Virtual Jamestown

The Paspahegh Site

Dane Webster

What You NeedWhat You’re Getting

How to Make it Work The FlipCamAs the members of the IDEAS team, we are all educa-tors ourselves and are very interested in what happens in classrooms. If only we could travel along with this kit, it would be easy for us to be involved.

Instead, we turn to technology to help provide us a glimpse of the experience you and your students have with the project. That’s where the FlipCam comes in.

All we ask is that you document your students engaged with the program and related activities. Feel free to make the filming an integrated part of your experience. Give the camera to the students, do the filming your-self, pass it around to multiple students - however you want to document.

Once you are finished with the program and this kit, simply return the camera with all the other materials. Make sure you do not erase your video from the camera; we will take care of that once it is returned to us. You may, however, keep a copy of the footage for your own records.

All instructions for use are included in the original FlipCam box. We have also included extra batteries to allow for unlimited filming.

The Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Virginia Tech requires parent, student, and school assent/consent for participation in this data collec-tion. Please see the enclosed packet marked “IRB Procedures: Important” for more detailed proce-dures and forms.

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This box contains the following items for you to use:

Instructional bookletLink to Virtual JamestownAccess to video tours and artist interviewsFlipCam (with spare batteries)

* Please return all physical items with return of kit.

In addition to what we have provided, you will also need the following things:

Computer(s) with internet accessProjector

Download and install software:1. Go to the link to Virtual Jamestown found on the IDEAS website.

2. Follow the on-screen instructions to install the Unity player. This is required to view and navigate through the virtual village.

Navigate the village:3. Check one of the boxes for the level of play/exploration.

4. Click the button that says “Click to start exploring.”

5. Read the instructions on how to navigate that appear on the screen, then click the screen to enter the village.

6. Move around freely using the keys mentioned in the previous screen:

W: forward A: left S: backward D: right

Change viewpoints using: 1: view as player 2: view behind player 3: sky view

About the IDEAS Team

About this Booklet

The Integrated Design + Education + Art Studio (IDEAS) team is comprised of instructional designers from the School of Education at Virginia Tech. We are a research and development component of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology. Our mission is to investi-gate methods and tools to enhance learning as well as critical and creative thinking in PK-12 classrooms. We support research focused at the intersection of the arts, creative technologies, and education.

The IDEAS team works closely with public school teachers and faculty at Virginia Tech to develop instructional methods that include products of the arts, include creative uses of technologies, and can be used to teach content as well as develop critical and creative thinking among students. Our methods are the result of collabora-tion among faculty, teachers, and students.

Teachers help the IDEAS team by serving on the Teachers’ Advisory Board, designing and developing instructional materials, critiquing instructional materials, participating in focus groups, sharing their experiences with the materials, and participating in our summer workshops. For more information about working with us, please visit www.ideas.soe.vt.edu.

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The purpose of this kit and booklet is to allow you to bring the experience of exploring Virtual Jamestown directly to your classroom. The virtual Paspahegh village was a past exhibit at the Experiential Gallery for Creative Technologies, a gallery located in downtown Blacksburg, Virginia. The purpose was to highlight the merger of the arts, history, and 3D design. In the gallery, members of the community, local public school students, and students and faculty of Virginia Tech interacted with the virtual village in many different ways. Now it is your turn!

The link and videos provided give you access to how the virtual village was created, a look at future versions, and the ability to explore on your own. This booklet provides an overview of supporting curriculum materials. The instructional units are:

Discovering the New World:The Journey from England to Jamestown; an interdisciplinary unit designed for elementary school students Constructing a Virtual Paspahegh Village; an interdisciplinary unit designed for high school students.

The content on the following pages offers a preview of topics that can be covered in your classroom. For more in depth curriculum, visit www.ideas.soe.vt.edu.

We have also included a list of what is in this box and a list of all the equipment you will need to support this instruction and pursue further opportunities with Virtual Jamestown.

About the Artists

About the Art

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The virtual Paspahegh project is a 3D virtual re-creation of a Native American village near Jamestown that was active during the early contact period. The layout and artifacts of the village are entirely based on archaeological data, illustrations, and journals from the period. The team of artists worked closely to insure accuracy of data and have included only those details that are found to be authentic to both the time period and the physical location. Users can navi-gate through the village and explore as if they were a colonist or native Ameri-can to get a feel for what life was like in the time of early English settlement. The Virtual Jamestown project is the product of faculty and students within the departments of visual arts, history, and computer science at Virginia Tech and anthropology at the University of Virginia. The development of the virtual village is an on-going project under continual development by artists, computer scien-tists, and educators. Partial funding for additional development was provided by the Educational Enhancement Collaboration Grant program offered through the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology.

