our_learntable

So this is all about the learntable_concept shown here. We decided to put our main focus on this concept, because we see the most possibilities here. However, there´s still a lot to think about, for instance how does a reward look, sound or feel, if you do something right. And what happens, if you´re wrong? How are you lead to the right solutions? The most difficult thing about this, is that we restricted ourselves to that point of not using a screen as a feedback. We want to keep this learning_table as analog as possible and using materials like wood or even stone and thus making it a “magical” experience while you are playing with it.

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Games to play

This is all about mathematics. Put numbers or even 3D_Objects on the table in order to learn additon, subtraction and all the stuff your teacher will be pleased with.

Here you can spell words. You put an 3D_Object on a reader table(the main reader table) and then you have to spell the word right, by finding the right letters and place them in the right order. A hint could be on the back of the object were the right letters are written in disorder.

The sound matching. A sound is heard and then you have to put the object, which matches the sound on the reader_table. If it is a roaring you should probably put a wild animal, like a lion, but you could also hear a car engine or the rotors of a helicoptor.

Categorize! In this game you have to categorize objects. If you put a house on the main reader table you have to find parts which belong to the house, like a chimney, flowerpot or windows. Works also with cars, airplanes, naturestuff..

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Rewards/Feedback

Why should a kid like to play with the learntable? Why should they bother to do spellings, mathematics and the usual boring pedagogical stuff? Where is the fun? Well, here are some suggestions:

Have some characters for each topic. If you do mathematics, you might find yourself in front of a funny, yet a little bit shrewd professor, who´s totally freaking out, when you do sth. right. This could also work with a conductor for music/sound topics, or a mechanic/engineer for the technical topics..

If you could combine all this characters in one big base you could even get more feedback and more action. If you solve a task in a very good way, very fast or very accurate all of them could start to cheer, making a bigger impact.

The characters could also jump out of a box.

Maybe the whole brain_unit could be a character and react with different faces or shapes on right solutions or wrong attempts.

Or the character could be not attached to the brain unit at all and just starts moving in a “magical” way if you act. It could also be a kind of friend or mascot for the whole learntable which you could take everywhere with you.

Another reward might be a more physical and surprising one with a great impact. Use springs and catapults to trigger for example the “positrons” of a “positronic_brain” to fly off in every direction. Here it is also possible to distinguish between close or very far off attempts to the right solution, by simply triggering only one positron or more of them. However they have to switch back somehow and should not fly uncontrolled in open room(or eyes).

Something similiar to the above. But longer lasting. A propelling positron which got winded up and finally released.

Another visible feedback could be a accumulation of diods which show a text or some kind of figures. Close to a screen but yet still different. Might be a nice contrast with wooden materials, because you are not used to see this highly technical stuff on wood.

A light bulb that gets brighter the closer you get to the solution and starts ridiculously blinking while you got the right solution.

Candy put in a box by the parents and the closer to the solution the more the doors to the holy grail are opening. It´s like an Egyptian puzzle.

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Some competition/multiplayer

It´s always nice to play together. So here are some concepts of how you can play the learntable with a buddy.

Two(or more) balls of different colour. With right answers you trigger a motor and they start moving. Who´s the first one to reach the goal line.

A kind of sand clock. You compete against time, which got triggered by you solutions. Maybe moving faster or slower or even turning the whole thing around. Who´s the fastest speller?

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Prototyping

So here we are now, trying to prototype the whole thing. We talked with Tom Igoe some weeks ago about how we can carry out our concept. He suggested to get one reader and a multiplexor, to which we attach self built antennas. These antennas should now be able to read the RFID_tags.

We wanted to attach up to eight antennas to the multiplexor, but unfortunately we weren´t even able to get one working. The next problem is, how to read several different RFID_tags in a row? If you put on one tag and it stays there, the whole reader(remember, we only used one reader) is taken and you can not put on a second or third tag. We were thinking about using more than one reader, but there are two problems; one is the connection to the arduino board. It can not take eight readers at once and the second problem is the money. It would cost us at least 250oNOKs to get eight readers with the eventuality that they wont work like we were planning.