In September 2011 the Faculty of Cultural Sciences of the Dutch Open University initiated the development of a new cluster of courses in the field of cultural heritage. Three lecturers of the faculty have been involved in the set up of these courses, Toon Bosch (Ph.D. in history), Patricia van Ulzen (Ph.D. in arts) and Leonieke Vermeer (Ph.D. in literature).  Of this cultural heritage-team, Toon Bosch and Patricia van Ulzen were responsible for the content of the Streetlearn game, whereas Van Ulzen cooperated with Roland Klemke of Celstec in constructing the test-version of Streetlearn.

Google Streetview seemed to be an interesting medium for teaching in the field of public cultural heritage, such as (groups of) buildings or urban areas. For this experiment we chose a site from the Unesco list of Dutch World Heritage (http://whc.unesco.org/en/list).  The most suitable heritage site from this list was the Amsterdam canal ring area, because of its 100% coverage by Google Streetview. Within this area we made a diverse selection of buildings and subjects that would play a role in the Streetlearn game. The buildings and subjects were, in alphabetical order: Amsterdams Peil (the level of the water in the canals); bookshop Schröder en Dupont (Keizersgracht 516, 1932); Felix Meritis (Keizersgracht 324, 18th century); Haarlemmerpoort (former gate, Haarlemmerplein, first building on this site 1618, the existing building is from 1840) Karthuizerhof (Karthuizerstraat 15th and 16th century); Prinsengrachtziekenhuis (Prinsengracht 769, 1854); Theater Tuschinski, (Reguliersbreestraat 26, 1921), interieurontwerp Jaap Gidding, ook interessant vanwege oprichter Tuschinski); Westerkerk, (Prinsengracht 281, 1620-1631). We (the cultural heritage-team) thought that the diversity of the selection would be attractive for students and would illustrate the rich history of the area.

The storyboard for the game was based on real historic events: the smuggling of marihuana in fishing boats from Libanon to the Netherlands in the early 1970s. The gamer is a police officer searching for the distributor of the marihuana and the stock.

There is no direct relation between the content and the story of the game, but the tension between Amsterdam as a public museum on the one hand and a lively city on the other hand, is part of the content. The reputation of Amsterdam as a lively, tolerant and progressive city goes back to the 17^th century, but during the roaring 1960s and 1970s this reputation got stronger than ever before. This is why it seemed to be interesting to give the gamer some information about this period. The drugs-story seemed adequate, firstly because the legislation of soft drugs stems from this period, and secondly via this story some couleur locale of the Amsterdam 1960s and 1970s could be presented.

Confronted with the game, it became clear that the content was too complicated. The starting point of the game is the canal ring area, which is a 17^th century construction. But then the selected buildings, except for the Westerkerk, date from other centuries. Also the relation between the drugs-story and the World Heritage-status of Amsterdam was not completely clear. The attempt to make the content diverse and refreshing, turned out into an unforeseen complexity.

The six students who tested the game, came to the same conclusion. In general, they were positive about the game, especially about: 1) the content (they even wanted more information and more multiple choice questions); 2) the diversity of the media, such as photos, texts, audiovisual material; 3) the use of streetview; 4) the fun of playing the game; 5) the connection of the content with the present time. Their major critical remarks about the content were the following: 1) the connection between the canal ring area and the drugs-story is not clear; 2) the drugs-story is distracting, childish and gives a too stereotypical image of Amsterdam; 3) the clues how to go on were too difficult.

For this specific educational purpose, teaching about buildings, their architecture and history, there is another aspect of Streetview that must be criticised here: the fact that in Streetview it is hard to focus on one specific building and see it completely, without distortions.

Conclusion

Two important conclusions can be drawn from this experiment. First: when using Google Streetview ánd a game for teaching, the content and the story should not be too complex. There is already enough distraction in Streetview as such and presenting the content in the form of a game splits the information in fragments. This way of presenting content is refreshing, but if the content in itself is too diverse, the gamer gets confused. Second: the selection of buildings should not only be based on the (art)historical importance, but also on the quality of the photographic image of the site in Streetview. Because of the difficulty to focus on one building, maybe one should take groups of building or, in this case, a whole canal.

Preparation:

Install Java EE, Eclipse, Google Appengine SDK for Java (http://code.google.com/appengine/downloads.html)

Project Sources:

Do a SVN checkout available from: http://code.google.com/p/arlearn/

Project organisation:

The project is organised in several subprojects:

• ARLearn2Library: core backend project resources
• streetlearn: streetview client resources

To get started with streetlearn you need to do the following:

