RealWear and The Historic Trust Collaborate with WSU Seniors to Create Now iTour
NOTE: This is a multi-part blog series written by WSU student and RealWear guest post blog contributor Henry Brooks.
The Creative Media & Digital Culture (CMDC) program of Washington State University Vancouver (WSUV) is proud to work with RealWear and The Historic Trust to develop a senior class project.
The project takes advantage of RealWear hands-free technology with a class mission to learn teamwork, prepare for future digital careers and preserve national history.
About CMDC Program
The CMDC program is one of WSUV’s signature programs, striving to produce premiere talent in the world of digital technology. To those familiar with the program, the students of the CMDC program are majoring in the field of Digital Technology and Culture (DTC), and possess a variety of skill sets.
Focuses such as web development, SEO strategy, and social media marketing are only a small sample size of what the program offers as a whole. As graduating seniors, students participate in their final class: Senior Seminar.
This semester (Fall 2018), in partnership with RealWear and The Historic Trust of Vancouver, Washington, the CMDC program and Senior Seminar are proud to present Now iTour.
Now iTour Explained
Now iTour is an interactive tour of Vancouver, Washington’s historic sites enhanced through wearable technology by RealWear. RealWear has been generous enough to provide the CMDC program with multiple HMT-1 headset units for in-class and developmental use.
The Goal of Now iTour
The goal of Now iTour is to deliver a memorable and unique experience for anyone who takes a tour with the Historic Trust. While the Trust offers guided tours for those interested, Now iTour aims to create a greater sense of interactivity for the tour-goer, ultimately allowing for an independent learning experience. Though currently in development, the CMDC program seniors will be giving their final presentation and project status to RealWear and The Historic Trust on December 5th. Through extensive, dedicated work, in and outside of the classroom, the graduating seniors of the CMDC program have an intense desire to deliver the best possible product for this project.
How the class is organized into teams based on expertise
CMDC program graduating seniors have been working on Now iTour since August of this year.
As a class, the seniors are divided amongst teams. In addition to faculty and staff, the seniors follow a true chain of command, from team members and team leads, to the project manager and CMDC program faculty.
Through the chain of command and delineation of specific tasks, the seniors have been exposed to real-world workflow and understand the importance of meeting deadlines. As a requirement of the course, the seniors will individually put in over 150 hours dedicated to the Senior Seminar.
Given the broad nature of expertise in the class, there are many students with different assigned duties. While some students are excellent coders and have been tirelessly developing an app for the HMT-1, other students have focused their strong suits toward designing logos, the website, tour routes and maps, and the story of Vancouver, WA’s history.
Through extensive research surrounding interactive, wearable tech, the seniors have put their collective knowledge to use, and will soon finalize assets and other multimedia content.
Current Status of Project
As the project is still in development, the seniors have exercised their skills in problem-solving, project management, and communication. As a foundation of any successful form of communication, the class of seniors are a tightly knit group of students who understand the importance of asking questions, following directions, and respecting one another.
As a class, the seniors and faculty of the CMDC program all share one common goal for this project: to create a frontrunner in the realm of wearable tech tours in the area.
The CMDC program’s next featured blog post will arrive in the coming weeks, where we will discuss project status and other updates. For more information about the CMDC program, visit www.dtc-wsuv.org/cmdc.
If you would like to follow the CMDC program for frequent updates on Now iTour, we are present and active on social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmdc.dtc/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cmdc.dtc/
