Lessons of Sesame Street Letters, numbers and TV

"Kids are adaptable" Yes, they are!!! Let's believe in their ability.

Interview of a trilingual kid's mom

Preschooler children’s Parents Survey
-Maya is 9 and a half now
- She liked dora before, not anymore
- Slavic, Greek, English
- English became the primary now
- She wasn’t forced to learn. It was a natural way of learning. It contrasts with K-American friends who were taught in English more. Jilly taught writing and reading but didn’t sent Maya to school or anything.
- She understood languages before the way that she reacts but start to really speak when she was three
- She wasn’t confused among those three
- Learning language earlier is better because when you grow up you are conscious about many other things e.g. how people would think of your pronunciation, etc
-Look at what’s popular out there. Clubbing and https://www.ganzestore.com
- When she travels to Greek, she gets back to the mode pretty quickly
- Suggestion for my project: may be more interaction, give time to respond more, less on reading ability(chat, word recognition system), listening and speaking is more important

Specific Teaching goals

• Helps teach vocabulary and other oral language concepts
• Summary page at the end to recap and instruct
• Helps kids get ready to read
• Helps develop phonemic, print, and numeric awareness
• Large bright colorful pictures to keep kids engaged
• Rounded corners for children s safety
• Laminated to protect from spills
• Great size for little hands
• Simple but engaging text
• Useful for beginning Spanish at any level
• Useful for beginning English at any level

Documenting - Psychologist

Mock-up grocery shopping game

This is a grocery shopping game I might want to create as an actual game. Before that I tried it on the paper. Each aisle has different stuff so it will help kids to learn many useful, everyday vocabulary words.


This is the basic setting - commanding phrase, cart, monster's hands



You will see "I want something" in three different languages.


Use monster's hands to wander around and get the right object. If you got it wrong, then try it again.


This time you are supposed pick banana and put it into the cart.

Bilingual games

There are bilingual games with famous characters like Dora(Amazon.com Sales Rank: #774 in Toys & Games), Diego and Sesame Street in the market. And there's scholastic game bilingual game series. I will need to see how effective it is.

Apple store in SOHO

I went to the Apple store to check out the kid's game section. There were games like Dora sketch, Lego Batman adventure, Barney sing along with me, etc. Barney was popular for both girls and boys whereas Lego Batman was for boys and Dora was for girls, mainly. This observation helps my character design because my game will target both girls and boys.

Children's museum

Many games at the museum uses matching sound and visual as a learning guide.

Dora the Explorer- game

Chicco Bilingual Teddy Count With Me Plush

Chicco Bilingual Teddy Count With Me Plush
http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3511903

Character sketches

Rough Prototype for my Grocery Shopping Game

I'm thinking of placing monsters in the game.

Sesame Street Sports Playstation

Little Pim

I watched Chinese-English Bilingual DVD.
What I observed:

- Teaching via eating and drinking
- Repeating vocabulary and phrase
- 3 min per episode
- Panda character is cute
- Flash animation + reality
- Many more selections of DVD: Hebrew, Spanish, French, German, Italian...

I learned "Shwei" is water. It's hardly forgetful because it's us repeated many times.

Note from "Tipping Point"

Tipping point Chapter 3: The Stickiness Factor: Sesame Street, Blue's Clues, and the Educational Virus

- Importance of Interactivity, Daniel Anderson who worked with Nickeolodeon designing Blue's Clue's says, Blue's Clues was created with philosophy to give opportunity to have children behaviorally active. "Steve spends almost all hist time on screen talking directly at the camera' (123)

-Human's eye is capable of focusing on only small area at one tine - a perpetual span - Usually centered (108)

- Nickelondeon's Blues clues is stickier than Sesame street because it purely targeted young children whereas Sesame Street had adults' element to have parents watch together (112)

- Blue jump through magical doorways, play puzzle game with Steve -> more fun (122)

- Strangely, Sesame street didn't stick with the idea where they want to hear kids' response (123)

- Anderson," the driving force for a preschooler is not a search for novelty , like it is with older kids, it's a search for understanding and predictability. For younger kids repetition is really valuable. They demand it. When they see a show over and over again, they not only are understanding it better, which is a form of power but just by predicting what is going to happen. I think they feel a real sense of affirmation and self-worth. And Blue's CLues doubles that feeling because they also feel like they are participating in some thing. They feel like they are helping Steve!(The children responded to the show in a different way with each repeat viewing becoming more animated and answering more of Steve's question. (126)

- Blue's Clues succeeds as a story of discovery only if the clues are in proper order. The show has to start out EAST - to give the viewers confidence- and then get progressively harder and harder, challenging the preschoolers more and more, drawing them into the narrative. (129)

- Adding Big Bird made difference (132)

Educational Apple App for Toddlers

http://www.24x7digital.com/content/view/178/90/

Controllers

Should I use controllers?
I would love to!