• create an AppEngine project with the streetlearn subfolder as root.
• symlink the src directory of Arlearn2Library as additional src (e.g. /src-lib) into streetlearn
• add jars to the war/WEB-INF/lib folder (for some newer versions will be available, many of them are already included in the appengine resources): appengine-api-1.0-sdk-1.5.2.jar, jackson-core-asl-1.5.5.jarappengine-api-labs-1.5.2.jar, jackson-jaxrs-1.5.5.jarappengine-jsr107cache-1.5.2.jar, jackson-mapper-asl-1.5.5.jarasm-3.1.jar, jackson-xc-1.5.5.jarcommons-fileupload-1.2.jar, jdo2-api-2.3-eb.jardatanucleus-appengine-1.0.9.final.jar, jersey-client-1.5.jardatanucleus-core-1.1.5.jar, jersey-core-1.5.jardatanucleus-jpa-1.1.5.jar, jersey-json-1.5.jargdata-client-1.0.jar, jersey-server-1.5.jargdata-client-meta-1.0.jar, jettison-1.1.jargdata-core-1.0.jar, jsr107cache-1.1.jargdata-media-1.0.jar, jsr305.jargeronimo-jpa_3.0_spec-1.1.1.jar, jsr311-api-1.1.1.jargeronimo-jta_1.1_spec-1.1.1.jar, standard.jargoogle-collect-1.0-rc1.jar
• compile the project

Once you have the project ready to launch, you can start to create a game scenario. What you need to do is the following:

• register a gmail account (if not existing yet)
• on linux based systems, run a series of curl-scripts (please adapt where necessary: port numbers, account data, on Windows-based systems you need to install curl first and probably adapt the scripts):

1. Login/Authenticationcurl \ -H “Content-Type:text/plain” -H “Accept:application/json” \ -d ‘<username><password>’ \ http://localhost:9999/rest/login
2. export GOOGLE_AUTH=<return authcode from login script>
3. In the Arlearn2Library project, you find a number of curl-scripts in the curl-subfolder. Especially there is a subfolder ‘amsterdamCase’ with a script called grachtengordel.sh. This one initialises a whole game. Please adapt this script to replace the players section at the end with your gmail accounts.
4. After this script has run, you should be able to login to the streetLearn game and also be able to select the amsterdam game.

Now you should be ready to run and play StreetLearn, enjoy!

Approach

We gave a short introductory presentation to the participants and then asked them to play the game. During the game we gave some support to participants and could answer questions. After the game session, we asked participants to fill out a questionnaire and we additionally collected some feedback in a wrap-up discussion.

Participants

Four of the students where female, two where male. Any two of the participants where in age groups 36-50, 52-65, above 65. Their previous experience with technology enhanced learning, computer games and serious games was rather low (avg. 2.5 on a scale from 1 to 6, where 6 is “I fully agree”).

Concept

The rated the use of serious games for education as helpful (avg. 5/6) and the idea behind streetlearn as interesting (avg. 5/6). However, some of them claimed, that learners should concentrate on learning rather than gaming (avg. 3.3/6)

User Interface

Participants were asked to rate the user interface of the StreetLearn prototype (on scales of 1 to 5, where 5 is “I fully agree”). They rated it to be appealing (avg. 3.5/5), partly easy to use (2.5/5), and useful for the game (3.5/5), only  partly they think, the UI is obstructing (2.5/5), too complex (2/5), or confusing (2/5).
Learning contentThe learning content about the amsterdam grachtengordel was rated as interesting (4.2/5), relevant (4/5), understandable (4.2/5), nicely presented (3.8/5), comprehensive (3.5/5). Only few participants rated the content as too complex (2.2/5).

Game story

The game story in the amsterdam drug milieu was perceived to be well connected to the learning content (4/5). However, opinions on the usefulness of the game story where not clear: the story was rated only by half of the participants as interesting (2.8/5), motivating (2.7/5), helpful (2.7/5). It was also by half of the participants rated as confusing (2.8/5), distracting (2.8/5), or too simple (2.7/5).

Comments

We received further input from the participants about different aspects of the prototype. See below an excerpt of the comments received.
Overall- you don’t get bored, time flies- fun, enjoy, kept me occupied- information is helpful- good mixture of text, movie, game elements- connection of past/present elements is good (e.g. today’s function of westerkerk as gay symbol)

User Interface:

• it is sometimes unclear what to do next
• sometimes items are a bit hidden

Learning Content

• relation grachtengordel / drug story weak
• more information- more test questions
• more own content (no wikipedia etc.)

Game story

• the police story is a bit distracting from the learning content. Maybe a historical figure/scene would link content and story better.
• Too busy with game, too distracted from learning

Summary

Overall we are satisfied with the outcome of the evaluation. Participants where highly interested and motivated. We received very positive feedback for concept and idea behind StreetLearn and some critical remarks about its current prototypical status. The feedback given is very helpful for further improvements to the system.

The game starts by introducing game scenario, learning objectives and the content scenario as described below.

Game scenario

The story involves police officer Ada Jobse investigating in Amsterdam’s drug milieu in the late sixties. Her investigations take her around important cultural sites in the Grachtengordel, while tracking down drug smugglers and dealers.

