Walking With Whitman

Project Name: The Walking with Whitman Mobile Walking Tour
Grantee: Jesse Merandy
Discipline: English
Funding Cycle: 2013-2014
Project Status: In progress

About The Project

IMG_2858The Walking with Whitman Mobile Walking Tour is an immersive, location-based learning experience. It will employ the location awareness and augmented reality functionality of mobile devices, in conjunction with the mobile gaming platform ARIS (Augmented Reality Interactive Storytelling), to take users to the streets of Brooklyn Heights where they will explore the historic neighborhood and its connection to poet Walt Whitman’s life and work. Through the integration of a project blog capable of recording location-based multi-media posts and various social networking platforms, the project will also explore mobile composing practices while looking to create a lasting online community and record of users’ experiences.

The Walking with Whitman project has several goals. One of the primary objectives is to create a better understanding of how mobile devices can be employed in academia as a learning tool and to present a possible prototype for implementation of location based technologies in the Humanities. It asks how we can utilize mobile devices to provide personal and meaningful experiences for learners, experiences that extend the classroom and the site of learning and ultimately connect and put us in dialogue with others. As mobile devices become increasingly pervasive and powerful, this project turns our attention to how these technological advancements are altering our daily lives and the fabric of our society.