Feedback & thoughts

After the short presentation on my paper fishing game today, more refined ideas came along.

-I might include counting numbers objects in the bucket at the end of the game. I will need the suggestion from psychologist and educators to figure out it's not too much for them.

- I will contact game design professor and get opinion.

- I could buy number pads and customize it

- I need more level design: farm, pond, sea...

- I'm sure that I will simply introduce sound, number, vocabulary words via fun

New Prototype

My new prototype is a fishing game constructed on the paper. There are four words (i.e. airplane, cup, rabbit, and fish) in three languages of English, Spanish and Korean written on the shaped paper. Each paper is attached to a magnet so the children will be able to pick the letters with a fishing rod, also attached to a magnet.
My thesis concept stays the same: familiarizing preschoolers with three languages. I clearly decided not to teach them. The academic goal of this game is to introduce vocabulary words, not sentences. My target audience is still four to six years old and depend on their age, I will add one more or less vocabulary words. Thus, I’m adding some level design to the game.
Throughout the observation I made at the preschool two weeks ago, I concluded that the reason I couldn’t successfully test out the game digitally created was because it was not fully functioning so that kids were confused to play the game. Also, four years old kids had a difficult time understanding and possibly controlling the mouse. So, they lost interest in playing it. I really want them to enjoy this new game.
This time I’m making a paper version before actually creating it with Flash Actionscript because I want to plan the game first in reality to catch the downside of the game and create into a digital format. What I found is that it’s difficult to fix a game with the coding environment because you will need to change lots of lines and it gets very confusing.

Kid's Festival

Kid's Festival was held at Madison Square Park last Saturday. Despite it was rainy day, many family came out and picked up pumpkins and apples together. There were many events like face painting, Halloween food making... and all foods were free. I watched kids running around and got excited about Holloween. They were wearing costumes already. I want to make a game that can excite kids.

Upside Down

What I have found out so far, simplicity is the best theme for kid's entertainment.
This show not only is simple but imaginative.

Playing games

There are so many fun games existing already. But now all of them are necessarily educational. So, I'm just playing with many games and get some inspiration to incorporate an educational aspect to my project.

What's in my brain now

- Search teaching method for different markets

- Work on paper prototype

- Do more character drawing

- Play more games!

- Talk to people in bilingual institutions (e.g., French Institution, PS...)

- Visit places that will inspire me (e.g., museums, parks, kid's event...travel :) )


- Should I try 3D?

Goals

I have made academic goals lil' more specific.

1. To motivate children to enjoy and learn about new culture
-There are many other kids like me but they speak different language. "I want to play with them!"
-Knowing language is a way to socialize
-Recognizing advantages of learning foreign language in the society
2.To boost interest in foreign language
-Realizing learning new language is fun
-Learning new language is not difficult
-Understanding other language makes smart person - you get rewards
3. To introduce basic vocabularies of English, Korean, and Spanish
-Knowing daily and interesting words in three languages
- Recognizing difference between the three
- Learning native pronunciation

A brief Interview

Jiho Yoon, the director of Worick Preschool, Seoul, South Korea


What would be the effective way to teach children?
Fun, nothing boring, hand eye coordination

Think about their attention Span -> 3-5 min

Consider individuality -> create something that's agreeable to all

Omar's project - Banjar

It's always great to hear about one's project in person because I was able to have myself more engaged. I told Omar that I'm neither U.S. Citizen nor interested in politics but he said his website will be also designed for someone like me who doesn't know much about political issues. His goal is to maintain intellectual discussion among different political parties and fully understand systems. I can definitely tell Omar is passionate about the Banjar project and he is collaborating with Greg so I expect truly high-quality website that isn't like any other websites out there.

I had a chance to look at the basic format of the website and it doesn't look like a political website at all where usually blue and red colors are all over. It seemed easy to navigate. I would like to see how it is going to become a social realm for being a casual political website with a very simple form. We talked about how facebook has many options and tend to draw attention from many confusing advertisement. Banjar site is not going to be non-commercial and informative. Having many visual materials have both good and bad aspects. I think Omar's project needs to stay simple and straightforward as possible.

Now, what is missing for the project is actual user testing among groups. Surveys among individuals are well done and it's still in progress. How to make people understand politics better and clear? A group interaction scenario via a group chatting will help to figure out how people interact over the political issues and this must be done before building the website.

