t-­stories: improving and expanding t-­words

Abstract

This paper describes the reengineering t-words, a tangible interface that aims at promoting children’s collaborative and playful exploration of the oral language. t-stories, the new version of the interface, is composed by 10 client modules and a server module; each module has a slot on the top surface for placing paper cards (that can be customised) and a surface for drawing on the bottom. t-stories allows recording and reproducing audio as well as drawing, or writing on its surface. Additionally it allows recording and playing audio based on NFC tags, which can be stuck to different surfaces or objects, and used in various scenarios, e.g., record a story on a tag and stick it to a drawing. Children can use the interface to carry a wide variety of language related activities, and choose how they want to hear them (e.g., specific sequences or the whole story). This paper describes the new implementation of the interface and presents an intervention that was carried at kindergarten with a group of 18 children, aged between five and six years old.