Having successfully advanced through Stage I and Stage II of the Digital Media and Learning Badges for Lifelong Learning Competition, the contest organizers have invited two members of the Virtual Ecotourism team to San Francisco to pitch the project in person!

With flowers in our hair, we head to San Francisco for the February 28–29 finals at the California Academy of Science and a chance to win up to $200,000 in project funding for 2012–2013.

The winners will be announced at the Mozilla Science Fair on March 1^st, 2012 and their badges will become part of the Mozilla Open Badges Ecosystem. This projects aims to recognize knowledge and skills obtained outside a formal classroom setting using online tools.

You can see our entry here, and two of our proposed badge designs below.

Our first feature video is a talk by Ian Redmond OBE, renowned conservationist, UN Ambassador for the Great Apes, and Chairman of the Ape Alliance, about his incredible experiences working with Dian Fossey and mountain gorillas.

Although these incredible great apes are thought to bring over $3 million a year to Uganda through ecotourism, gorillas are still hunted for bushmeat, tourist souvenirs, and traditional medicines. Although Ian experienced silverbacks as being calm and friendly when not under threat, there are still misconceptions worldwide that gorillas are violent, King Kong-like creatures, and this contributes to their misuse at the hands of people. Through his research, active conservation and outreach efforts, and role as an international spokesperson for gorillas, Ian hopes to change public attitudes towards these animals, and protect them in perpetuity.

To help protect great apes, visit www.4apes.com.

To read more about the intricate ethical and biological connections between human and great apes, visit http://www.monkeybible.com/, and discover Mark Laxer’s novel approach to evolution vs creationist debates.

Photo Credit: Digit the Gorilla, photo by Dian Fossey, the National Geographic Archives http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/07/archive/fossey-gorillas-1981/dian-fossey-text

If we are successful in this stage we will be competing in a live showdown with other winners in San Francisco, USA, with finalists taking home up to $200,000.  

The virtual ecotourism badging system is compatible and interoperable with the Mozilla Open Badges Ecosystem - a fantastic project that aims to revolutionize the way casual and on-line learning is assessed and rewarded.

You can see our entry here.

With the help of amazing graphic designers Jaclyn Thast and Marija Vidanovich, we have created two potential badges:

Tour Creator Badge: Awarded to individuals who have created their own tours and gained familiarity with digital technologies including spherical panoramic photos, creative scripts and associated visual-audio media for tours, live video streaming and 3D virtual worlds. This badge promotes international, creative, storytelling.

World Citizen Badge: To achieve this badge tourists participate in traditional biological and ecological scientific learning (“hard” skills), and have the opportunity to gain 21^st century skills such as cultural literary and global awareness. Donating to a worthy cause and/or promoting an affiliated conservation project through social media will also be components of the badge.

Phase IV: Outreach in Host Communities

Main Objective: Use pre-recorded tours to conduct outreach in villages and spread environmental awareness amongst local communities.

It is well documented that short-term unsustainable resource use is a leading cause of biodiversity decline and environmental degradation worldwide. By bringing pre-recorded tours to parts of the world without internet access,  school children, young adults and local communities at large may increase their appreciation for the natural world, recognize its potential as a source of income, and modify their behaviour to mitigate threats to the environment.

Phase V: Creation of Alternate Livelihoods

Main Objective: Create an alternate source of income for communities living near conservation areas by encouraging tourists to donate to conservation projects after taking a virtual ecotour.

Phase I.5: (A) Website Design

Main Objective: Facilitate the spread and uptake of the virtual ecotourism project by presenting a polished and informative public web image.

Since virtual ecotourism strives to be at the forefront of digital technologies and storytelling, the team felt it was necessary to update our project website as well as that of our parent organization, the Chimp-n-Sea Wildlife Conservation Fund. Both websites are now run using WordPress, and contain news blogs which update the world on project progress.

Image: Screenshot of the previous virtual ecotourism website, circa Summer 2011.

Image: Screenshot of the updated website, circa December 2011.

We have also been working in close cooperation with our parent organization – The Chimp-n-Sea Wildlife Conservation Fund – to update the look of their website.

Image: Screenshot from the updated Chimp-n-Sea Wildlife Conservation Fund blog, circa December 2011.

Phase I.5: (B) Grant Proposals

Main Objective: Seek, research, and apply for grant and funding opportunities in order to further tour development and crystallize project goals.

Finally, we have been searching for funding opportunities. This fall we focused on the Digital Media and Learning Competition (see our entry here), and we are proud to announce we were successful in the first round of the judging.  Our success thus far highlights the unique potential of Virtual Ecotourism to reach out to all corners of the globe and educate individuals about wildlife, ecosystems and conservation issues in a revolutionary and engaging manner while teaching 21st century skills such as cultural awareness, digital literacy and global awareness. To read more about this grant proposal, you can access our earlier blog post on this topic here.

