Overview:
For this project, you will experience the game of geocaching in order to meet the following course objectives:
· Analyzing the emergence and circulation of cyberculture technologies and how they impact material/RL (everyday) culture and interactions.
· Writing a wide variety of genres that are created in cybercultures such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and essays.
· Developing writing strategies for digital collaboration and composition
In groups of two or more, you will plan a geocaching experience, which activity allows you:
· to examine how technology and the material world interact on one another,
· to work collaboratively with technologies
· to experience first-hand working collaboratively to create a multimedia web-text
Required materials
A geocaching account (geocaching.com, recommended)
A geocaching enabled GPS device (smartphone with app recommended)
A notebook and pen
A video recording device
A video-editing program (e.g., iMovie)
Procedure
Step 1: RESEARCH. As a group, you will research a geocache that you would like to find between now and next week. You can choose to hunt for a cache in any location that works for you and all of your group members. While you read through the descriptions of potential caches, the group members should record discussion about which cache to complete and why. You should record how you came up with this collective decision. Of course, you do not have to meet in person to arrive at this decision.
Step 2: PLAN. Plan your geocaching adventure. Pick a time, date, location for meeting. Assign roles (or decide that you will not have assigned roles). Someone will need to follow the GPS directions to the cache. Someone will need to record portions of your expedition on video. Someone will need to write down observations and notes. Make sure all of your technology is up and running before the day of your event. Don’t forget to plan for weather and terrain.
Step 3: SEARCH. Conduct your adventure. As you look for your chosen cache, take notes on what you observe about using technology on this experience in nature. Record video that will help you later “re-create” the experience of finding your cache. Your video narrative should be no more than 5 minutes long, but you might want to take more than five minutes of footage so you can cut an interesting video narrative.
Step 4: EDIT. Cut your video footage into a video narrative. Perhaps include some of your written observations as title screens in your video. When it is completed, you will post your video for public viewing on our Wiki site.
Step 5: POST. To post your video on the Geocaching page, make a new “category” to begin a page specifically for your team’s experience. Post your video on this new page.
Step 6: WRITE. The final step is for each member of the team to write a brief (one paragraph) reflection about the experience of geocaching in the comment section under your video.
Guidelines
Wiki entries—video and comment responses—need to be completed no later than Sunday, January 22nd.
Video entries should be no longer than 5 minutes, but they should communicate a narrative about your experience. Is it a funny narrative? A spooky one? Those structures are up to you.
Each team member’s comments should be no more than 1-2 paragraphs.
The group should referee any internal, group dynamic issues. If someone does not show or participate, your group should determine the consequence. These issues can be a part of your video or textual postings.
Your group must resolve any technological issues, including finding technology to play with.
At no time should anyone’s physical health and safety be jeopardized. This includes dangerous cold weather conditions or trekking across unstable terrain. You assume all risk for one another. If your cache is unreachable, you need to come up with a back up plan.
Online Resources
Geocaching.com — the largest online geocaching community site. Most caches listed here. Not open source. Requires registration and works best with an app.
Opencaching.com— a free, open-source, and app-less geocaching site.
Cacheopedia.com— a wiki for all things geocaching