Innovative Recall Farm Situation with Sharing Experiential Learning by VR Technology ^†

Abstract

In the early days of southern Taiwan, agriculture was important for living. Farmers used various agricultural implements for the cultivation and planting of rice, vegetables, and fruits for food and clothing. With the progress of the social environment, they gradually forgot the traditional agricultural implements that they depended on for a living. Recently, the government has promoted agricultural experience activities, and citizens’ health concept has been improved. Growing vegetables and fruits on farms leads to the concept of shared experience. In particular, technological equipment has become popular. For leisure activities, the public has gradually accepted novel technologies (such as virtual reality games) and integrated them into their usual leisure and entertainment. For this reason, we investigate the degree of virtual interaction with the recall farm as a development basis and use the experiential learning theory to encourage the Silvers to learn the innovative recall farm situation to bring about the effect of leisure and entertainment. The results of this study show that the Silvers experience early agricultural situations and farming implements for entertainment purposes and listen to the agricultural stories to reminisce.

1. Introduction

Recently, the serious aging of Taiwan’s agricultural labor force shows that the food produced by agriculture is a necessity for people’s daily life, and that the tools used in agriculture are more closely related to it. The issue of population aging in Taiwan has been paid attention to by the government, academia, and several industries, and citizens are paying more and more attention to their health. In addition to the adjustment of dietary concepts, it is important to remain active and improve the function of the body, especially in the development of science and technology. The effects of these devices are divided into two categories: one is to increase the effect of leisure activities, and the other is to strengthen the effect of physical health care. As the government promotes agricultural experience activities, the public’s health concept grows, and the growing of vegetables and fruits on farms leads to the concept of shared experience. Reference [1] mentioned that agricultural implements have preservation value, continue the use of traditional agricultural implements invented by ancestors, and have educational significance, with the purpose of inheriting historical relics. Ang [2] wrote that the Minnan language (also known as Taiwanese) accent is a characteristic of southern dialects, and Kaohsiung is a representative area of agriculture in which the Minnan language is used as a common dialect in everyday dialogue. This shows that Kaohsiung is representative of agriculture and the Minnan language. For this reason, we consider agriculture as representative of Taiwan’s cultural history. Based on the concept of cultural creativity and technology, we can inherit the footprint of agriculture and present the past with an innovative model.

With the maturity of information technology, industries has developed many devices to assist the Silvers in participating in leisure activities, such as rehabilitation aids machines, fitness machines, leisure, and entertainment devices. Somatosensory technology is used especially with the emergence of virtual reality devices. The perceived enjoyment of virtual situations causes a pleasant experience [3]. With software development, the Silvers can easily participant in health-related activities and promote their health at their leisure. Many Silvers are attracted by these new technologies and their applications after learning how they function, and join the user base [4]. Lee, Lee [5] stated that the vividness and interactivity of virtual reality have an impact on users’ perceived media richness, which further affects information-sharing behavior. Experiential learning is used in the field of health, and its benefits are considered to be beneficial to the physical health of participants. Participants from different backgrounds who participate in health activities can feel the benefits [6]. Bontchev, Vassileva [7] mentioned that the application of new entertainment games to the learning process helps users’ psychological cognitive ability, and is mainly based on Kolb’s experiential learning theory of new play styles [8]. Chiu [9] showed that the intensity of physical movements, hobbies, mood relaxation, and social skills of the Silvers after horticultural treatment was better than before. This promotes more gardening activities to help the Silvers be healthy. This study is performed to present the implementation of agricultural activities in a virtual situation, and it is expected that the research results will be of positive help to the Silvers.

