What is Site-to-Virtual

This chapter examines the educational potential of existing technologies to reframe student interpretations of public art spaces and promote civic engagement, interest, and investment within the vicinity of the interpretive exercise. The chapter specifically explores the theoretical relationship between virtual and local experience and traces the development of four research-in-teaching initiatives, interpretative exercises in which student participants examined local public art sites using digital imaging platforms and place-based technologies. The methods and findings sections of the chapter define the objectives and procedures most central to each interpretive exercise and present research findings in the form of selected student work. The research findings suggest that the digital augmentation of public art spaces reconfigures more traditional educational spaces/methods and compounds the benefits of virtual and local experience.