Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 12.4
Children interacting with the system; block, front and backside (
bottom right
)
Placing a block on the platform displays the corresponding digital content on the
screen, creating a direct mapping between input and output; the sequence of blocks
placed on the platform unfolds a narrative. Outgoing from the observations gathered
during the design iterations with the children, the system presents the content of the
picture blocks on the screen following the order in which they are placed, enabling
the placement of the blocks on the slots without having to follow any order. Similarly,
when a block is removed from the platform, it disappears from the screen.
Following suggestions from the teachers, the blocks represent classical scenarios
and actants from narratives for children - basically, heroes and opponents (Greimas
1973
; Propp
1928
) - and are composed of characters, objects and nature elements
(Fig.
12.5
).
The familiarity of the characters allows recreating narratives, variations from the
original stories or creating completely new stories. Five different scenarios (a castle
landscape, a forest, a desert, the woods and a circus) allow locating the stories in
different settings (Fig.
12.6
).
The narrative unfolds according to the sequence of blocks placed on the platform;
as such there are no predefi ned stories, a characteristic that sets the interface apart
from other tangible storytelling systems (Budd et al.
2007
; Hunter et al.
2010
). We
will illustrate this with an example: when children place the combination of blocks
as pictured on Fig.
12.7
(
witch
,
fairy
,
princess
), the witch attacks the princess and
the fairy tries to help her.
