TELLO
A Service that enables cultural exchange between Children, Parents and Teachers
through storytelling as a medium.
Featured in Danish Broadcasting Corporation - dr.dk
TELLO is a service that facilitates multicultural exchange through the medium of storytelling between parents and children, inturn children and their friends. It helps children to integrate better in the new environment and overcome the communication challenges that maybe faced by them.
With globalisation and families moving to new countries on a rise, countries are no more homogenous but multicultural in its construct. Adapting to a new culture brings forth different nuances for the immigrant families. It brings in a challenge for the child to integrate into the new culture which is different from the native culture.
RESEARCH
The project spanned over 8 weeks and started with extensive research. The research was done with multilingual families, refugee and immigrant families and International Schools in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The research was conducted through ethnographic interviews, research prototypes, cultural probes, space exploration and observations in classrooms.
Day in a Life - Parents and Teachers were interviewed in the environment of home and schools respectively, and were asked to map their day in a life.
Below is a mapping of one family's activity filled day.
This helped to identify the possible areas where the child and parents co-learn, and Methods of Learning at School and Homes.
INITIAL WORKSHOPS
Through the initial Interviews, four different interaction points were researched.
People, Spaces, Methods of learning and Institutions that promote Culture
and provide opportunities for co-learning and sharing were researched.
'Storytelling' was a core form of cultural sharing at home and school. Using this as a medium 'Story Probes' were created for the children to build upon and share.
Visiting Institutions such as UNICEF, Experimentarium City and Staten Museum for Kunst gave insights into how the programmes were structured for
co-learning.
RESEARCH ANALYSIS
Each of the interviews were mapped based on the quotes, mediums and concerns.
Insights :
There is a gap in the learnings a child shares at home and school environment.
Building pride in one's own culture and immersing into the new environment.
Shared learning between parents and children and schools.
OPPORTUNITY AREAS
Parents involvement in school, such that there is no gap in learning.
Cultural Exchange through Play
Using Stories as a medium of expression.
How might we share diverse cultures existing within a classroom in a playful and social way.
The Ideas generated were mapped on vertical axis of shared <-> individual learning and horizontal axis of dynamic<->static content.
RAPID PROTO AND TESTING
The prototype and testing was done at home and school.
Culture being too broad, Core Aspects such as Language and Food were taken for first level testing
At home -
Interactive Story book
The missing words in the story book were given in two languages. If the word is placed correctly there was a feedback by the man jittering
Medium: Lego and resistors for circuits, Paper for the book, Vibrational Feedback
Recipe Book
Parents and children were given a Recipe Book that was in dual language, a language that child knows and other that parents know.
The end result was to create a recipe.
Medium : Paper
Weekend Stories
How was your weekend? -
The child had to map down how was the weekend and tell a story around it.
Medium: Post its
LEARNINGS:
The above activities were feedback driven methods, even though co-creating was engaging, parents had more control.
Culture Puzzle - Learning from each other
A puzzle with clues from another language were given.The language was from another friend who could speak this language.
Medium: Paper
At school -
Read me a story - Learning from another culture
A Parent was called in to share a story or folktale from their native culture and country to the class.
Medium: Person + Book
The Prototyping which were done as activities were divided as -
1)One-One
2)Group
3)Bring a Story from home
Where's my Story?
Experience Prototyping and Workshops -
In all of the above physical prototyping, the content was mostly pre-fed , The story of the child him/herself was missing. Creating Experience prototypes was done to make the children involved.
OBSERVATIONS: The prototype was given to the students to use. It became apparent that the children were curious to know about different countries but it was also a curiosity to share one's own story.
Stories from around the world.
From each of the above prototypes it was evident that the children wanted to learn from each other. Creating an interactive map where one places the tubular structure, it plays a video of the child from that country describing their different culture through their eyes.
And lacked the cultural richness that existed within a classroom and did not utilise the child's native story.
Creating a collaborative storytelling tool which can bridge the child's home and school environment was taken ahead as the direction.
LEARNINGS AND FINAL CONCEPT DIRECTION...
The mediums for knowing about one's own cultural stories were available across multiple digital and non-digital platforms.
Those were either suited for school or home and had pre-fed content where the child was only a visual recipient.
SERVICE CONCEPT
The concept is a co-created storytelling experience which is designed to bridge the cultural richness between International Schools and multilingual families. It facilitates an experience of cultural storytelling that starts between parents and their children before living on between students in a classroom setting. It plants the seeds of awareness and understanding for important cultural differences at an early age.
Tello is then brought back to class and the story is shared with the classmates. It provides a platform that teachers can use to best suit the curriculum they are teaching. The stories are uploaded to a cloud server which can be accessed by the parents and teachers through a digital platform.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Teachers at school facilitate the experience and circulate Tello, a shared toy that exists within the classroom, to students on a weekly basis. The child takes Tello home to record a native story or tale along with the parents.
FOR CLASSROOMS -
For the Teachers -
The curriculum is diversified and adds to the richness of cultural co-existence. It facilitates cultural conversations at a young age and the teachers can utlise this content for the curriculum requirements.
VALUE -
For the kids -
Tello becomes a shared toy which stores different stories. It builds empathy and brings in awareness of different cultures, it Listening to one's own story build in confidence and hones language learning skills.
For the parents -
The service enables the parents to know about the different environment that their child is sharing and builds deeper bonds with their children. The parents can contribute in curating the curriculum and find a sense of association.
PROTOTYPNG AND TESTING
The prototyping started from Paper to using ad-hoc methods and the final in wood ad felt.
The final form was an egg shaped form that had a dead weight at the bottom to balance itself. The egg shape was created for surround sound and also to have a same 360 degree feel.
Each Prototype was tested with Teachers, Pedagogists, Parents and inside classroom with kids. The form evolved based on the way the children sat around in a circle to hear and would hold it close to record.
MICRO INTERACTIONS
The micro interactions for play and record were designed in the form itself.
The micro interactions were designed keeping the natural gestures that the toy called for.
The tummy ring was for the teacher to turn and play another child's story which were stored weekly.
CONSTRUCTION
The prototype was built using processing and bluetooth modules for syncing to the computer. Each recording was uploaded to the cloud server of the application.
For purpose of prototyping, playback is done of the latest audio file.
Accessing Stories
Each story is sent to the cloud and can be accessed through the application by teachers and parents later.
The stories are audio files which can be heard and shared. The activities generated are shared by the teacher back to the parents and can also upload as a digital version in the application.
Tello Feedback
The project was very well received by parents and teachers alike due to the association of having one's own story in it. Below is video depicting the feedback received.
Life of TELLO!
Although Tello is aimed for children aged 6 - 8 years, it can live on within classrooms in various forms and evolving with time.
The toy is seen as a character in the class that shares stories in their own or parent's voices. Tello can live and be passed on from alumni to new students to add onto stories.
Manifestations of 'Tello' the toy
Further explorations of Tello
Tello is a prop for conversations. A lot of scenarios where Tello could exist go beyond Further explorations for Tello were as
X-Mas Tello' - Santa Wish Sharing - The children can share a wish to Santa which can be then synced with Amazon Wishlist, for the parents to buy easily.
Hello Tello' - Message to grandparents - Tello can be used for sharing messages to distant family, who yearn for hearing the grandchild's voice.