What else could he try? Many times a logo of website tends to become an overview so Omar and Greg could work on that and have professors, peers and users look at them and give feedbacks. In the website, registered people may want to have ratings so that will give a mode of satisfaction from writing a thoughtful essays and comments and encourage more participation.

Games for toddlers

Cookie Monster Game

I have been playing many games over the weekend and try to figure out the level design or difficulty that kids in young ages might have. Their sound is very fun and the repetitive gestures and rhythms are the keys in many games.

Motivation for my project

Belief in young children’s language acquisition ability

Transition from the previous work

Love for being and working with children

A way to teach music notes

Surely, teaching through embodiment play is important for learning in daily lives.

How to create a special flash game

Out of so many flash games that are already there, how will I be able to make something unique, fun, educational? During this weekend, I'm just going to play tons of games... and note what's good and bad about them.

Observation

Pictures are taken at Hanai Preschool, Flushing, NY
What I found out:

-Most of 5-6 years old children speak both Korean and English but not 4 years old ones

-5-6 years children enjoyed the game more than 4 years ones

-Green robot is the most popular character

-Kids love to touch the screen and push the keyboard

-Kids are excited about jumping and spinning

-Kids seem to enjoy the animation more

I'm going for a game!

After presenting my first prototypes and having conversation with Louisa today, I decided to go with a game. What I'm going to do from now on till next week is to play lots of games and see what is appealing to the audience. Also, I'm moving toward entertainment than education. I mean I'm still keeping both concept but the ratio would be...

entertainment:education =6:4

Dooli Remix

Dooli the little dinosaur is one of the most popular classic animation in Korea. Some DJ remixed this song. This makes me happy and less stressed out :)

@ Children's Museum

I visited Children's Museum in upper west side last Sunday and got a chance to play this interactive sailing game. It's pretty good to have children play with balance. You have to move left and right to get the boat going in the right direction. This is similar to a SMALLab environemnt in a way but a difference is that this screen was vertical. There's no end in this game because your boat doesn't get damaged though you hit the rocks.

Goal

To introduce basic words in English, Spanish and Korean most effectively

To heighten interest in foreign languages.

To make a visually amusing project

To interact with audience for enhanced learning

What Pyschologists say about my project

#1 “A trilingual edutainment can be confusing at first, but ultimately beneficial if stimulation and guidance is consistent and motivational!”

#2 “Just a little exposure to another language can help 4-6 year olds think about language as an object. It may increase their interest in other cultures or increase their tolerance and understanding of children from different linguistic backgrounds”

Pocoyo

The first reason for Pocoyo's success is because of the characters' movement. They move, speak and laugh just like kids.

Precedents

Precedent

Dora the Explorer : Bilingual, interactive with kids

Pocoyo : Learning through Laughter

Sesmame Street : Non profit, monolingual, targeted all over the world, character development(every year come up with a new character),originally created for children in poverty who had no opportunity to receive education

Scholastic: Game for math, language, science

ClubBing: Similar to Scholastic, Advanced game technique

What’s common about them? Young learners, character driven, edutainment

What do I dislike about? Most except Dora are monolingual (missed opportunity), LACK TRILINGUAL OPPORTUNITY
-→ They are all edutainment but none of them are trilingual.

Survey for Specialits

1. What is children’s favorite color?

2. According to the brain development, how important it is to learn foreign languages in preschool age?

3. Are children of 4 to 6 years old capable of learning more than two languages?

4. What would be the best way to teach children foreign languages(games, television, parents’ teaching, having foreign friends, etc)?

5. Could you give any advice about the trilingual edutainment project? Things that creators should know about?

Survey for Parents

1. How old is your child(children)?

2. Who is your child’s favorite character?

3. What is his/her favorite color?

4. What is his/her first language? If any, what other languages he/she knows?

5. In your opinion, how important it is to learn foreign languages in preschool age?

6. Are you willing to teach your child more than two languages?

7. In your opinion, what would be the best way to teach children foreign languages(games, television, parents’ teaching, having foreign friends, etc)?

8. Could you give any advice about the trilingual edutainment project? Things that creators should know about?

9. As parents, are you willing to buy trilingual edutainment product for your children if it’s proved to be effective?

10. Please feel free to elaborate your opinion about two prototypes(game and animation) Which works well? Which doesn’t? How would you develop it for better communication?