To this end, we use tools used in agricultural practice in Kaohsiung and collect pictures of agricultural tools through field surveys, local story situations, vocabulary, and perform a semantic collection. The Minnan language’s vocabulary pronunciation data of agricultural tools are collected from field surveys, and the method of using agricultural tools is gathered. Through the presentation of the virtual memory of agriculture, the entertainment is provided in combination with community activities. The purpose of the study is to respond to the needs of the Silvers’ society, propose effective innovative technologies, bridge the common needs of technology research and development and the Silvers’ society and economy, and enrich the research inspiration by participating in the pulse of the Silvers’ society.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Discussion on Kaohsiung Agricultural Appliances

Taiwan was founded on agriculture. In order to solve the problem of people’s livelihood, citizens went to the fields to cultivate rice, vegetables, and fruits. There still are all kinds of farming tools on their lands. Li (2019) mentioned that the preservation of early agricultural tools and their uses had been lost in the records due to changes in times. The older generation of citizens look at pictures of old agricultural tools and descriptions and realize the wisdom of their ancestors. However, their function and names are forgotten due to age, and even the memory of them is vague. If traditional agricultural tools disappear in the torrent of the times, it would be a great loss for the Taiwanese people.

To have the Silvers learn to evoke the memory of agricultural tools through shared experience learning, we use an innovative design concept to introduce the names of agricultural tools to the native Minnan speaker and deepen the Silvers’ memory of agricultural tools. The process of planting and farming and how to use these tools were recorded in the Minnan language as relevant types of agricultural tools in a virtual environment. During the experience, the names of the Minnan language’s agricultural tools and how to use them can be heard, and the semantics of the records are recorded. The pronunciation of the word is based on the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pinyin, which is different to the Taiwanese Minnan language Romaji Pinyin symbol (referred to as “Tailuo”) and phonetic symbols [1].

Chen-Su-Yun [10] studied the vocabulary of agricultural tools to inherit the local culture and divided the vocabulary corpus of agricultural tools into six categories, “farming tools for soil preparation”, “tools for sowing and transplanting”, “tools for weeding and insect trapping”, “tools for irrigation and fertilization”, and “tools for harvesting into warehouses”, and “carrying animal equipment”. Based on the classification methods of Chen-Su-Yun [10] and Li [1], we divide agricultural tools into soil preparation tools, planting tools, management tools, and harvesting tools to analyze the methods of using agricultural tools and categorize their vocabulary.

2.2. Application of Virtual Reality Situations

The applications of virtual situations include providing information on people, things, and other scenes of the real environment. By using special head-mounted displays (such as the HTC VIVE Cosmos), design results are presented through virtual situations (such as VR, MR, and XR) to provide users with a unique vision. These situations integrate many stories with a variety of sensory experiences. In order to allow users to interact with the combined real and virtual environments, the situations provide the operation of physical objects in the real world. It presents and feeds them back to users through virtual digital technology for an interactive experience. In the practical application of virtual situations in the past, Asai [11] pointed out that augmented reality superimposes virtual objects on real scenes to provide learners with a new learning model. Shahmoradi [12] found that virtual reality games have a high potential for rehabilitation and improve the performance of rehabilitated people. As such, it may be helpful for the Silvers to use virtual reality [12,13]. In order to study the characteristics of the virtual environment and its appropriate interface, a 3D presentation system was used for evaluation.

The results show that laptops are suitable as tools for the operation and display of virtual environments. The virtual environment provides the connection between reality and virtual objects and combines the functions of multimedia with the scene. The above application examples show that the design and development of this study based on the virtual memory of agriculture effectively present the guiding actions of the Silvers’ memory of agriculture and provide the fun method of learning the Minnan language.

2.3. Applications of Shared Experiential Learning

The concept of sharing is mainly the behavior of “SHARING”. In the early days, sharing appears in human society for family and friends. With technological progress, the sharing model began to emerge. The sharing of past objects between strangers and others is realized in the concept model, providing various new types of sharing, such as labor sharing and item sharing [4]. Experiential learning refers to the process by which a person constructs knowledge, acquires skills, enhances self-worth directly through experience [14], and shares with others to acquire knowledge or skills through experiential learning. The experiential learning proposed by Kolb [8] pertains to the practical application of experiential learning theory. The four stages are continuous and may occur at any time. It is worth noting that the generation of any experience in the “experiential learning circle” affects the future. In shared experiential learning, the role of the leader is to stimulate learners’ learning motivation and attitude so that learners can actively digest external knowledge and internalize it into internal reference resources.

