Virtual but very real, storytelling
News
Fancy checking out St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral in minute detail from the fringes of South Australia or even beyond?
A couple of Adelaide entrepreneurs have come up with an online video/virtual reality experience designed to let anyone scramble around the Cathedral’s prime features, nooks and crannies. It’s storytelling but in a very 21st century setting.
Matt Richards has spent more than 20 years in Catholic education but it was a short stint with Apple a few years ago that elevated his passion to combine his knowledge of teaching and Learning Technologies (ICT) with the deeply creative.
Matt and colleague Chris Hyde now run Digi.Me Educational Consulting, an outfit that creates interactive learning content aligning with the Australian Curriculum and Crossways Religious Education.
“It’s all about how technology is integrated and asking, ‘how do we use technology actively, not passively in schools?’,” Matt explained.
And in tandem with St Pius X School, Windsor Gardens and APRIM Rita Campbell, they came up with a simple, user-friendly experience.
The video for St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral begins with Google Earth imaging looking down over Australia, the lens then honing in on SA, then Adelaide and finally Victoria Square and the Cathedral.
Intro complete, the user is faced with a screen leading to 11 different spots within the Cathedral. Fr Lancy D’Silva CSC, the Cathedral dean and administrator of the Cathedral parish, gives a welcome before the Cathedral’s head of music Timothy Davey takes centre stage.
A natural host, he talks the user through 10 marked areas, starting with the façade through to the foyer, altar and so on.
Viewers learn that plans for the Cathedral began 20 years after SA was settled in 1836, that stage one was completed in 1886 but it took another 110 years for the final part, the tower, to be added.
Quirks and history abound.
There is a 1926 benefactors board in the foyer we discover and heading to the altar, Timothy tells the story of Bishop Francis Murphy who is buried under a plaque there, one of only two people to be buried in Adelaide’s square mile as designed by Colonel William Light (him being the other).
Nearby is a wooden chair made from a house in Sydney where the first Catholic Mass was held in Australia more than 200 years ago.
Favourite parts of the Cathedral are subjective but the bell ringers video is sure to have wide appeal. There are 13 bells, including the electronic Murphy bell, which plays the Angelus at midday, every day.
The 12 conventional bells are pulled by an eclectic bunch of volunteers from 10.40am to 11am every Sunday and the video shows them huffing away in perfect symmetry.
And should schools have the capacity and equipment, students can also get a mind-blowing, 3D virtual reality tour of the Cathedral. Simply strap on your VR goggles.
“In this year of the Jubilee, our goal is to make the Cathedral and the church accessible right across the State. It is a culturally significant location,” said Matt.
“There is a 44-page teacher companion book with activities and links right across the curriculum, for sale to accompany the online and VR experience.”
The online content is free and accessible to anyone. Primary school children are the initial demographic but its reach and appeal, is for everyone. It’s all about accessible learning, said Matt.
To check out the tour of the Cathedral visit digimeec.com.au
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