But how do we plan to reach that goal? Over the next week, this blog will be featuring a series of posts that outline the vEco team’s current objectives and strategy, summarize our recent work and focus, and look to the future of the project.

A perfect post for the beginning of a new year!

Phase I: Tour Development

Main Objective: Reaching out to all corners of the globe, educate individuals about wildlife, ecosystems and conservation issues in a revolutionary and engaging manner.

Recorded Tour – People and Wildlife in Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar Recorded September 2010.

Image: Mark Laxer, in the field.

In September 2011, the project began to move forward in earnest, and tours were suspended while the user interface was overhauled and the tour multimedia updated and expanded. We have made many exciting changes during the past four months in order to take advantage of the amazing new digital technologies available to the team. Our Phase I strategy has been to develop a showcase tour that we can use to test technology, gauge public interest in the project, and use for partner outreach. Past virtual ecotours have incorporated some great features, including:

A) A live tour guide (on location in the field) and host.

B) Pre-recorded images, sound and text.

C) The ability for tourists to ask questions of the host & guide though a one-way messaging system.

D) A live map showing the path of the tour guide and the ability of tourists to guide the direction of the tour.

Image: Beta User Interface circa 2010

Currently, our IT and content teams are working on ways to make the tours even more engaging, amazing, and authentic. The user interface is being overhauled, and the tours are being developed with tourist engagement and participation at the forefront, with emphasis on storytelling, dialogue, and guided activities. The following updates are currently being tested:

A) Many pre-recorded images will be spherical panoramas: stunning images that allow the user to see a location as if they are standing in the middle of it. Click the image of Lake Nabugabo to experience one yourself! You can see more examples here: Virtual Ecotourism Panoramic Photo Gallery.

B) A) Live sounds (from a uni-directional mike), and some live images will be incorporated.

C) All images will be GPS-located and mapped.

D) The IT team is experimenting with the incorporation of Unity 3D technology, which will allow tourists to enter and explore a virtual replication of the tour site.

E) Through our participation in the Digital Media and Learning Badges Competition, we are also exploring ways to utilize badges and gamification of content to reward 21^st century learning experiences during tours.

F) Live text (via chatbox) will be available to tourists, who can then discuss issues and activities between themselves and with the tour hosts.

G) There will be the opportunity to participate in moderated forums after the tours.

H) Finally, we are committed to creating areas of exploration that can be accessed when tours are not in session.

Currently, the vEco team is deeply immersed in our Phase I development work. We hope to have a Beta 2 showcase tour by February 2012, wherein all of our new technologies will be featured. 

This brings us one step closer to sharing the grand prize of $200,000 which we hope to use to develop a badging system for our tours.

Winners Announcement Press Release.

If you missed reading our entry, you can find it here.

The competition looks tough, with many exciting projects vying to be included in the finals (Stage III). However we think our project offers a unique mix of gaming, environmental and community volunteerism aspects and we are excited to take this time to explore the potential of badges to enhance the virtual ecotour experience.

In Stage II, teams of badge designers and developers (using the Mozilla Open Badge Infrastructure) can choose to submit designs based on our content and if their submissions are successful during judging, both of our teams will advance in partnership to the finals. Over the next few weeks, we will be promoting the contest and partnering with badge designers who might want to submit entries tailored to our content. If you are interested in this project, please contact us at vecotours [at] gmail [dot] com.

The vEco team in Uganda has been hard at work collecting images, panoramas, and sounds at our new site on the shores of Lake Nabugabo. Enjoy this panorama near the shore, complete with sampled audio.

Lake Nabugabo lies just to the West of Lake Victoria, having become separated from that Great Lake as a result of shifting sands approximately 4000-5000 years ago. The Lake is a designated Ramsar important wetlands site due to the high diversity of birds and fishes found in the lake and its surroundings. Lake Nabugabo has also proven to be a useful as a small-scale model for researchers studying the effects of introduced fish predators (especially the Nile Perch) on indigenous fishes in African Lakes.

Click here or on the image below to explore the panorama.

Lakeshore at Nabugabo

The BCM team created the necessary media for a pano outlining the ecosystem services found in a child’s bedroom. Ecosystem services are an incredibly important topic in current conservation debates, and this pano breaks down a difficult concept for a non-expert audience. The virtual ecotourism team hopes to utilize this type of interactive pano in upcoming tours.

Creative Team: Leonie Gough, Susie Lane, Tomomi Matsumoto and Mary N’Gendo

IT Team: Jay Ploss and Matt Redmond

Project Coordinator: Lucy Erickson

Please note: This pano was created as a school project and will not to be used for commercial purposes. The pano was created by students, however some images within accompanying videos were found using Google Images and photo credit is available upon request.

Enter the pano by clicking on the image below, and don’t forget to explore all of the videos!

Ecosystem Services