The Skybluepink Interactive Box

Skybluepink Interactive Box by Amy Branton and Sarah Morris (Skybluepink)

he Skybluepink Interactive Box teaches French to 4-5 year-olds through play. Children interact with the magic box and its animated characters, using cards embedded with radio-frequency ID tags to teach basic colours and shapes. Teachers are able to control which cards the children use thus supporting both linear and non-linear learning. (...) How can we support young children to learn a new language though playful interactions with real and digital objects? This project aims to explore this question through the Skybluepink Box, a ‘magical box’ to help French language learning through play for 4 and 5 year-olds. By placing magical cards (RFID tagged cards) into the magical box (a tag reader) in particular sequences, children trigger a range of different animations and representations on a computer screen and hear and see French vocabulary. The cards and box offer a tangible interface through which to engage children with language through colours, shapes, rhyme and song on a computer screen. This interaction forms the basis for a series of play activities in French, including colouring in; naming and classification; pattern making; shape building; picture/narrative creation; music making; magical transformation.

More about it here.