Once upon a time

Abstract

Education and learning have witnessed some important changes in the past few years. The appearance and success of the information society maywell be one of the main factors for such change. Indeed. children are increasingly moreand moreat ease with the use of computersand technology. So, eapitalising on this advantage, our research aims at exploring and enriching current and newclassroomactivities with the use of technology. In particular, weare focusing in areas such as story telling and dramatic gamesfor children aged 4 to 8. Ourgoal is to provide an integrated computer environmentfor collaborative story creation and acting. With such environment we intend to provide effective support for children developing: ¯ their notions of narrative, through the dramatisation of several situations, and; ¯ their ability to take a 2nd and 3rd person perspective across the experienceof a widerange of situations. Childrenwill create their ownstories using sets of predefined scenarios and characters. Bynegotiation, they choose their "adopted" characters and act in a play-like situation. Children will be connected through a networkedenvironment,and use fairly intuitive interfaces (use of LCD-tabletsand light-pens, touch sensitive board and finger print recognition devices will be used). This project is part of the NIMISproject, i3-ESE. EUfunded initiative under the ESPRITprograxn.