Project Result 3
NEFELE Box

Leading Organisation:

Smarted SRL

PR3 will consist of a NEFELE BOX design and implementation. The aim is to develop an authoring tool that allows creating a set of games for middle school pupils based on TUIs. This innovative tool will enable to experiment themselves in different roles by using concrete objects connected to a digital interface enhancing planning and future orientation skills. 

Objectives

Design and deliver the NEFELE BOX. The following technical sub-objectives must be reached: -to develop a technical specification of TUI -to design and implementation -to develop an OER authoring tool The BOX will be designed and implemented to join the physical and digital environments: it will manage and support the recognition of physical and tangible objects connecting them with the digital educational game component. A TUIs system consists of an integrated system of concrete objects that participants can manipulate (https://youtu.be/58RyzCDUsdU for primary education). PR is a physical NEFELE BOX. The technical specifications and the activities will be included in the MOOC (PR2) and the manual uploaded in the NEFELE PLATFORM (PR4). NEFELE games will be treated on the physical and digital sides. 

Physical Side

The objects will respect precisely characteristics:

  • Inclusion: the aspect is strongly related to the application of TUIs, a multisensory approach that could involve different senses (smell, taste, touch) also allows the application of these tools for disabled people. The idea is to create inclusive games with a high degree of accessibility.
  • Tackling gender stereotypes: adolescents must learn to discern the presence of career gender stereotypes. Gender differences in occupational choices may be due to stereotyped beliefs associated with jobs that are internalized from an early age.
  • Green jobs: through the multisensory objects, they will discover the possibility of undertaking green jobs (e.g., the sense of smell or touch).
  • Entrepreneurship: due to the changing society, adolescents will be able to think of jobs that do not exist yet but will exist in the future (the box will thus be enriched with new elements). 

Digital Side

An active board holding an antenna reading the RFID (radio- frequency identification) tags that can be put on every tangible object and bring a univocal ID recognized by the system and directly connected with the game will be implemented. In this way, tangibles and physical materials will be connected to multimedia. When a student places an object on the board (i.e., a fancy hammer in a story regarding construction worker) the screen gives in output a video or audio that could be previously recorded or collected in the net. Game session will be based on storytelling: adolescents will give “meaning” to each object chosen. Alongside the tangibility of objects and multisensorial experience, the storytelling tool itself will allow adolescents to think about the future encouraging meaning-making processes and enhancing a positive vision of the future. Thanks to the NEFELE co-design workshop (E2-3-4) the teachers, as digital teachers, will participate in the box implementation, applying tags and experimenting with the game. This co-creation activity will also allow teachers to learn digital skills. 

Tangibility and Innovation

NEFELE BOX is highly tangible. The game is an elective tool for attractive learning, in which adolescents will intervene directly in the story with tangible objects, personalizing their content and the whole storytelling. The innovative aspect regards the TUI methodology and the NEFELE BOX co-creation with teachers.

Expected Impact and Tranferability

We expect its easy and fun use in middle-schools, and that can allow adolescents to build their future. We expect that the NEFELE BOX promotes collaborative learning and more in-depth learning. NEFELE BOX is highly transferable:

  1. it uses affordable materials, often already available in schools
  2. it can be applied to any existing or self-produced objects.

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