While Pokemon Go! is new, it is built on the fabric of Ingress, a science-fiction themed AR game by the same maker, Niantic. Through Ingress, I was able to make key sites and artifacts into portals, and then use those portals in conjunction with another App called Field Trip which allows more text for stories and photos, etc. (also by the same company.)
Using the portal network and Field Trip waypoints, I was able to develop "missions" for the agents (players) that took them on historical tours of the community. Missions allow for a password, so I make the password a multiple choice question from one of the waypoints, meaning the agents need to actually engage with the content.
At the moment, Pokemon GO has no such capability, but it does contain the portal network from Ingress, along with any information Ingress agents used to create the portal. So Pokemon players can see my museum's hours, and some information about the Pokestops.
One of the things I did was take control of our content. Chances are, your museum is at least a portal, if not a Pokestop (not all portals were made into Pokestops - for instance my museum's grounds have about 10 portals, but only 4 pokestops and a gym). As an Ingress agent, I went into the menu for each of the "portals" on our grounds and clicked the edit button to update the description to contain more accurate information.
The other thing I do is reach out to the player community. Pokemon Go players aren't very organized here yet, but I am working on it. In Houston, there are highly organized networks of Ingress players, and a growing sense of purpose with Pokemon Go players, with a thriving community on Facebook.
I know that some museums feel their content is too serious to be involved with a game and I respect that. I do also want to point out that right now the Pokemon craze is high, but once the game settles down, it will likely be much like Ingress. Ingress agents have told me that they never liked history much, but have a new appreciation due to all of the historic sites they visit as a result of their play. Many who visit historic parks bring trash bags and leave them better off than they were when they got there. Still there is a process to be removed from the game.
I recently participated in a panel with some local museums and the NMC at the TAM Annual Meeting, and a lot of what I talked about was the fact that as museums, we are having to reconsider what a visitor is. Like it or not, there are people interacting with your museum site 24/7 - whether online or in virtual space through AR games. Now I know when a car pulls up to the museum in the middle of the night, that they are likely playing Ingress or Pokemon. I tend to reach out. I have a group of Ingress players from Houston that come out and play boardgames with us, we game, play Ingress, and then look through any new exhibits in the museum. They come out to our special events and festivals, because they want to support fellow players - so one way to work with these groups is to play the games yourself. They are fun, and you get to see what motivates the players. It is a way to reach audiences that museums strive to reach.
Just yesterday, I had a family of five come into the museum. I saw that they took over the gym in front of the museum and started a conversation. Three of them played the game, and yes, they played while in the museum. They also stayed there 30 minutes to an hour, catching Pokemon, but also taking the time to go through each and every room. They had a blast, and ate their picnic lunch on our grounds. My museum is often low on kid-friendly content (it is in our plan to deal with that) and families with kids tend to only stay 10 - 15 min. Adding a "lure" to a pokestop nearly guarantees they will be there a minimum of 30 min, so that their parents can enjoy the museum.
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Christine Hoffman
Museum Site Manager
Chappell Hill Historical Society
Chappell Hill TX
Original Message:
Sent: 07-18-2016 09:28 AM
From: Keith Ostfeld
Subject: Augmented Reality and Museum Education
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) has an AR Game called MicroRangers and I echo the Project Ariel sentiment from the Franklin Institute
There are other services like Aurasma and ARIS that allow some experimentation with AR - both are free (at least, last time I had a chance to play with them), but there are limitations to both.
To me, AR is a great potential tool to open up a variety of more in-depth explorations into hands-on activities/collections and/or gamify the museum experience. However, look at some of the news around Pokemon Go - people walking into things, causing car accidents, etc. - basically, it comes down to the fact that people are starting at their screens instead of the world or, in our case, our museums and what they have to offer. Can visitors really enjoy what are museums have to offer through a small screen? Or will they opt out of that experience in order to better enjoy the real experiences we offer? It comes down to the question of how can AR be applied to enhance the visitor experience and not distract from who we are - that is one of the struggles with it. My 2 cents, at least.
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Keith Ostfeld
Director of Educational Technology and Exhibit Development
Children's Museum of Houston
Houston TX
Original Message:
Sent: 07-14-2016 11:05 AM
From: Benjamin Gibbs
Subject: Augmented Reality and Museum Education
Dear Colleagues,
All of the hype surrounding Pokemon Go has me thinking about the uses of augmented reality in museum education. I tried to type up a few thoughts in a LinkedIn post, but I know that this is an evolving discussion in our field. Does anyone here have any thoughts or examples of museums using augmented reality to supplement their exhibits and educational programming? How about new media more broadly?
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Benjamin Gibbs
University of Dallas
Irving, TX
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