Shin and Biocca [15] clarified that in an immersive experience involving news stories in virtual reality, as users experience VR, emotional and behavioral factors are the main influencing factors to understand the content. The shared experience is more important than knowledge enhancement and ability acquisition after activities. One’s memory is suitable for the methods that need to be observed and explored. When the Silvers can learn about the experience of farms, the content of the experience learning needs to be diverse through specific observation, operation, feeling, and comparison. In this way, users are willing to trust new technology, trust each other, and form a tacit understanding. At this time, users open their hearts and participate in activities for learning [16].

3. Research Methods

The study is based on the shared experience learning theory. For focusing on the design and the virtual recall of farms, we present the early Kaohsiung agricultural situation through virtual reality to form a cross-disciplinary research structure. Carbonell, Sánchez-Esguevillas [17] mentioned that context construction is presented in the form of storytelling, providing a rich story context and touching pictures. Based on the agricultural story context and constructs of the scene, the Silvers are eager to immerse themselves in the situation of the recall farm.

Ang [2] mentioned that the Minnan language in Kaohsiung is a local feature. In the past research, few virtual situations used the Minnan language as the main language for the design of works. In this study, the Minnan language is used for the Silvers to experience and learn about the names of agricultural implements and how to pronounce and listen. The plot of the recall farm’s story helps increase speaking ability and helps the Silvers with listening, particularly to stories. Past research has shown that as the Silvers grow older, their speaking and hearing ability, and the memories of when they were young degenerate. Therefore, the Silvers are often heard talking about their youthful experiences. This study also aims to recall the memories of the Silvers. Shennong (also referred to as the Farmer God) is the protagonist used to tell the agricultural story in Taiwan (Figure 1) so that the Silvers who participate in the experience can learn how agricultural tools are used.

Agricultural Story: “In the blazing morning sun, the farmer pushed his wheelbarrow to the edge of the field. The wheelbarrow was filled with carefully prepared compost, ready to provide the nutrients required by the land. He first started plowing the field with his plow. The plow was inserted into the soil, and he used the plow handle to guide the tool, turning the soil via the plowshare to make it loose for creating ridges and sowing. Then, he transported the compost to this newly loosened land with his wheelbarrow, carefully depositing the compost from the wheelbarrow bit by bit into these plow grooves. This rich compost could provide nutrients to the new seeds, helping them grow robustly”.

The purpose of the study is to explore the influence of the integration of sharing experienced learning into the virtual recall of farms on the Silvers’ learning motivation of the Minnan language and experience of Kaohsiung’s agricultural situation (Figure 2). The experimental interview method was used for discussion, and the elderly in Kaohsiung area were taken as the research object. An innovative virtual recall farm situation operation was carried out through sharing experience learning.

In the study, 10 Silvers were interviewed, and the virtual situations of the recall of farms were designed for sharing. The Silvers could recall farms in different places via internet connection (Figure 3). In the situation, the Silvers can see other Silvers through the connection with the guidance of the Shennong avatar to allow them to quickly adapt to the virtual reality and reduce the feeling of discomfort.

4. Conclusions

The use of experiential activities can make the Silvers immersed in the situation, and the guidance of Shennong’s virtual characters serves as an effective learning method. The Silvers still have memories of Kaohsiung’s agricultural situation. Over time, most agricultural tools no longer exist, and even their appearance is somewhat forgotten. After experiencing the farm environment, most of the Silvers can clearly explain how to use various agricultural tools. The research results show that the experience can make a deep impression on the Silvers, and they recall the local agricultural situation in the past. They can learn about the changes in the agricultural environment experience.

In an interview, the Silvers said that their favorite situations involved experiencing the old house of the Zhuangjia and the farm tool museum. They liked the content with operability, interaction, and high autonomy. In the design of similar interactive situations in the future, it is worth listing it as a design experience reference. Based on the face-to-face feedback from the interviewed Silvers, it is found that the Silvers are interested in virtual reality for shared experiential learning because the virtual character Shennong interacts with the situation with the Minnan language. Shennong’s avatar guides the silvers to experience important scenes in the situation, which produces a good learning effect for the users.