Dane Webster and Crandall Shifflett combine interests and talents to bring history alive in this virtual re-creation of an authentic Paspahegh Indian village. Using data from artifacts discovered at a Native American village near the Jamestown settlement, Web-ster and Shifflett bring to life the experience of living in this village.

Webster and Shifflett worked with Yong Cao and Rhyannon Berkowitz to bring together the fields of digital visual arts, history, computer science, and anthropology. Webster found the value in this combination of skills in that it opened his eyes, as an artist to other fields. With content centered on history, Webster had to approach his art in a different fashion.

“Unlike traditional art work flow, where youʼre dealing with your own constraints of imagination and audience, with this project, the first constraint is that weʼre dealing with history. There are certain knowns. You have to try to be as accurate as possible, but there are other things you canʼt know. So, as an artist I get to research things and make decisions.”

Webster also noted benefit for his team members. Since the team was an eclectic mix of talents, he notes that each had to learn something new.

“From a person trying to recreate history, Iʼve had to learn history, just as my colleague from history has had to learn about technology.”

Pete Lustig introduces Virtual Jamestown to his students at Cave Spring High School

Jim Stroup, photographer

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Discovering the New World: The Journey from England to Jamestown

The Paspahegh Indians were well seasoned in survival skills by the time the settlers arrived. By exploring the village, students will: * identify the most common supplies used for survival by the natives, * construct and display a data representation of necessary supplies to insure colonist survival.

Using the virtual re-creation of the Paspahegh village, students will explore life as a Native American. Activities will lead students to: * develop descriptive statements about life in the village, * identify questions they have about the village, the natives, and the settlers.

Natural ResourcesThe land in the New World was abundant with natural resources that are still important to Virginia’s economy. Activities will lead students to: * understand what constitutes a natural resource, even in modern times, * identify natural resources used by natives and colonists, * determine usefulness of natural resources toward survival.

Inventory of Supplies

This multidisciplinary unit is designed to supplement the study of the Jamestown settlement for students in 4th and 5th grades and covers the following topics. For more complete lesson plans and instructional materials, go to www.ideas.soe.vt.edu.

Voyage from EnglandThe journey from England to the New World was taxing on the early settlers. Following their long journey, the settlers did not find what they had expected at Jamestown. Activities will lead students to: * visualize what the English settlers found upon landing at the Jamestown settlement, * explore the voyages of Captain John Smith and visualize what he saw and experienced, * make predictions about life as an early English settler in the Jamestown settlement.

The Paspahegh Village

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Constructing a Virtual Paspahegh VillageThis multidisciplinary unit is designed to supplement the study of the Jamestown settlement and mapping skills for high school students and covers the following topics. For more complete lesson plans and instructional materials, go to www.ideas.soe.vt.edu.

As is true with the Virtual Paspahegh village, animators and game designers rely on real-life artifacts and scenarios to develop animated versions of stories. Activities will lead students to: * explore features of digital animation and game design, * develop a plan for an animated version of the Paspahegh village, * understand the importance of historical accuracy, * develop a flow chart for a game design plan.

In any historical re-creation it is important to insure accuracy of details, including placement of artifacts. One way of doing this for the village is to use a coordinate mapping system. Activities will lead students to: * understand the elements and importance of coordinate mapping, * apply coordinate mapping skills to identify locations of artifacts.

Life as a Script

Timelines and Game The Paspahegh village is abundant in culture and history. Activities will lead students to: * interpret a timeline to identify cultural aspects of the village, * translate cultural aspects of the village into additional elements of the virtual village, * identify important elements to include to translate the virtual village into a game play version.

Coordinate Mapping

Critical and Creative Thinking

1. Teachers should be critical and creative thinkers too. Students need thinking models who can illustrate and verbalize thinking strategies. Before students can develop into critical and creative thinkers, teachers must develop themselves.

2. Create a classroom of dialogue. One of the most important elements of critical and creative thinking involves interpersonal and intrapersonal dialogue. Encourage students to talk to each other.

