.

The town of Banff in Alberta, Canada, has a rich and interesting history—told by a team of youngsters in a unique way. Photo by Doug Leighton/Travel Alberta/Banff Lake Louise Tourism.

Two seventh-grade classes at Banff Community High School used global positioning systems, mobile phones, and multimedia tools to tell personal stories rooted in the town’s past as part of an interactive walking tour of their town. Along the way, they deepened their knowledge of their hometown, honed their voices, and harnessed technology to share the stories of people who came before them. The Banff Mobile History Tour chronicles the mountain town’s beginnings through audio and video presentations, originally designed to be activated at hot spots (GPS-triggered coordinates) in town, and now available via an interactive, Web-based map with audio and video at www.banffmobilehistory.ca (click on “History Map”).

The tour, which debuted in spring 2008, presents moments in time that shaped the town’s history. Students’ recorded voices introduce tour-goers to native populations, explorers, and longtime residents.

The seventh graders started by pinpointing spots of interest in Banff, the highest town in Canada (elevation 4,537 feet). Then they researched related events in the town’s history and dug up historic images to illustrate the stories they chose. Students wrote and rewrote (and rewrote) scripts, which they recorded and paired with the archival images they found, presented in hard copy during the on-site tour, and now available on the Web.

The nonlinear tour showcases natural and cultural attractions within the two and a half square miles of the town of Banff. Student commentaries touch on the early days of the town library, the impressions of one of the first tourists to Banff National Park in 1905 (she married her guide), and the back-breaking work of a Canadian Pacific Railway worker (“The only thing I really wanted at the end of the day was sleep.”).

The origins of the settlement of the area are reflected in a reenactment of a conversation between explorers Duncan McGillivray and David Thompson, who, in 1800, were the first white men to visit the Bow Valley.

The students started with facts, but didn’t shy away from humor. The portrayal of railroad workers’ discovery of the hot springs outside Banff in 1885 provided an opportunity to insert some modern-day yucks.

A:    “It’s not very deep, but, man, it sure is hot.”
B:    “Let’s get a move on, I haven’t bathed in a week.”
C:    “So that’s what that smell is.”
B:    “That’s not me, it’s the sulphur.”

Tools of the Future
Bringing history to life is a group effort. Luckily, the students had a large supporting cast for the creation of The Banff (Magical) Mobile History Tour. The project was a collaboration between the local high school, a government-sponsored arts initiative called Learning Through the Arts, and the Banff New Media Institute at the Banff Centre. The project was funded by Inukshuk Wireless, a partnership between Bell Canada and Rogers Communications, designed to build and manage a wireless broadband network throughout Canada.

Angus Leech of the Banff New Media Institute, part of the Banff Centre, says the idea to involve students in creating a tour sprang from a training session for educators. One instructor, social studies teacher Irv Semenok of Banff, said he wanted to add some pizzazz to a standard part of the seventh-grade curriculum. Each year, Semenok assigned reports on local history and each year, his students uncovered little-known details of their town’s past, but each year, the bulk of their work ended up in a file drawer. Semenok wanted to create an online archive of the students’ work.

Mount Rundell dominates the Banff skyline. Photo by Laura Silver.

Mount Rundell dominates the Banff skyline. Photo by Laura Silver.

Leech told him that the Banff New Media Institute could take the project a step further by using GPS, audio, and video. As senior researcher at the institute’s Advanced Research Technology (ART) Mobile Lab, Leech leads teams who study and create location-based art, technology, and media design. His lab conducts research on new technologies, leads trainings for diverse audiences, and develops software for use on mobile devices such as iPhones and BlackBerries. One of its goals is to explore interactions between people, media, and the out-of-doors.

Before coming to the ART Lab, Leech spent a few years as a low-tech interpreter at Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta, where he examined the relationship between text, place, and performance.

“My job was to do guided hikes— heavily scripted—to bone beds where hundreds of dinosaurs died at once,” he said, “and to lead bus tours and do live theater where we dressed up as animals and dinosaurs and did stupid dances.”

Technological Alliances
Leech didn’t ask students to do any fancy footwork, but he was excited about the prospect of involving a younger generation in the Mobile Lab’s work. But even with first-hand experience in the field, the Calgary native knew that the Banff New Media Institute couldn’t go it alone. “We needed to team up with an organization that had a rigorous curriculum-development experience,” said Leech.

