EthnoQuest(R): An Interactive Multimedia Simulation for Cultural Anthropology Fieldwork, Version 3.0(BK & CD-Rom)

This interactive multimedia simulation is comprised of a series of ethnographic encounters set in a computer-based learning environment. It provides users with a realistic problem-solving learning experience in a novel cultural setting. It is designed to propel learners closer to the fieldwork experience by sending them on a simulated fieldwork adventure to the fictional Mexican village of Amopan. Each game includes sophisticated graphics and original video that allow players to experience realistic outcomes based on their responses and reactions to questions. The path individuals take depends on how they decide to proceed through each game. For armchair anthropologists.

To paraphrase a catchy phrase from Adventures in Fugawiland, EthnoQuest has been years in the making (Price and Gebauer 1996:iii, Mayfield Publishing Company). We began with a germ of an idea in 1996 and have worked together as a team throughout the development and production of this program. As the project grew and became more complex and time-consuming, Alysha Timmons added her considerable computer skills to expertly program modules 7-10 and refine the prior modules, and we are especially appreciative of her extraordinary abilities and enjoyable collegiality. Edwin Mercado provided the initial programming of modules 5 and 6 and served as graphic artist for modules 5-10, and we are most grateful for his enthusiastic and timely commitment to this project.

A project of this scope and complexity requires the commitment, confidence, and support of many people beyond the core team. Initial support for the program (both moral and financial) came from Dr. Rowena Santiago, Director of the Teaching Resource Center at California State University San Bernardino. Support by that center has continued throughout this project, also under the interim direction of Dr. Josephine Mendoza in 1998-99. Early on, as we stumbled around in uncharted territory, it was Dr. Gerard L. Hanley and Jan Boucher of the California State University Long Beach Center for Usability Design in Assessment (CUDA) who steered us in a productive and workable direction. We owe them a strong debt of gratitude for helping us launch this project.

Major funding for this project has been provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency (grant # ED-21414-99); we are especially grateful for the very positive support and advice from Judy Jeffrey Howard, Jerri Shepherd, and Ralph Canevali of the NEH. Dr. Louis Fernandez, Provost of CSUSB, Dr. John Conley, Dean of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at CSUSB, and Michael Ross, Director of Academic Computing and Media, kept the project afloat when we really needed the help. We are truly grateful to them for their strong support, good humor, and generosity. Dr. Fernandez also offered his theatrical skills as Samuel Pescadero in the program, as did Michael Ross in the role of Esteban Caballero. The search for matching funds was a challenge: In addition to the generous and unwavering support of the above-mentioned Dr. Fernandez and Dr. Conley, we also greatly appreciate the efforts of Dr. William Aguilar (Vice President of Information Resources and Technology, CSUSB), Dr. David DeMauro (Vice President of Administration and Finance, CSUSB), Lisa Jolly (Director of Development for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences at CSUSB), Elva Salgado (Director of Development for Information Resources and Technology), and a special thanks to Stephen Veneziani of NEH. And we are ever appreciative of the good-humored support and ready advice from Stan Stanley of the CSUSB Foundation.

We also are indebted to Dr. Russell J. Barber and Dr. Peter T. Robertshaw, successive chairs of the Department of Anthropology at CSUSB. Dr. Barber provided us with valuable feedback, and Dr. Robertshaw became involved as the irrepressible Bronislaw Edmund Radcliffe-Pritchard (a name of his coinage). We also received support from Dr. Julius Kaplan and Dr. Keith Johnson of the CSUSB Office of Graduate Studies and Faculty Development/Research & Sponsored Programs, and from Dr. Susan Cooper and Michael Ross, successive Directors of the CSUSB Department of Academic Computing and Media. Further valuable advice and support were provided by Dr. James Pierson of the CSUSB Department of Anthropology, Dr. Daniel Whitaker of the CSUSB Foreign Languages Department, and Dr. Alan Sandstrom of the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne Anthropology Department. Dr. Sandstrom also provided us with some of the background photographs. We also express our appreciation to Kim Turpin, Director of the Asistencia Mission in Redlands, California, for her willingness and flexibility in allowing us to photograph at that site.

We are particularly indebted to Nancy E. Roberts, Publisher at Prentice-Hall. Her enthusiastic and energetic support of this project has been of inestimable value.

Several student assistants have been involved with the project. In particular, Cristal Cabanillas assisted with the graphics, and Edward Caldwell compiled and analyzed usability evaluations that have been of considerable help in identifying and solving hitches before they became recurring problems.

We would also like to thank the many students who have played EthnoQuest in classes conducted by Dr. Frances Berdan at CSUSB and Dr. Robert Tannenbaum at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Tannenbaum's contribution was generous, informed, and thoughtful, and is especially appreciated. The students who played EthnoQuest have freely and creatively critiqued and evaluated EthnoQuest as it has unfolded, and we have incorporated many valuable suggestions from them. We especially thank Marlene Delgado, Martha Cox, and Edward Caldwell for their advice and evaluations.

The images on the sidebar are our creation with the exception of the Wise Man, who is adapted from the Codex Mendoza (Frances F. Berdan and Patricia Rieff Anawalt, eds. 1992: University of California Press, volume 4, folio 61r). The storytelling scenarios in module 10 were inspired by Laura Bohannan's classic "Shakespeare in the Bush."

The background music is from "Sacred Guitar and Violin Music of the Modern Aztecs" (Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, 1997). We are grateful to Drs. Paul Jean Provost and Alan Sandstrom for recording this music, to Dr. Sandstrom for bringing it to our attention, and to Cathy Carapella of Smithsonian Folkways Recordings for facilitating permission for its use in EthnoQuest. Credits for the four pieces are listed at the front of this Field Guide.

This program could not have been created without the generosity and, indeed, y eagerness, of the cast of Amopan. "Our" characters gave freely of their time and talents to provide EthnoQuest with its special flavor of interactivity. We spent many enjoyable (actually, hilarious) hours in the photographic studio, and enjoyed getting to know each of them better. We are indebted to them for their enthusiasm, spontaneous sense of humor, and belief in us.