The idea behind
The Circle helps long-term ill children look ahead.
The core of "the Circle" was the idea of creating the best possible on-line teaching and collaboration environment for long-term ill children. Long-term Ill kids are submitted to hospital or at home for substantial amounts of time, leaving them with little or no contact with their friends and peers at school.
The core of "the Circle" was the idea that these long-term ill children should be able to follow the lessons in their own schoolclass, attending either from the hospital or from the sickbed at home. The system should be able to support their social engagement with friends and family, and hence soften the severe challenges faced by long-term hospitalisation.
The Purpose
Social contact as a focal point of learning.
The social contact with classmates is believed to be an important prerequisite for learning and, therefore, the core of the project was to develop solutions for technologically mediated presence. The resulting system should support long-term ill children in having the best possible conditions to continue their school attendance despite of their illness.
The online social network is based on a combination of simple mostly well-known, online tools, enhanced by a simple graphic interface to enhance communication, learning, and not least support general social engagement. The very simple interface implies, that even children who do not yet master written language, are also able to use the system.
The Process
Adaptation to the target group through use driven development.
The system has been created through use driven development in close cooperation with a user test group. This group was composed of teachers from school classes with a long-term ill child, hospital teachers and hospital staff. The aim was to get the system to fit best possible to the target group.
The interface is designed, programmed and tested, but is not currently under further development.
The Result
Combining fun, communication and learning.
The website consists of multiple virtual spaces where the child can communicate with different groups of people. Among others, it is possible to chat, to have contact via video link and to share documents.
The child can log into the virtual space and automatically have video and audio contact with other people who are logged into the room. The solution is based on Cloud Computing and creates a virtual presence where people can move in and out of rooms, as in any real space. The different virtual spaces consist of
- The Classroom where it is possible to communicate with the entire class. Here, the child can see the whiteboard content directly on the computer and write directly on the digital whiteboard to the class. Also, it is possible to share files with the class.
- The Project Room where it is possible to do project work and save and share files related to the projects.
- My room, which is the child's private space. Here, it should be possible to invite friends, share pictures and music etc.
We have created an interface where the child can individualise the virtual spaces with various decorations, pictures and texts. In this way, the interface aims at becoming a natural working tool, which can be used both for fun, communication and learning. The Circle is a potential digital learning tool that can be used by long-term ill children or a wider target group. The project is not currently in the process of further development.