ITP Thesis Presentations 2007
Monday, April 30 - Friday, May 4
12-9 pm
12-9 pm
Geekids: Media Art Education for Children
Sol Huh
Geekids.org is a web based Media Art educational environment and program, using video contents for children.
Description
From my background in fine art, I always have been interested in art, technology and its education. Geekids.org is a web-based Media Art educational environment and program, using video contents for children. I am building a framework for this project. The main contents of the web site are the video clips, which teach art and technology focused on Media design and production. Users are assigned their own server space to build their online portfolio, which other users can see and share. When the users have questions about a subject that they are leaning on the web site, they can post the questions on the user-generated page in text and video, which will be answered in a video made by other users or by the instructors. Users are assigned server space to build their web site to post their art works and documentation for the electronic portfolio and resume. By providing children a clean and easy web environment, Geekids.org allows them to use their creativity and organizational skills.
Geekids.org is an integration of the art and technology education. It is divided into two sections, one that teaches how to use tools (the technology part), and one that shows the process of production; (the art and application of technology). In the instructions, the design concept comes before the project as a part of the production plan.
Geekids.org is an educational web site built in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Flash. The instructional movie clips have interactive features. Users can skip ahead to see the next chapters. Also, on certain frames of the movie, clickable links are presented that directs users to further information. As an additional feature, the web site provides private and group lessons that users can register for online.
Geekids.org is being produced and hosted on the website www.geekids.org. The purpose of Geekids.org is to grow a profitable business model based on the research and the development, which I conducted for the thesis paper to complete Master degree.
Geekids.org is an integration of the art and technology education. It is divided into two sections, one that teaches how to use tools (the technology part), and one that shows the process of production; (the art and application of technology). In the instructions, the design concept comes before the project as a part of the production plan.
Geekids.org is an educational web site built in HTML, JavaScript, CSS, and Flash. The instructional movie clips have interactive features. Users can skip ahead to see the next chapters. Also, on certain frames of the movie, clickable links are presented that directs users to further information. As an additional feature, the web site provides private and group lessons that users can register for online.
Geekids.org is being produced and hosted on the website www.geekids.org. The purpose of Geekids.org is to grow a profitable business model based on the research and the development, which I conducted for the thesis paper to complete Master degree.
Personal Statement
. Introduction
To come up with the idea of Geekids.org, there were many inspirations that I experienced through ITP.
Growing as an art-loving person myself, I have been through all kinds of art education from traditional pencil drawing to interactive video installation. Working on art and technology was a way of self-expression, and a relate and convey my thoughts and feelings to society. I would like to share this experience with children by providing Geekids as a learning environment. Last semester, I had a chance to visit Children’s Museum of the Arts in SoHo. It was a small museum that offers after school art classes to children. One of the classes was called ‘Animation Exploration’, a 4-day class exploring moving image, 2D/3D animation techniques, and clay animation. Regardless of the expensive fee, the class was very popular. Many children and their parents were seeking art and technology education. I was deeply inspired from the Children’s Museum, and thought that the class should be more accessible not only for the children who can afford and reach out to the class, but also for the children who could not afford to take class at the museum. I decided to seek for a solution.
Since I entered ITP, I have been building a web portfolio to document all of my school work. I sometimes visit classmate’s portfolio web sites to search for information and references on class work. I post the important links such as class syllabus site, reference sites, and blogs which required reading articles. The Syllabus site has all the handouts and topic for each week, so I can always go back and search information. I found that it is very useful and convenient. I almost regret the fact that I did not keep an online journal for my undergraduate courses. It brought me an idea that it would be nice if someone could direct children to keep their school works and other activities online for future record. If children can post their assignment online and organize their file links, they could review their work in an efficient way. I have searched further from there and found that there are many college level schools adapting a system called ePortfolio. I found one of the sites, ePortfolio.org, which was for student, instructor, and institution1). ePortfolio has a very nice system and user-centered features, but they charge a lot for the storage space.
