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Ogham in Animation

blog header with text animation

My original idea for an animation about Ogham Stones, was to create a virtual world, where Ogham Stones that have been relocated, could be returned to their original site in a virtual world. This could be applied to Ogham Stones, in Museums and other collections. An example of this is the Ogham Stones from Ballinrannig, Co, Kerry. In the late 1700’s a collection of seven Ogham Stones and a cross slab were revealed in Ballinrannig, Smerwick Harbour, Co. Kerry, when a storm shifted the sand covering them. Lord Ventry, of Burnham House, moved six of upright Ogham Stones, and a cross slab. He placed four of the stones along with the cross slab in his driveway.

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(Digital Literacies) A Pedagogy

image of a hybrid unicorn with words hybrid pedagogy

The cultivation of learning is a cognitive and emotional and social activity [Illeris 2002]

Investigation and identification of digital literacy activities, since the inception of the world wide web and personal computers, has been the concern of numerous researchers. The need for mastering electronic tools, ability to plan, execute and evaluate digital actions; these skills are now considered crucial [Fieldhouse & Nicholas 2008, Martin 2003].

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Digital Literacy

image of ancient greek lady writing with text digital literacies

As discussed in a previous article, Digital Literacies is one of the nine themes of Engaged Digital Citizenship. I wrote only briefly about it though, as it is a complex theme in itself and it warranted having its own article. Of all the nine themes of Engaged Digital Citizenship, Digital Literacy has the most meaning and potential to facilitate knowledge, ideas and communication in community based digital projects. In order to be able to research the benefits and obstacles within digital community-based projects, it is essential to understand what Digital Literacy means: with regard to the practical, pedagogical and lifelong learning. In this article I will discuss why we need to know about digital literacies.

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Engaged Digital Citizenship

citizenship

In my quest for the holy grail of knowledge; how individuals, community-based projects and digital technologies can positively facilitate each other, I am researching ‘engaged digital citizenship’.  To truly understand how individuals can become digital citizens, I am looking at the policies and research on the subjects of engaged digital citizenship, including digital communications, digital literacies and digital health and well-being. By being acutely aware of the themes of Digital Citizenship, I can gauge better the successfulness of a digital praxis in a community-led project.

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Visual SfM: 3D Construction through Structure from Motion

blog header with text Visual sfm

From reviewing the paper The Untapped Potential of Low Cost Photogrammery in Community-Based Archaeology, it was easy to see that photogrammetry can be used as an alternative to high resolution surveying with high costs.

Traditional softcopy photogrammetric methods require the 3-D location and pose of the camera(s), or the 3-D location of ground control points to be known to facilitate scene triangulation and reconstruction. In contrast, the SfM method solves the camera pose and scene geometry simultaneously and automatically, using a highly redundant bundle adjustment based on matching features in multiple overlapping, offset images [Westoby et al 2012].

Structure from motion is the geometry of creating 3D models from 2D images. If you are interested in the maths behind SfM, visit Prof. Rob Fergus’s lecture notes on Computer Vision, or geometric vision, in particular Lecture 6 on Multiview Stereo & Structure from Motion.  It is quite interesting to see the process. Thankfully, to Wu Changchang, we don’t need to understand the mathematics behind how Structure from Motion works, to be able to use it. In his post-doc year at University of Washington Seattle, he developed Visual SfM.

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Review: Toward Virtual Community Knowledge Evolution

image of a network using ludo pieces

Note: In looking for articles to read, to understand better the mechanics and possibilities of digital technologies that can improve communities both online and offline, I came across this paper, ‘Toward Virtual Community Knowledge Evolution’. Published in 2002, and with the extraordinary rate at which digital technologies change, it seems outdated. However I see it as a classic. The beginning of the road towards collaborative technological advances, and the real value of digital technologies. It was a vision for the future, for digital technology to facilitate knowledge, which meant devising new systems, that would engage and enable users in digital literacies associated within their virtual community. A lot of these features we now take for granted, such as hyperlinks, but in studying the classics, we can realise the excitement as these new systems were developed by people, for people.

Introduction

          Toward Virtual Community Knowledge Evolution is a study carried out by a nine academics, Michael Bieber, Douglas Englebart, Richard Furuta, Starr Roxanne Hiltz, John Noll, Jennifer Preece, Edward A. Stohr, Murray Turoff and Bartel Van De Walle, who lecture in a range of universities, all working and excelling in their areas of computer science and information systems. In this paper, they propose the building of a ‘multimedia document repository’ or digital library, which has unique innovate supports which validates knowledge evolution. A series of tools and technologies based around the concept of community knowledge that can be build-on collectively, to constantly improve the workings of the system. This system, or Collaborative Knowledge Evolution Support System (CKESS), would provide a workflow that can be developed and upgraded through its users; the members who make up the virtual community.

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Review: The Untapped Potential of Low-Cost Photogrammetry in Community-Based Archaeology

2 images about the Inuit community Canada

          The Untapped Potential of Low-Cost Photogrammetry in Community-Based Archaeology: A Case Study from Banks Island, Arctic Canada, is a paper that was printed in the Journal of Community Archaeology & Heritage, in April 2016. Written by Colleen Haukaas and Lisa M. Hodgetts, this research paper is a case study from an archaeological project they undertook in Banks Island, Canada. It bears a striking resemblance to the Ogham in 3D project, in that it is a community orientated archaeological project, using photogrammetry and structure from motion techniques, and similar software for translating the data into 3D models.

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Photogrammetry Timeline

blog header history of photogrammetry

As part of my research into digital tools and community participation, I have been looking at photogrammetry. In particular because I will be using it as part of the Ogham in 3D project. I realised how little I knew about the history of photogrammetry, and wanted to delve in deeper. As a visual learner, I find just reading articles and papers, still don’t quite connect the dots for me, and constantly find myself muddled with dates and names. So, I decided to create a visual (brief) timeline of the history of photogrammetry, to get a better idea of its origins, its uses, and significance today.

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Burnham House

Image with 3D ogham stone and the text Ogham in 3D

I’ve finally begun the Ogham in 3D Mapping Project, (see previous post here). I have been assigned to map the Ogham Stones at Cólaiste Íde/Burnham House.

Burnham House, is a detached seven-bay three-storey late-Georgian house, built c. 1800. 1 Originally the estate of Lord Ventry, it is now an Irish speaking girls boarding school, Cólaste Íde. A collection of seven stones, they were though to have originally been situated at a few different sites, eg Ballinrannig; Burnham East, Ballineesteenig, and other sites, but were placed along the driveway by Lord Ventry.

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