Learning from the Avebury landscape in virtual and augmented realities

Falconer, Liz; Sumpter, John; Shand, Mark; Gil Ortega, Mari Carmen

Abstract

This workshop will describe and demonstrate the reconstruction of an ancient landscape in a virtual environment as a means to facilitate collaborative learning. The virtual landscape, a reconstruction of Avebury Henge in Wiltshire circa 2,300 BCE, will be part of a project that involves students in Heritage, History and Curation at UWE in the autumn term of 2016. Virtual technologies have begun to ignite interest as techniques that might provide enhanced opportunities to produce heritage and history ‘thirdspaces’; i.e. spaces where the social, physical and conceptual aspects of built and natural environments can be experienced.
In this workshop we will explain the underlying rationale for the Avebury project, demonstrate how the virtual landscape has been designed and constructed, and discuss how it will be used for the participation element of the project. The major part of the workshop will be to give the audience the opportunity to interact with and explore the environment for themselves. The focus of the workshop will be upon how reconstructed virtual spaces can enhance learning, understanding and recall; an approach that could be developed at UWE for a broad range of topic areas such as environmental studies, geography, planning, sociology and education.

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: UWE Learning and Teaching Conference 2016
• Start Date: Jun 22, 2016
• End Date: Jun 22, 2016
• Acceptance Date: Jun 22, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: virtual reality, augmented reality, Avebury
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/910760
• Additional Information: Title of Conference or Conference Proceedings : UWE Learning and Teaching Conference 2016