SJJ's NM3221 Trove

Following the Matt Jones' design challenges of "Design for personalization and appropriation. Build in support for storytelling -- for entertainment, self-expression, and persuasion", i think we can take the RPG aspect a step further by letting the kids craft their own epic storytale, detailing their character's growth as part of a larger narrative instead of the currently offered "last seen <insert task here> for <gold and exp>". The main idea is to have something more like a story to share instead of a history of chores done. We can either let the child write their own tale, or have it auto-generated in a comical manner with randomized words. Parents can also step in as well to help craft a tale.

In stark contrast to my previous post on the two boys, here we have two girls who are together and each have a device to themselves. The younger one is easily entertained and satisfied. More interesting is the behavior of the older girl. She seems to take on the role of the caretaker and I am pretty sure their guardian isn’t around. Her obliging role seems very reminiscent of parents with their young kids where they entertain most of their senseless words and guide them along tasks and other obstacles.

How does a kid react when he is bullied? In this case the kid says something to the oppressor (I was too far away to make it out) but he is ignored and the situation does not change. After looking hopelessly at the situation he gives up and goes elsewhere to find something to do.

Besides the group mentality of having a leader, another group mentality of punishing those who stand out is also present here. It is rather funny how the boys will punish the odd one out in the casino game even when the person has no control over what image will show up, but nevertheless they are punishing the person for not complying with the rest.

Hope I’m not grasping at straws here but even for pretend games, only the goals that are challenging are the ones aiming for, and this is no exception even for children. They crave gratification in tasks that they deem as difficult and more rewarding.

It would be nice if our application developments or educators could make use of this ‘pretend’ state of play, instead of the rote learning that our education system is forcing upon us now.

Many of our posts have been touting the benefits of mobile technology, but this observation asks: Are the children ready for it? Something for application developers as well as our educators to consider.

The kid was probably no older than 9 but he was already passing judgment on the phone models. Does he know what he was comparing? He stated his preference for an iPhone but was that assumption based on simply playing a few childrens’ games on the Samsung? The kid behaves very much like us teenagers and adults in having a preferred phone model, but is this attachment to the phone model based on simple peripheral cues?

Much of education on computers is digitization of textbooks and work we used to do on pen and paper. With mobile technology now capable of speech recognition, photo and video taking, it should be time to add those to our education. Just as the syllabus has to change to accommodate having a mobile source of information, the syllabus must also change to allow for photo or video taking to have a greater place in education, especially in subjects such as Biology where outside activity or interaction would be most meaningful and worth recording beyond regular notes.

As parents were once students and now avid users of mobile technology, it is safe to say that parents would have a strong opinion on the use of mobile technology in schools. Some may embrace it, who see that the connectivity and access that mobile technology grants can be put to good use. Others however, may see mobile technology as a distraction from the normal pen-and-paper work and tuitions. It may also be harder for parents to give tuition and monitor schoolwork on a mobile device. Perhaps conducting workshops for the parents to update them on how to better adapt to the new form of education or better yet, involve them in the process by giving them the same application or a form with “parental rights” that can view the child’s work and progress.

Mobile devices are already capable of Augmented Reality(AR) interactions. Mobile devices have already been proven to be excellent companions when learning during physical activities. Imagine if we were able to add augmented reality to the mix. We would have a larger degree of control over what messages the environment would be sending to the participants. Field trips with probes and scans could have an additional level of depth added to them with AR interactions throughout the area. Entirely AR playing fields could be generated in rooms or large empty spaces, allowing the classroom to imitate the environment offered outside.

Besides the problem of not every student having access to smartphones or internet access, the medium that they use the internet also matters. On a computer or laptop it may be as simple an issue as having multiple browsers but on smartphones it is an entirely different matter. Applications for the iOS and Android operating systems have their own market and not every application has versions on both application portals. This is the challenge faced when trying to develop a universal application for every platform so that all students have access to them. Ideally, an application designed for one should also be allowed on the other application portal as well but realistically that is not always the case. They also end up running differently and cannot make use of ways to connect locally through Bluetooth or wifi networking, which should be technologically possible but made complicated by different protocols across multiple platforms.

Smartphone game applications are being released faster than ever, each more addictive than the last. However, educational games now currently still conjure images of sitting at a computer to do work accompanied by colourful images and mascots. Imagine if an educational application for children could ever go as viral as “Flappy Bird”. In order to achieve this, the same design principles for games can be applied to educational applications. Make every exercise bite-sized and implement a point system for gratification. In other words, make the gamification of educational applications fun instead of a simple digitalization of study materials. As an example we have CodeAcademy’s programming application that guides you through the basics of programming in bite-sized steps. 

Why does she hold on to her phone the entire time when she clearly had pockets to store her wallet in? It would make carrying the tray and payment of food easier yet she goes through the inconvenience of carrying it together with the tray. Throughout her meal she constantly checks her phone screen but with little actual interaction with the phone.

Students seem to trust that their belongings are quite safe as they leave their bags and laptops around unattended as they purchase their food. The leaving of valuables such as the laptop is probably not as common outside of school canteen areas.

It appears that many students feel a need to be connected or communicating even while having lunch. Students that eat alone and lack a companion end up resorting to their phones while students in groups constantly chatter away, with the consuming of food being a secondary activity.

Digital learning companions such as Leapfrog are no that popular anymore. Rightly so, as a product that is only usable one grade in a child’s learning is not cost effective. Ideally, a device that can “switch” content to match the current age of the children would be optimal. The easiest solution lies in our smartphones. With a large base of developers in the field of smartphone applications, collaboration with childhood education companies should be encouraged to come up with educational applications, removing the need for clunky peripherals. Given how many young parents use their smartphones to distract their children now, this would be the most logical step.