Using ZebraZapps to develop an interactive activity

http://www.digitalwatershed.org/mystars.html

Create a constellation by dragging the yellow dots.

Check out Greg Daigle’s work (pictured left). Click the link above to see the latest iteration of a possible interactive activity for the Earthworks Rising website. It will load in ZebraZapps.

This activity is designed to focus the learner on constellations and how meaning and narrative are created by the star gazer. Learners can make their own constellation or recreate an existing one. Companion information will be provided on the Earthworks Rising website.

Website is in development

Home page – website in development!

Example of how the activity page might appear.

Heading to Chicago for the DML 2013 conference

Weekly Team meeting in Google Hangouts. Left and center – Gary Leatherman, next – Greg Daigle, Leslie Kratz, and Michelle Aubrecht & Christine Ballengee-Morris (far right).

We’re really excited to be heading to the DML conference this year!

Last year we were competing with many others for funding to develop our badge system. This year we will be showcasing it with our fellow awardees on Thursday from 6-8 p.m.

Leslie Kratz and Christine Ballengee-Morris will be presenting an Ignite Talk on Thursday afternoon about collaboration.

We’ll be posting more about the project and it’s development – so check back!

New Title!

How the Earthworks badge system works

May Meeting "Field Trips"

As part of the Native American Advisory Team meeting, we also had a few “field trips.” Leslie Kratz and Ruth Voights from Digital Watershed had never visited any of the earthworks and mounds in Ohio. We planned a few excursions to Newark Earthworks, Black Hand Gorge, Flint Ridge and on another day travelled to the Hopewell Culture National Historical park in Chillicothe, Ohio and the Serpent Mound in Pebbles, Ohio. While the Native American Team met on Saturday, Leslie and Michelle visited the Ohio Historical Center to view the exhibit: Following in Ancient Footsteps.

From left to right: Michelle Aubrecht, Leslie Kratz, Christine Ballengee-Morris, and Karen Hutzel.

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EARTHWORKS: An Interactive Badge System that provides a gateway/portal to engaged learning and knowledge about the Native American Mounds and Earthworks in North America.

The development of the EARTHWORKS Interactive Badge System is a collaboration between Ohio State University, Digital Watershed and a large team of Native American Advisors and Educators. This project has been funded by the Digital Media + Learning Competition BADGES FOR LIFELONG LEARNING directed by the HASTAC INITIATIVE collaborating with mozilla and supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

Following the Native American Advisory Team meeting

Unfortuanately, Chad had to leave before Jon snapped this photo after the meeting on May 19th. Fortunately, they agreed to stay for a while afterwards to record some sounds that we will use in the NEH funded game! http://meet-the-earthworks-builders.posterous.com/. I uploaded their comments as they wrapped the recording. 

Christine&GroupWrap.wav

Content Planning Meeting this Saturday!

Entrance to the Digital Union in the Science Engineering Library, 3rd floor.

The wrieless room, where the meeting will take place.

These rooms look empty now, but this weekend the Native American Content Advisors are meeting to discuss how to focus the content for the Earthworks Badges Project. It’s so exciting to bring together such talented people: Ruth Voights, Digital Watershed Board and Associate Professor at Minneapolis College of Art and Design; Christine Ballengee-Morris, Professor of Art Education at Ohio State University, Marti Chaatsmith, Program Coordinator at the Newark Earthworks Center; Sonya Atalay, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, Indiana University; Chadwick Allen, Associate Professor, Ohio State Univeristy, and although unable to attend, she is contributing in spirit and deed, Cheif Glenna Wallace, Eastern Band Shawnee. All of these people are Native Americans.

Their discussion will include a determining a name, content priorities, badge design terms and elements, rubrics, deciding how badges will be evaluated and awarded, creating a development blog about using Decolonizing Methodologies – that is, allowing for the Native American voice to emerge without it being influenced by Western values and expectations. Once we have this our development team will begin working on our badge design, website elements, and it’s delivery will kick into gear! And we’ll have a lot of decisions to make.

Leslie Kratz, Digital Watershed and I will be meeting too and then gathering the input after the Native American Advisers meet. 

Innovate 2012 at OSU – Poster Presentation

Here’s the poster that Christine Ballengee-Morris and Michelle Aubrecht presented at the Innovate conference this year. It describes the Earthworks Builder’s game/ project (funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities: http://meet-the-earthworks-builders.posterous.com/) and how it is associated with the HASTAC funded companion website and badge system. 

This was a great opportunity to think through how the projects are related. Michelle was pleased with the response of conference attendees and will likely use a variation of this poster when she will showcase the video game development project at Games+Learning+Society in June 2012 as part of the Educational Game Arcade. 

download the jpg to read (if it opens in a browser window click on it to enlarge it or right-click to save it to your computer):

 

This is a picture of Michelle Aubrecht with Queenie Chow from the Digital Union at Ohio State Univeristy. http://digitalunion.osu.edu/. The Digital Union organized the Innovate conference. On campus, they provide support to faculty, staff and students in using digital media and tools to teach, do research, and create projects. They also maintain a blog (to which Michelle contributed many posts when a GA at the Digital Union – her last post was in 2011). 

 

Earthworks Badges

Digital Watershed and Ohio State University have been partnered through the HASTAC Digital Media and Learning Competition to develop a badging system that supports leanring about the ancient earthworks and mounds. Several American Indian tribes and Nations are decended from the earthworks builders. 

 

All of our blog posts will be cross-posted on the HASTAC website: http://hastac.org/competitions/winners/earthworks