The institute already had a relationship with the New Media Program of Learning Through The Arts (LTTA) at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto, which works with schools throughout Canada to bring teaching artists into classrooms to enhance the curriculum using dance, music, painting, and for the last few years, media arts. Its new media manager John Scully has been involved in designing and delivering training sessions for educators at the Banff Centre for the last four years, with positive results. He noticed that teachers were excited about seeing how locative media could be used in the classroom. So, the notion of sharing the technology directly with students wasn’t that far-fetched.

“It just kind of bubbled in our brain for six months,” said Leech, “until we noticed there was this funding opportunity out there.”

The project partners applied to Inukshuk Wireless for a grant in the area of mobile media and secured more than $100,000 for the pilot program—the first time a mobile technology project had been funded.

Do the Locomotion
Locative media is an evolving field that uses technology—most often some form of a global-positioning system (GPS)—to help augment an experience of place. And in the case of this project, it provided instructors with an opportunity to learn about a new medium for learning as well. One of Scully’s goals was to engage teachers in new software—Apple’s GarageBand for audio recording and editing and iMovie for video editing—already available on Macintosh computers at the school.

“We wanted to enable the teachers who are working with the Banff community school to work with the tools that are in their environment,” said Scully.

To facilitate the process, he used some of the funding to hire Calgary filmmaker James Reckseidler to help students with the technical and artistic aspects of the project.

“He wasn’t just a media artist,” said Scully, “He actually had quite a passion and an interest in the history.”

Reckseidler, who spent four years as a historical interpreter at Fort Calgary, said the technology gave students the chance to add another layer to the scenic and historical backdrop.

“The technology was actually only a device,” said Reckseidler. “We had wonderful landscape to work with already. What was surprising was how much more the stories came to life when you provided a bit more information about them.”

Scully said the multimedia aspect can add a sense of immediacy.

“You’re able to bring another sound, another voice, another picture right into their hands,” he said. “Plus, there’s real power in having someone speak in their own voice.”

Where there is technology, there are technical glitches. Many students complained about complications with software, the frustration of losing work on computers, or the challenge of writing for the ear rather than the page. But Scully had a strategy to combat those challenges: “Let’s go back and revise your script,” he told students when the equipment did not work as expected. “Let’s go back and work on drama, develop presentation skills.”

Banff National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage site that attracts nearly four million visitors a year. Few of them get to hear a teenager’s interpretation of the site. The Banff Mobile History Tour was presented to parents at a special reception and was open to the public during a single rain-soaked weekend in May 2008. The turnout was dampened by the weather, but students had other opportunities to share their work. School classes from the neighboring town of Canmore and from an Aboriginal school in southern Alberta also participated in the tour as audience members.

“They thought it was really cool to walk around in Banff and hear these stories told by other students their age,” said Angus Leech. His mobile lab developed the Bluetooth receivers that allowed the phones to communicate with GPS receivers. The receivers kicked into action at locations that students had tagged.

Not every locative media project has access to the same set-up. Learning Through The Arts’s latest locative-media project—based at a school in Calgary—uses Mediascape, Hewlett-Packard software that disseminates place-based audio and video stories on hand-held GPS-enabled devices.

Scully is optimistic about advances in the field of GPS—originally invented for military use—and looks forward to seeing what artists will do with the technology. “The more we get comfortable with this, the more we can do it on an ongoing basis,” he said.

Leech of the Mobile Lab agreed that technology helps pave the way for opportunities that might not otherwise be available to students.

“A story is so much more powerful, has so much more resonance if you tell it in the place where it happened,” said Leech. “There’s a lot of potential in that, in terms of learning.”

For More Information
The Banff (Magical) Mobile History Tour.
www.banffmobilehistory.ca

The Banff New Media Institute.
www.banffcentre.ca/BNMI

Learning Through the Arts.
www.ltta.ca

Banff National Park.
www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/ab/banff/ index_E.asp

James Reckseidler.
http://james.reckseidler.com/

Hewlett-Packard’s Mediascapes.
www.hpl.hp.com/mediascapes

Savannah, an educational adventure game that uses hand-held devices.
www.futurelab.org.uk/ projects/savannah

Laura Silver is a freelance writer, independent radio producer and licensed New York City tour guide.