Churchyard gets computer guides

4:50pm Wednesday 30th July 2008

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A churchyard at the heart of a major regeneration project for the past decade is to get a high-tech boost.

SS Mary and John Church, in Cowley Road, Oxford, has won a string of awards for the work carried out in its churchyard in a bid to make it a safer, more pleasant place to be, as well as a wildlife haven.

Now organisers have obtained two hand-held computers, which will give visitors interactive tours of the churchyard.

Project co-ordinator Ruth Conway said: "You can programme it in all kinds of different ways and the most exciting from the point of view of visitors is you can upload an interactive map of the churchyard with all the interesting points marked on it.

"Then there will be a whole menu of information, everything from text, little slide shows - maybe even a video or audio comment."

The Educational Digital Assistants were paid for by part of a £9,000 grant from the BBC and Big Lottery.

The money also paid for a butterfly garden in the churchyard.

The devices are fitted with GPS, a camera, microphone and an Internet connection allowing users to identify everything from trees and birds to beetles and butterflies.

Mrs Conway said: "It is a way of exploring the churchyard with the maximum amount of information and you can do it at your own speed and in your own time."

One of the key uses of the technology will be for visiting schoolchildren, helping younger children to find out more about the wildlife and as a local history studies aid for older pupils.

Oxford-based WildKnowledge developed the software used in the devices.

Mrs Conway said: "I think it could be very motivating for young people, particularly those who are used to using these kind of electronic devices, and I hope they will find it easy and accessible to do it this way.

"WildKnowledge has worked a lot with schools and the children really enjoy turning over stones and looking at the mini beasts underneath and that kind of thing."

Discussions have already begun with schools in the area about how they could use the technology and other computers already owned by Oxfordshire County Council could also be made available so whole classes could study the churchyard at once.

Members of the public can try out the technology at an event at the churchyard on Wednesday, September 3, from 6pm.