Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
12.3.1
Context of the Study
The study presented here took place in a Portuguese preschool, involving six classes
of preschoolers, of 5-year-olds, and six preschool teachers, for a period of around
3 years (Sylla 2013 ; Sylla et al. 2011 , 2013b ). Although the teachers were always
the same, the team worked every year with two new groups of children, namely, the
class attending the last preschool year, just before entering primary school the year
after. During this period, the research team carried several cycles of rapid prototyp-
ing, trying a variety of different approaches and materials, prototyping, testing,
gathering information and redesigning again. These various iterations led to the
development of several prototypes, some of which evolved into more fi nished
products, such as t-words , an interface that received the Golden Award for the Best
Demo at ACE 2012 (Sylla et al. 2012 ) and the World Technology Award 2013 2 in
the category Entertainment.
12.3.2
Initial Explorations
In the fi rst design iterations, the team wanted to assess how children create stories
using tangible props. To gather information on this aspect, the researchers used a
low-fi prototype that consisted of a set of cards with drawings representing animals,
objects, places and nature elements (Table 12.1 ) and a large-format topic, with a grid
of rectangular marks drawn on it for placing the paper cards. Following a Wizard-
of-Oz technique, 3 using a small programme developed in Processing, 4 by pressing a
certain key on the computer, the researchers simulated audio feedback for each card
that children placed on the prototype.
The syntax of the objects was linked to the verbs that support the action related
to it, e.g. the audio of the card representing a “ball of yarn” was “plays with the ball
of yarn”, the card “bowl of milk” was “drinks a bowl of milk”, and so on. By placing
the picture cards on the topic, children could create very simple narratives, such as:
Table 12.1 Cards used
to test the audio interaction
Cat
Ball of yarn
Meadow
Sun
Dog
Bowl of milk
House
Moon
Mice
Piece of cheese
Bone
2 http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/11/prweb11342067.htm
3 Wizard of Oz defi nes a technique in which users interact with a technological system that they
believe to be autonomous but which is actually being operated or partially operated by a person
who simulates the system responses to the user's input.
4 Processing: http://www.processing.org/
 
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