Lecture presented at the International workshop on mobile science, Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste (Italy), 2-5 November 2010.

1. Mobile devices to raise
cultural awareness # 2
Sara Vannini
NewMinE Lab - www.newmine.org
Faculty of Communication Sciences
Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland

2. m-training m-serious games
Yesterday’s session
- projects: PSP @ BPS + eTreasure
- support learning
- anywhere, anytime (location matters)

3. Location-based Services (LBSs) are services
that provide information that has been
created, compiled, selected, or filtered taking
into consideration the current location of the
users’ mobile objects.
Their attractiveness results from the fact that
their participants do not have to enter location
information manually, but that they are
automatically pinpointed and tracked.
- Axel Kuepper (2005) -
Location-based Services: Fundamentals and Operation

9. • Health
• Agriculture
• Census

10. Educational field activities

11. photo by Yasser

12. Tourism as THE informal learning experience

13. Tourism as THE informal learning experience
• The Odyssey, by Homer
• Il Milione, by Marco Polo (XIV Century)
• XVII - XIX Centuries: “Grand Tour”
• Tristes Tropiques, by Claude Lévi Strauss
• In Patagonia, by Charles Bruce Chatwin
• On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

14. When you set out on your journey to Ithaca,
pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
- Ithaca, by Constantine P. Cavafy -

15. m-tourism

16. Experiments with several methods for tracking
tourists based on several mobile technologies:
- Global Positioning System (GPS);
- Mobile Phones (Cellular Triangulation & Time Difference of
Arrival);
- Hybrid Assisted-GPS.
Cellular phones have some advantaged, especially in
urban environments, whereas GPS is far more
accurate on the micro-level.
- Shoval & Isaacson, 2007 -
Tracking Tourists in the Digital Age
Annals of Tourism Research 34

17. Use of Mobile Technologies in Cultural institutions
and Museums:
- Audio-video guides (TATE Modern, London);
- Guide allowing tagging and bookmarking content while visiting
the museum (SFMOMA).

18. INLET Project:
Introducing Language Enhancement Techniques
(Olympic Games in Greece in 2004)
- Pincas, 2005 -
Approaches to just-in-time learning with mobile phones: a case study of
support for tourists’language needs
Mobile learning anytime everywhere

19. INLET Project:
Introducing Language Enhancement Techniques
(Olympic Games in Greece in 2004)
- Pincas, 2005 -
Approaches to just-in-time learning with mobile phones: a case study of
support for tourists’language needs
Mobile learning anytime everywhere
more targeted
‘feel’ a connection to Greece and its people

20. m-tourism & m-guides

22. Most recurrent functionalities of m-guides
45.0%!
47.5%!
52.5%!
40%! 42%! 44%! 46%! 48%! 50%! 52%! 54%!
Search!
Near me!
Show on the map!

23. A point about maps’ use concerns how they are frequently read in
advance of getting to the place the map describes. [...]
Indeed, this pointed us towards a much–neglected aspect of using
maps: their educational function. A major aim of using a map is
to learn about a place sufficiently that one can get around without
using a map...
- Brown, B. and Chalmers, M., 2003 -
Tourism and mobile technology
Proceedings of the eighth conference on European
Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work

24. Survey results
- 121 valid responses
- Stay duration (mean): 2 nights
- all had at least one mobile device
- 71.1% had a mobile device able to connect to the Internet
- 24.0% never access the Internet with their mobile devices while
traveling, 24.8% do it very often

25. Survey results
- 20-30% dedicated some time to extra-work activity,
mostly after 6PM
- Proximity to their hotel was important in the choice of those
activities to 82.2%
- 30-40% would have been interested in knowing more about
different aspects of the destination, were they given the opportunity
(especially about events, food, arts).

26. photo by Yasser

27. I have no time, but if you tell me more...
photo by Yasser

29. “A wealth of information creates a
poverty of attention and a need to
allocate that attention efficiently
among the overabundance of
information sources that might
consume it.”
- Herbert Simon -

30. m-guide requirements
- time restrictions
- economy of attention
- context-aware
- personalized/customizable
- offline/online
- playful?

31. m-tourism & m-hospitality

32. Can we raise awareness in the local population during
big events, and train them in tourism hospitality?

34. So far...

35. So far...
- emergence of learning
- location-awareness
- anywhere/anytime
- time-awareness
- popular

37. m-4d

39. Local Data Gathering on product penetration or prices
in specific geographies.
Translations - transcriptions - localization.
Txteagle enables corporations to employ populations who were
previously unable to participate in the global knowledge-based labor
market.

41. m-4d

42. m-4d
Mobile phones are a viable distribution platform
for longer form content and for enabling reader
participation.
Steve Vosloo
about the m4lit project
http://m4lit.wordpress.com/

43. m-4d
If friar's plan wrks, then romeo wil b able 2 cum nd
take juliet wit hm 2 liv hapily 2geda at mantua bt if it
fails, sumbdy's gna b dead. Lol!
Elsie
Steve Vosloo
about the m4lit project
http://m4lit.wordpress.com/

44. m-4d
I loved the book, wish it didnt have an ending.
Shakespear please bring another one like this one. IT
WAS MWAAAH!!
Blessed 1
Steve Vosloo
about the m4lit project
http://m4lit.wordpress.com/

45. book availability situation is sometimes reflected in the
(paper) tourist guides available

46. book availability situation is reflected in the (paper)
tourist guides available
Mozambique: 216 pp.

47. book availability situation is reflected in the (paper)
tourist guides available
Mozambique: 216 pp.
Italy: 948 pp.
Switzerland: 404 pp.
Ireland: 764 pp.
Sweden: 372 pp.
Tanzania: 392 pp.
California: 768 pp.

48. Traditions and religion: Nguillatun

49. Objects: Kultrun

50. Clothes, colors, handcrafts

51. Food and products

52. Territory

53. What’s the story?

54. What’s the story?
Creating local generated contents and share it
with tourists (by using mobile devices);
Responding to tourists’ need for authenticity, and
offering important chances for cultural
understanding and exchange.

55. - Economically valuable to the local community
Win - Win
- Recognition of often left-aside cultures
-Added value for the tourist!

56. - Community’s choice
- Organization (participation is not always quality)
- What devices?
Issues to consider

57. Are we designing meaningful learning experiences?
Are we exploiting mobile devices for what they offer?

58. Are we designing meaningful learning experiences?
Are we exploiting mobile devices for what they offer?

59. Thank you
www.newmine.org