Sensing of the environment will take on a new level of meaning as vast arrays of simple sensors that can be scattered around and create a smart sensing 'mesh' become available. Many research teams are working on approaches to tiny sensors that can be spread through the environment and will create ad hoc networks to pass information from one to another until it reaches a collection node for transmission back to base - see Envisense4, for example. This means they need very little power and can perhaps even just be solar powered. เท this way the real world can be linked to the mediascape. A child studying pollution, for example, might be given an interactive map of the city, showing current pollution levels. She could go and'look'at the map by walking around hot spots with her'chemical senses'turned on, and take photos of emission sources. Back in the classroom, all these resources could be shared and discussed.
The Savannah experience was limited to a single day for each group of children, but of course the materials and experience of the game could be built up overtime, in line with the development of'perpetual' games. The same technology that delivers mediascapes can be used to leave information in the environment that can accumulate. เท this way the ambient web will create an ever-growing density of information in every physical place. This is part of the next big trend that will have profound effects for education - people as participants in building the web, not just recipients of published information.