After focusing on the management and display of physical artifacts, we spent several months iteratively designing, building, and testing a solution that would address some of the issues we identified.

Engage Media Display consists of a tablet computer linked to a large display. The large display allows the instructor to show full-screen images to the students. This ensures that students are not distracted from the current discussion by artifacts the instructor has passed around earlier in the lesson. Additionally, physical maps and charts are large and prone to curling, making them unwieldy for instructors to hold aloft. The display frees the instructor from this problem and allows them to focus on the lesson. When replacing smaller artifacts, the display allows the instructor to show images in greater quality and detail. Finally, the electronic nature of the artifacts allows Pittsburgh Voyager to reduce some of the costs associated with duplicating, storing, and replacing their physical artifacts.

The tablet computer is used to control this display.

This tablet allows an instructor to create a queue of images, much like commercial presentation applications, but it also gives them the ability to quickly browse through a library of related images and even restructure the queue during their presentation. From our on-board observations we saw that instructors dynamically present different prepared materials based on interaction with students and an assessment of their level of understanding. While a static queue works adequately in a lecture for an older audience, it is wholly inappropriate for an interactive dialog with elementary and middle-school students. Additionally, we observed that children are distracted easily, especially when the instructor is busy or distracted, making it important to minimize the time spent interacting with the control mechanism.

In addition to dynamic seeking of images, the tablet is designed to allow every instructor their own private area to store and organize the media resources to their liking. We observed that instructors had different teaching styles and used different resources to teach the same material and we have ensured that they continue to have creative control over the presentation, within the plan and resources provided by the Pittsburgh Voyager organization.

A tablet was chosen because we intended our solution to be physically light enough for instructors to carry (see page E28 of final report)and yet possesses a large enough screen to easily identify thumbnail images (see page E-33 of final report)

Finally, the system is designed with future expansion in mind, with a simple back-end that allows content creators to customize and create new educational programs merely by creating standard folders in the preferred operating system.

We believe that this solution is specific enough to meet the demanding needs of the Pittsburgh Voyager instructors and staff, yet versatile enough to adapt to future uses on the new Pittsburgh Voyager vessel.