Mary,
Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.
Insights
“…help communities understand, improve or care for their local
environment.”
DEFRA will “…provide funding for every primary and secondary
school to have broadband connections to the internet by 2006”
“…focus on the needs of rural children and young people.”
There is a need for more “…networking between groups and communities.”
DEFRA.gov.uk 2004
Aims
- Raise awareness and create connections between rural and urban
communities within a region.
- Introduce children to ecological issues and long term
thinking, both in their own surroundings and in a contrasting environment.
- Create a new, open platform for creativity and communication
via the schools ICT technologies, exploiting fully their future broadband
connections with the use of rich multimedia.
- Give the children (5-8 years old) an active, dynamic space
to share as a class and with classes in other schools.
- Build connections between children, classes, schools and communities.
Concept
- The class is introduced to the software and is set the project to imagine
and build their class garden on the computer using input (images,
video, drawings, sounds) from their world, real and imaginary.
- Construct it around a template world.
- Once their garden is online it provides a space for them to
communicate to other classes, show them their garden and share
experiences and stories.
- Everyday the weather, wildlife spotted, points of view,
stories, any additions to the garden, and messages are inputted, and visits
are made to connected gardens. This would take place at a certain time
in the day, taking a similar daily role as children caring for a class
pet.
- Web cams recording the sky could be linked directly to the garden matching
the real world conditions in real-time.
- After weeks and months it begins to act as a shared memory
of their world socially and physically and can be linked
back into teaching geography and sustainability (of both
the city and the countryside).
Interaction Design • RCA • February 2004
Sunae Kim • sunae.kim@rca.ac.uk
Stuart Wood • staurt.wood@rca.ac.uk
Tom Jenkins • thomas.jenkins@rca.ac.uk
Phil Worthington • phil.worthington@rca.ac.uk