email » henry@interactivelabs.co.uk
Magic Box
Child Centered Design
Skybluepink/Nesta Futurelab
2004
How can we support young children to learn a new language though playful interactions with real and digital objects?
Working with Skybluepink through the NESTAfuturelab DTI scheme
Skybluepink's Magic Box helps French language learning through play for 4 and 5 year-olds. By placing magical cards (RFID tagged cards) into the magical box (a tag reader) in particular sequences, children trigger a range of different animations and representations on a computer screen and hear and see French vocabulary.
The cards and box offer a tangible interface through which to engage children with language through colours, shapes, rhyme and song on a computer screen. This interaction forms the basis for a series of play activities in French, including colouring in; naming and classification; pattern making; shape building; picture/narrative creation; music making; magical transformation.
The system design allows for different types of play, depending on the child's individual preference. They can choose to play with sets of colour or shape or combinations of these. This also means the teacher can choose to introduce French colour or shape words separately by limiting which cards they give the children to control their exposure to new vocabulary.
My role was to realise SBP's design intentions by creating the 'soft' side of the project, animating SBP's ideas, creating character interaction, taking part in testing sessions in schools & basically programming the whole thing...
UK patent application number 0515531.2
US patent application number US11/017,376
International Patent application PCT/GB/2005/004271
Taiwanese Patent application 094138838
© 2006 henry holland. All rights reserved.