Feedback on working prototypes

- Think about how the project can be more interactive
- Focus what do you want to teach. Alphabet, number, or phrase?
- For game, consider for more narrative.
- How about a muppet show?
- Watch 'Pocoyo' and observe the kid's movement

Glossary

Animation: the consecutive images of 2-D or 3-D drawings in order to create "an illusion of movement".
Cognitive Development: mental development that makes people think and learn
Education: learning process
Edutainment - blend of education and entertainment
Fun: a source of enjoyment or amusement
Game: an activity arousing amusement
Interactivity: influencing each other
Preschooler: a child who attends preschool and generally ages between 4 and 6.
Language: a system of communication e,g, voice sounds, gestures, or written symbols.
Lexicon: vocabulary that a person knows
Multilingual: two or more languages
Rhythm: the pattern of musical movement through time
Key terms: Trilingual education, children and media, edutainment, cognitive development, lingual development

Target Audience

Primary Audience - Preschooler

Secondary audience- Parents, Psychologist, Educator -

New York Public Libara: Film Viewing Event

Observation:
- 5 min attention span
- Kids follow/imitate peers' action
- They like to watch character jumping falling

Two Protoypes

The Three Monsters: Storyboard

Game Prototype

Update

Educator: Dr. Howard Steele at the pychology Department
Electronic version about Erik Erikson's model of development

"It can be confusing at first, but ultimately beneficial if stimulation and guidance is consistent and motivational!
etween 18-24 months when children learn 300-400 words, and by 6 years of age they are familiar with 15,000-30,000 words, while the typical adult has a lexicon of 75,000 words they are familiar with."

Parents: Bilingual Mom's community -> go to the event when I have no class

Veggiefun Script

Veggiefun

Iva1: Hello Everyone! 안녕하세요! 곤니찌와!
Iva2: We are going to create a dragonfly together.
Iva3: These are the ingredients.
4 Pea pods 콩깍지 だいず , 1 pepper
10 toothpicks 이쑤시개 よう-じ (요지)
1 cherry tomato い토마토 っ-こ (잇코) トマト (체리-토마토)
1 potato 감자 いも(이모)

Iva4: First, grasp a potato and stick a toothpick. Then, put a cherry tomato on the top.
Iva5: Let’s make 4 wings with 4 pea pods and 4 toothpicks.
Iva6: Lastly, we are going to put a red pepper as a tail.
Iva 7: Tada, here’s a beautiful dragonfly.
Iva 8: See you next time. 또만나자. あしたまた (아시타마다)

Prototype 1

Veggiefun: Create a dragonfly from Iva Son on Vimeo.

Let's create a dragonfly together. We are also going to learn Korean, Japanese and English at the same time.

Teach Japanese in English - Hiragana

Hiphop with kids

Humpty Dumpty

This 'Humpty Dumpty' is not a traditional nursery rhyme but it was converted to a hiphop version which meets current trend of music and kids might be more interested to learn about the song. I'm working on alphabet song in hiphop.

Lyrics for my rap

어린이 ninos kids!
put your pinkies up, 새끼 손까락을 들어봐!
Everybody 모두 소리질러 scream (효과음 꺅~)

A Be Ce De!
가 나 다 라!
A B C D!

A Be Ce De!
가 나 다 라!
A B C D!

E Efe Hache(아췌) Ge (헤)
마 바 사 아
E F H G

Excelente! 훌륭해! Excellent!
어린이 ninos kids!
You are da super hero!
최~고! (소리지르다 fade out)
Hasta luego!

Spanish Alphabet Pronunciation Program

http://www.spanishspanish.com/alfabeto_ipower.html

Nuttin but stringz

'Nuttin but stringz'! They are my inspiration using rap + electric violin as their way of communicating with children. Awesome!

Domokun - English version

Boba tea character

These picturs were taken when I was in Beijing over the summer. This tells an imprtance of a character or a mascot for a company to promote their products. These adorable characters attracted me to buy a drink right away because I wanted to keep the cup!

Earthquake in Toyo and Shizuoka

This was first time to experience earthquakes in my life time. I have been to Japan four times but never imagined I would experience this environmental disaster. The first one happened in Tokyo which was onl 3 degree however the second one happened in Shizuoka, 6th degree. It was scary... But I'm alive ;)

Animation of Korea

Animation of Korea

Interactive Games @ Mifi Exhibition

Sheeps

I visited a site where many sheeps are.
I want to make them into cute characters!

The East Sea of Korea

I visited the east sea with my friends over the weekend. I haven't seen it for a long time. We had a good talk about designs and personal lives... Sucha wonderful time!

Mifi Exhibition

Nerderland's illustrator created this character MIFI for kids.
There were playgrounds and some interactive games for visitors, especially kids, so they can have more interest in the character itself.