Learning through digitally-augmented physical experiences: Reflections on the Ambient Wood project

Information Technology (IT) has become an ubiquitous part of education, with a wide range of software being developed and used nowadays to support children in their learning. A dominant model has been to provide information and learning material, that is accessed via the web through the use of desktop computers, in the classroom, the library or home. While the use of technology in this way is generally considered to be successful, it is limited in the kinds of learning activities that it supports. How else might we combine technology and information to extend learning? We report here on a very different approach, where we used a diversity of pervasive, hi-tech and mobile technologies to design a set of integrated, novel learning experiences, to take place outdoors in a wood. Our aim was to augment the physical environment with various forms of ambient digital information, such that children's interactions and perceptions of it were extended in surprising and unusual ways. In so doing, our goal was to get children to take part and learn more about scientific enquiry, through discovering, reflecting and experimenting in an ambient wood.