StreetClassApp
A mobile learning app, using locative and immersive technologies to turn public spaces into learning environments.
The United Nations assert that ‘education is a fundamental human right’ and the route to ‘freedom’ and ‘empowerment’. Yet we live in a world where access to education is still hugely limited. Since the arrival of the read-write, social media-based web, the world has witnessed how internet technologies connect people in daily acts of reciprocity. Wikipedia in particular shows how people come together for common educational good. So it followed that in 2013 there was a wave of excitement over the potential of Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to dramatically open up universities to large numbers of people – regardless of location or occupation – in a new form of networked education. What even the world’s finest institutions discovered was that MOOCs were only useful in conferring certain skills. They were unsustainable long term without a workforce of online-ready professors. And ultimately, this disembodied approach to education proved deeply isolating. This is because location is central to making us feel connected and motivated. What we propose therefore is a mobile learning application that can turn any physical location into an active, embodied, learning experience.
StreetClass turns the city into a university. Using GPS, QR codes and image recognition, the app allows users to encounter lessons ‘pinned’ to locations throughout the city. Working alone, or in collaboration with other users, they explore lesson content that ranges from text to augmented reality, and complete learning tasks designed to activate the immediate surroundings. This could be a one-off experience, allowing someone to take an afternoon learning tour of Hong Kong, or it could be part of a wider programme of study. For example, lessons will be connected in collections that constitute complete university-level courses. In addition to embodied connectivity, the second MOOC pitfall this deals with is sustainability. Each StreetClass lesson will be tied to a course at CityU. The app will allow professors to ‘pin’ the class permanently, but it will only be visible in the app when they are able to manage external students alongside their internal ones. While each task will require participant peer-review, lightening the grading load. StreetClasses will be free and open to anyone with a smartphone and internet connection. In first rounds of teaching it will be used to develop Hong Kong-specific courses although our ultimate aim is to build a platform that could eventually be used to support learning within disadvantaged of communities. Once we have built and trialled the app, sustainable learning model, and produced operation guidelines, we hope to partner with charities and organisations whose work could be considerably extended through the use of this system. One future target group would be Hong Kong’s South-East Asian ethnic minority who encounter substantial difficulties when seeking employment, education, housing and health care.
COMING SOON!
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