The Anchor Room at the Battery Hotel in St. John’s was full of love this week, as the Cupids 400 Inc. board of directors unveiled their Education Legacy Initiative, which allows Grade 4 students across Newfoundland and Labrador to not only glimpse into, but take a walk through and live in John Guy’s 1612 settlement in Cupids.

Distance Education and Learning Technologies (DELT) at Memorial was the educational multimedia partner for the project, along with the Department of Computer Science, who developed an iPhone application, which virtually explores the Town of Cupids in the 1600s.

Through Second Life immersive technology, students can pick out their own 15th century clothes, prepare their own 15th century meals and do their own 15th century chores. They can visit the members and areas of their community – the blacksmith's, the sawmill, the boat-building area, pirate boats and even the brew house to find out why they drank beer instead of water.

“Collaborations with community partners are, in many ways, central to the work we do at DELT,” said DELT Director Ann Marie Vaughan. “In the common goal of educational transformation and in helping to foster a society that both advances into the future and honours the history and culture of storytelling for which our province is so richly endowed, we at DELT are very proud of this extremely creative and fruitful collaboration with the Town of Cupids.”

Mike Buist, event manager for Cupids 400, returned the love, saying, “Cupids 400 was indeed fortunate to have DELT as a partner in our Education Initiative. We would never have been able to afford the expertise and effort that DELT brought to the project. They delivered a $400,000 project for our $200,000 investment.”

Joan Butler of DELT worked with the Department of Computer Science to create an iPhone application that provides historical facts and information about Cupids.

“In consultation with Cupids 400 we identified the eight sites/landmarks that would work with the application,” Ms. Butler explained. “Starting from the Legacy Centre, the tour takes you around the town and the archaeological dig, and as you reach each site your device will indicate where you are and what you can learn.”

Marlene Brooks was the project lead for the 3D virtual world (Second Life) Cupids Project component, which includes a machinima – an animated video created entirely inside the virtual world.

“Teachers are able to use parts of this technology and go on tour with their students,” said Ms. Brooks. “Students are actually having a conversation with John Guy as if they are a new settler in his colony – he’s showing them how and what they’ll eat, where they’ll sleep, what they’ll do for entertainment…teachers can also just use video components for instruction if they can’t get access to Second Life. It’s all helping to further engage students in their learning.”

Andrew Mercer, consultant for the Education Initiative and an educator with the Centre for Distance Learning and Innovation (CDLI) – a frequent collaborator with DELT – said that in today’s world, a one-size-fits-all model of education delivery just doesn’t cut it.

“Many of us don’t have fond memories of our childhood education,” he said. “This is likely because when we were at school much of our learning was fed to us in a one-size-fits-all format. The fact of the matter is that what worked for one student most likely did not work for the next. Today, educators are creating learning opportunities where kids can choose their own individual ways to explore content.”

Developed in consultation with the provincial Department of Education, and in partnership with the Department of Computer Science and DELT, the Cupids 400 Education Initiative is proof of how rich products and programs that come from decidedly collaborative and mutually respectful partnerships can enrich the education system in Newfoundland and Labrador.