I also wanted to combine art and technology education. These two elements were very popular among the parents. On Children’s Technology Workshop at http://www.ctworkshop.com, the program subjects were very interesting to me because they tried the integration of art and technology education in a practical and attractive way. One of the summer camp programs called ‘iCamp’, targeted at children from 2nd to 8th grade, was a good example that shows integration of design and technology program. They conducted sections of video game design; Animation and digital video production; graphic design and digital art; and engineering and robotics according to children’s level and interest2). Furthermore, there were many attempts by educators to use these elements. For example, as part of the Arts Integration in High Schools project, the Center for Children and Technology designed and produced web and print materials for a professional development workshop series designed to help high school arts teachers improve their teaching3). I wanted to combine these projects into a web-based class for children.
Interactivity in teaching is crucial. Students’ participation in class helps them learn information. I taught myself many media design soft ware applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc. I used various methods to teach myself including spending a lot of money on books, searching for answers online, visiting different web sites to collect various information, and asking my friends. But many times I was stuck while working on a project; neither the book nor the web helped me very much. In case of the book, for instance, I had many troubles because the picture of screenshot indicating where the toolbox is was too small or narrow, so I could not find the section that includes the tool that I am looking for. Of course the book is one directional communication medium, so if you get into a problem, most of the time, there is no way other than finding different method of getting solution. In case of using web site, I could search for the issues that I was looking for. But most of the time, the quality of the answer was not as good as information in the book. For these problems, www.bitwine.com created a solution by using Skype. The site allows users to ask questions in almost any category, including technical problems of computer hardware and software. Bitwine normally charges a dollar or two per minute for this service. All the users need to do is find an advisor online from the list, contact them through video chat, and ask what they want. The categories are Arts & Creative Services, Automotive, Business & Finance, Computers & Technology, Education & Tutoring, Entertainment, Fitness & Beauty, Health & Medicine, Home & Leisure, Legal Services, Life Coaching & Professional Counseling, Spirituality & Religion, Sports, and Travel. Basically, users can get advice, instructional guidance or a second Opinion on many kinds of topics4). I wanted to borrow the basic concept of Bitwine.com and apply it to Geekids to create a user-generated page where users can communicate with each other for questions, answers, information, and critique.
Internet Video on Demand is becoming larger every year. According to a report from DFC Intelligence, Video streaming online increased 215 percent5). I recently found DemandFitness at www.demandfitness.com. The site contains workout videos from Yoga to Pilates. They charge not much money for users to watch their videos. As a result, users can work out anytime they want. I also thought that it was very interesting to see yellow pages as a Video blog. Mojopages, http://www.mojopages.com/blog/, they have many kinds of business introduction as a Video blog6). According to the article ‘Independent Media’, Andrew Blau emphasized the importance of Motion Media, and predicted that it will replace the text of Internet site today7). The videos on Internet are where the text was in 90’s. Internet Video is an effective and appealing method. I decided to make Geekids with all video contents.
I intend my thesis, Geekids, to be a collection of my inspiration that reflects my background and experiences, as well as the current trend of web and media industry.
To come up with the idea of Geekids.org, there were many inspirations that I experienced through ITP.
Growing as an art-loving person myself, I have been through all kinds of art education from traditional pencil drawing to interactive video installation. Working on art and technology was a way of self-expression, and a relate and convey my thoughts and feelings to society. I would like to share this experience with children by providing Geekids as a learning environment. Last semester, I had a chance to visit Children’s Museum of the Arts in SoHo. It was a small museum that offers after school art classes to children. One of the classes was called ‘Animation Exploration’, a 4-day class exploring moving image, 2D/3D animation techniques, and clay animation. Regardless of the expensive fee, the class was very popular. Many children and their parents were seeking art and technology education. I was deeply inspired from the Children’s Museum, and thought that the class should be more accessible not only for the children who can afford and reach out to the class, but also for the children who could not afford to take class at the museum. I decided to seek for a solution.