3. Teach more than knowledge. While knowledge is a key to the development of critical and creative thinking skills, students should also know the importance of asking questions (and the right questions), listening to others, examining other perspec-tives and monitoring their own learning.

4. Teach new habits that extend beyond existing thinking. Teachers should encourage students to move beyond their current methods of thinking and engage in new methods. This can occur through direct discussions about what an appropri-ate discussion involves, what the rules of discussions should be and how to respect opinions of all students.

5. Have well planned lessons. By developing a simple habit of thoroughly planning lessons, teachers can be more prepared to react to student thinking. For example, teachers can plan by generating a list of anticipated questions and responses and being prepared with reactions and answers.

6. Design curriculum around what is known. While the goal of instruction is often to teach entirely new content, it is very important to the development of thinking skills to build on existing knowledge and activate what is known.

10 Suggestions for Teachers to Foster the Development of Critical and Creative Thinking

In addition to instructional support for arts projects, the IDEAS team also focuses on fostering the development of critical and creative thinking skills among students. The conceptual model above illustrates a cycle through which students progress as they engage in the critical and creative thinking process. The following are suggestions made by several

researchers on how to improve classrooms to develop and enhance these thinking skills. While this list is not exhaustive, it illustrates those that most strongly represent what is needed to develop strong thinkers. They are:

7. Keep an active classroom structure. Direct teaching and lecture-type lessons tend to suppress student thinking. Teachers can encourage critical and creative thinking in their students by providing them opportuni-ties to remain engaged and active in their learning whether through discussions, questions, hands- on projects, etc.; activity will keep minds lively and spirited.

8. Avoid “giving” answers. While teachers should provide some guidance in student discussions and questioning, they should avoid giving answers to all questions. Questions should serve to guide students to ask additional questions and arrive at their own answers. Teachers should also avoid quick responses to student questions and problems, giving pause and time for students to consider their own questions.

9. Develop inquiry skills. As previously mentioned, teachers should model their thinking strategies. In addition to this, students need to have models of inquiry to understand when to ask questions and what types of questions are appropriate for a given purpose. As students develop their inquiry skills, they begin to engage in thinking more independently and can explore the unknowns in more situations.

10. Writing. All researchers stress the importance of including writing as an essential part of classroom activities. Writing helps students organize their thoughts, recognize gaps in their knowledge, develop questions and determine a plan of action.

For additional ideas on fostering critical and creative thinking in your classroom and additional explanation of the concep-tual model shown above, go to www.ideas.soe.vt.edu.

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Critical and Creative Thinking

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Share...Did you use this project in a new way that worked well? Share your success stories here for others to learn from!

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For more information about IDEAS or additional materials to support this booklet, please visit:www.ideas.soe.vt.edu

Credits and Acknowledgments

Katherine Cennamo, Professor, Coordinator of Educational Research and Development, School of Education, Virginia TechLiesl Baum, Instructional Design Project Manager, School of Education, Virginia TechPhyllis Leary Newbill, Assistant Coordinator of Educational Research and Development, School of Education, Virginia TechTeri Finn, School of Education, Virginia Tech

Additional thanks goes to Sue Magliaro, Director, School of Education and Truman Capone, Director, School of Visual Arts.

Integrated Design + Education + Arts Studio (IDEAS) Team

Somiah Muslimani, Instructor, School of Visual Arts, Virginia TechLauren Marion, College of Architecture and Urban Studies, Virginia TechAdam Antonioli, Computer Science, Virginia Tech

Graphic and Web Design

Virtual Jamestown Development Team

Dane Webster, School of Visual Arts, Virginia TechCrandall Shifflett, Department of History, Virginia TechYong Cao, Department of Computer Science, Virginia TechRhyannon Berkowitz, Department of Anthropology, University of Virginia

Virtual Jamestown Teachers’ Advisory Board

Pete Lustig, Roanoke County Public Schools, high school U.S. historySteve Sizemore, Roanoke County Public Schools, 6th grade history

Virtual Jamestown Curriculum Development

Pete Lustig, Roanoke County Public SchoolsLiesl Baum, IDEAS Team, Virginia Tech

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This project is funded through the Educational Enhancement Collaboration Grant program. Support for these grants is provided by: Virginia Tech Center for the Arts at Virginia Tech The Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology School of Education School of Visual Arts Collaborative for Creative Technologies in the Arts and Design

Credits and Acknowledgments