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'Hoot' Games as Cognitive Learning Environments for Children

'Hoot' Games as Cognitive Learning Environments for Children


Rajiv, Yadu.
Design for Digital Experience
R & D Campus, National Institute of Design, Bangalore

'Hoot' Games as Cognitive Learning Environments for Children

Proposal

Objective The attempt is to create a product that offers a meaningful intervention into the ever
persistent teaching of language problem. It aims to be a better alternative to existing digital
learning simulations by addressing the language/vocabulary learning challenges faced by children.

Audience Teachers, facilitators, special educators and students(middle school or 10 to 16). The
primary language will be English and the environment will be indoors, possibly in classrooms.

My investigation was guided by a question that persisted to bother me. How can you use technology
to teach language? A substantial gap in the area of language teaching is the non availability of an
effective tool that stimulates more than one sensory receptor at a time. Let us have a look at the
traditional classroom scenario. The teacher talks and the child listens - auditory stimulation. The
teacher writes on the black board and the child sees - visual stimulation. However, success of this
method largely depends on the skill and prowess of the teacher in entertaining a large group of
students. Let me introduce the variables. In an uncontrolled environment, the space, the noise, the
actions and activities of other audiences, create disturbances in this otherwise ideal learning
condition. Let us now add the learning requirements of children with special needs into this
scenario. People with learning difficulties are those individuals who require, through actual
intellectual impairment or delay in development, some form of additional support from their
families, communities and a range of health, education welfare and other services (Burke 7). Very
often these kids need one-on-one attention from the teachers or special educators in order to achieve
learning goals. They need environments that are exclusive. This necessity calls for technological
intervention, and I propose a multimedia interactive device that promises to interact, entertain and
educate students with minimal disturbance.
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'Hoot' Games as Cognitive Learning Environments for Children

Imagine a device that will capture the attention of the student so as to keep him focused and
occupied throughout his sessions. A device that will collect data on the student as he uses it; one
that will keep adapting to the level of intelligence the student shows. Such devices exists, and they
usually are called games. Games designers and developers alike have recognized the power of
games as a cognitive device (Crawford 23). The best of that lot has exploited this fact to create
really captivating toys and games, be it brain twisting puzzle games like the Rubik's cube or fantasy
games that exist purely in the players imagination like Dungeons and Dragons.

Computer games these days use many methods to keep an active audience, like varying the
difficulty in the levels presented in front of them to ever changing environments. We cannot
overlook the carefully crafted storyline, fluid animation and achievements that the player unlocks as
he finishes each of his goals. The involvement between the user and the content in digital learning
simulations or games are far less than in real games or toys due to the digital divide that the former
suffers from. But we can take a hint from these digital simulations and see what works and what
does not and try to replicate them in our designs to gain better results.

The limitations of the existing games and spelling programs


What is available in the market today is an array of web based spelling programs that uses the
computer as an interface between the user and the software. The limitation of these programs
becomes evident in a real life classroom where the computer screen very often replaces the
blackboard and becomes just another display device. Many of these spelling programs are hardly
tactile thereby offering minimal opportunities for kinaesthetic development. For example, the
physical activity of solving a jig-saw puzzle when put into the digital world looses its charm, even
when the possibilities increase n-fold. The spelling programs available to us in the market offers
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'Hoot' Games as Cognitive Learning Environments for Children

very little challenge, and the achievements are not visible or encouraging enough for the child to
pursue further. Very often they appeal to a more adult sensibility than that of a child. (eg:
http://www.wizardsspell.com, http://bteducationalprograms.com/ )

The product idea: a bird's eye view


Hoot is a digital toy that helps the user in learning spelling, vocabulary and possibly languages. The
device would store sets of words and audio recordings of the words keeping them true to their
pronunciations(IPA - International Phonetic Alphabet for English). Depending on a game mode, the
toy would playback the appropriate recording to the user who now will have to place scrabble-like
pieces on the device in the right order to win the game. The pieces would be magnetically held in
place, and can possibly give a vibration like feedback when they are placed on the device. For each
correct letter the piece would glow green and for every wrong letter, it would glow red. Depending
on the game mode, each correctly and wrongly spelt letter would add or reduce the player's score.

The user will interact with the toy either through a touch based interface(initial test prototypes can
be mobile phones running android) or through a smaller LED or colour display coupled with regular
buttons. The user will be able to select game modes and start a game via this interface. The user will
be able to skip the current word or get hints about the current word, depending on the current game
mode he is in. Hints can be language of origin, root word, word definition, etc.

A small thermal printer will be attached to the device so as to print out more information about the
current word or for printing out achievements the user has gained. Tangible rewards and
achievements will keep the player coming back for more.

'Hoot' Games as Cognitive Learning Environments for Children

The device will also have the option of interfacing with a computer or similar device so that
teachers and facilitators can provide content for their students.

The Game modes


The toy will feature an endless word list that a user can tackle. The toy will also feature a
competitive mode where the user starts off by giving their name to the toy and setting their current
difficulty level. As the user progresses he would be given more difficult words. This mode will
unlock more game modes and also reward the user with small awards via the printer. These awards
can have the player's name, number of words he has gone through, level of difficulty the user is at,
special symbols or images that is unique to the player and more. Further suggested game modes
include traditional games like hangman(guess the missing spellings), guess the word(user will be
given clues similar to the ones in crossword puzzles), going through official wordlists from
competitions, wordlists from popular competitions like Scripps Spelling Bee, going through list of
commonly misspelled words and more.

Secondary goals
The user would be able to print out and keep the spelling, pronunciation and meanings of the words.
They can also choose to print out root words, language of origin, usages, antonyms and synonyms
of the given word as well(once you spell the word completely).

Proposed product development phases


Phase 1 A rough idea/concept and design will be plotted out keeping the main goals in view.

Phase 2 We will build a proof of concept prototype with Arduino and other required hardware.
This stage actually resolves the technical doubts about the project. We will code the the logic that
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'Hoot' Games as Cognitive Learning Environments for Children

will take care of the game logic and scoring. We will not worry about the aesthetics or usability of
the device in this phase. This is the case, since the hardware we use in the prototyping stage will
differ from the hardware we use in the final stages.

Phase 3 The Arduino and the rest of the hardware will be replaced by a Printed Circuit Board
designed by us. There will be no clear specification for the hardware required until we are done
with Phase 2 of the project. This is where the designer and the engineer could work hand in hand.
The designer would suggest ideas based on the user research that was done; and the engineer, based
on his experience in Phase 1 & 2. He would then approve or disapprove the feasibility of each of
those designs. He would then go on to design the final PCBs keeping all this in mind.

Phase 4 This is the final stretch where we now iterate over the design and placement of the PCBs
and other components. The iterations would reveal if we would have to change the hardware
components based on the availability and cost of the components and also make newer improved
versions after initial field trials.

Further additions
The game can evolve in a such a way that it can focus on certain groups of people with cognitive
disorders like Attention Deficiency Hyperactive Disorder(ADHD) and other learning disabilities. A
multiplayer component can later be introduced so that two devices can battle with each other. An
online interface to interact with a device or a group of such devices is also a possibility.

People with physical disorders like blindness may be provided with a Braille(English) interface
where instructions can also be printed using a special printer. At a later stage, the device can evolve
into a tool to learn multiple languages as well.
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'Hoot' Games as Cognitive Learning Environments for Children

Works cited
Crawford, C. The Art of Computer Game Design. Berkeley, California: McGraw-Hill/Osborne,
1984
Burke, P. & Cigno, K. Learning Disabilities in Children. Oxford, London: Wiley-Blackwell, 2000

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