The player takes the role of Ada and has to move her around Amsterdam to interact with colleagues, drug users, dealers and smugglers to solve the case. On her way through Amsterdam, Ada gets to know many famous places and their historic meaning.

Learning objectives

• understand why the Amsterdam canal ring area is inscribed on the World Heritage List of Unesco
• understand that the world heritage status of the canal ring implies a tension between this Amsterdam area as heritage (meaning conservation, protection and stagnation) and as a living environment (meaning change, adaptation and dynamics)
• kennis verwerven over de aanbouw van de grachtengordel / obtain knowledge on the construction of the canal ring area
• obtain knowledge on the history of some buildings within the canal ring area from different periods
• understand the historic roots of Amsterdam’s reputation as a tolerant, progressive city
• understand that especially in a lively city as Amsterdam the world heritage status can lead to conflicts with the present and the future of the urban climate

Introduction

Why is the Amsterdam canal ring inscribed as World Heritage?

Unesco distinguishes three types of heritage: firstly cultural heritage, secondly natural heritage, and thirdly a mix of both. The Amsterdam canal ring is, of course, an example of the first type, cultural heritage.

Now why is this Amsterdam canal ring inscribed on Unesco’s World Heritage List? The pivotal Unesco criterion for inscription is: ‘outstanding universal value’. This ‘outstanding universal value’ is based on ten criteria. Apart from this list of criteria, an extra criterium is added: ‘The protection, management, authenticity and integrity of properties are also important considerations.’ (http://whc.unesco.org/archive/opguide08-en.pdf)

According to Unesco the Amsterdam canal ring area meets the first, second and fourth criterion:

criterion (i): The Amsterdam Canal District is the design at the end of the 16th century and the construction in the 17th century of a new and entirely artificial ‘port city.’ It is a masterpiece of hydraulic engineering, town planning, and a rational programme of construction and bourgeois architecture. It is a unique and innovative, large-scale but homogeneous urban ensemble.

criterion (ii): The Amsterdam Canal District bears witness to an exchange of considerable influences over almost two centuries, in terms not only of civil engineering, town planning, and architecture, but also of a series of technical, maritime, and cultural fields. In the 17th century Amsterdam was a crucial centre for international commercial trade and intellectual exchange, for the formation and the dissemination of humanist thought; it was the capital of the world-economy in its day.

criterion (iv): The Amsterdam Canal District represents an outstanding example of a built urban ensemble that required and illustrates expertise in hydraulics, civil engineering, town planning, construction and architectural knowhow. In the 17th century, it established the model for the entirely artificial ‘port city’ as well as the type of Dutch single dwelling with its variety of façades and gables. The city is testimony, at the highest level, to a significant period in the history of the modern world.

(Source: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1349/)

Technically, the prototype is build on google’s appengine technology as application server environemnt and as backend storage technology. This freely available technology offers high scalability at low setup cost.

The user interface of StreetLearn is realised with Google’s StreetView technology, that offers intuitive navigation and visualisation facilities and an open API for technical enhancements. The StreetView user interface is extended in StreetLearn with additional control & status elements (game controls) and visualisations of interactive game elements embedded in the 3D environment.

To the user, StreetLearn offers a multi-user, team-enabled game play environment that allows to create game scenarios embedded in the real world. Game designers can use the StreetLearn infrastructure to create learning games, that involve:

• game scenarios in real world locations with overlayed game elements
• multiple players organised in teams
• locations with information and interactive elements including multimedia
• interactive questions
• items that can be picked, carried around and brought to destinations
• flexible scoring and progress parameters
• flexible story lines due to dependency/event modelling

The players of the games find themselves in a virtual environment that gives them the impression, to actually be at the location where the gameplay takes place. Depending on the game scenario, they will have to solve different challenges during their gameplay involving retrieving things, solving quests, answering questions, finding clues.

In a first feedback session, we interviewed teachers and researchers about their impression of the first mock-up user interface for StreetLearn. We asked them about their general impression, their interest to use StreetLearn, their foreseen ability (and willingness) to use the teacher tool to create a scenario on their own, and their expectation towards student’s acceptance and benefit of using StreetLearn.
Participants confirmed that the tool was useful and that they would like to use it for teaching. The user interface was stated to be understandable. However, they expressed their doubt, that they would be able to create a complex scenario on their own due to lack of experience and the effort involved. They requested  additional tools and templates (e.g., predefined object types such as keys, phones, notebooks) that would simplify their work. Additionally, they request for trackability of learning results (such as the inclusion of assessments and the visualisation of a teacher’s dashboard with scores and results). Another issue mentioned was that due to Google StreetView’s limited regional availability, some scenarios cannot be realised with StreetLearn.

Regarding the student side, the interviewees expected their students to be interested in using StreetLearn. About the benefit for students, participants were indifferent. Both teachers we interviewed are considering to create their own scenario and to include a group of students into an evaluation pilot of StreetLearn.
We aim to take this feedback into account in our further developments.