Since I entered ITP, I have been building a web portfolio to document all of my school work. I sometimes visit classmate’s portfolio web sites to search for information and references on class work. I post the important links such as class syllabus site, reference sites, and blogs which required reading articles. The Syllabus site has all the handouts and topic for each week, so I can always go back and search information. I found that it is very useful and convenient. I almost regret the fact that I did not keep an online journal for my undergraduate courses. It brought me an idea that it would be nice if someone could direct children to keep their school works and other activities online for future record. If children can post their assignment online and organize their file links, they could review their work in an efficient way. I have searched further from there and found that there are many college level schools adapting a system called ePortfolio. I found one of the sites, ePortfolio.org, which was for student, instructor, and institution1). ePortfolio has a very nice system and user-centered features, but they charge a lot for the storage space.
I also wanted to combine art and technology education. These two elements were very popular among the parents. On Children’s Technology Workshop at http://www.ctworkshop.com, the program subjects were very interesting to me because they tried the integration of art and technology education in a practical and attractive way. One of the summer camp programs called ‘iCamp’, targeted at children from 2nd to 8th grade, was a good example that shows integration of design and technology program. They conducted sections of video game design; Animation and digital video production; graphic design and digital art; and engineering and robotics according to children’s level and interest2). Furthermore, there were many attempts by educators to use these elements. For example, as part of the Arts Integration in High Schools project, the Center for Children and Technology designed and produced web and print materials for a professional development workshop series designed to help high school arts teachers improve their teaching3). I wanted to combine these projects into a web-based class for children.
Interactivity in teaching is crucial. Students’ participation in class helps them learn information. I taught myself many media design soft ware applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, etc. I used various methods to teach myself including spending a lot of money on books, searching for answers online, visiting different web sites to collect various information, and asking my friends. But many times I was stuck while working on a project; neither the book nor the web helped me very much. In case of the book, for instance, I had many troubles because the picture of screenshot indicating where the toolbox is was too small or narrow, so I could not find the section that includes the tool that I am looking for. Of course the book is one directional communication medium, so if you get into a problem, most of the time, there is no way other than finding different method of getting solution. In case of using web site, I could search for the issues that I was looking for. But most of the time, the quality of the answer was not as good as information in the book. For these problems, www.bitwine.com created a solution by using Skype. The site allows users to ask questions in almost any category, including technical problems of computer hardware and software. Bitwine normally charges a dollar or two per minute for this service. All the users need to do is find an advisor online from the list, contact them through video chat, and ask what they want. The categories are Arts & Creative Services, Automotive, Business & Finance, Computers & Technology, Education & Tutoring, Entertainment, Fitness & Beauty, Health & Medicine, Home & Leisure, Legal Services, Life Coaching & Professional Counseling, Spirituality & Religion, Sports, and Travel. Basically, users can get advice, instructional guidance or a second Opinion on many kinds of topics4). I wanted to borrow the basic concept of Bitwine.com and apply it to Geekids to create a user-generated page where users can communicate with each other for questions, answers, information, and critique.
Internet Video on Demand is becoming larger every year. According to a report from DFC Intelligence, Video streaming online increased 215 percent5). I recently found DemandFitness at www.demandfitness.com. The site contains workout videos from Yoga to Pilates. They charge not much money for users to watch their videos. As a result, users can work out anytime they want. I also thought that it was very interesting to see yellow pages as a Video blog. Mojopages, http://www.mojopages.com/blog/, they have many kinds of business introduction as a Video blog6). According to the article ‘Independent Media’, Andrew Blau emphasized the importance of Motion Media, and predicted that it will replace the text of Internet site today7). The videos on Internet are where the text was in 90’s. Internet Video is an effective and appealing method. I decided to make Geekids with all video contents.
I intend my thesis, Geekids, to be a collection of my inspiration that reflects my background and experiences, as well as the current trend of web and media industry.
Background
2. Concept
2.1 Concept Overview
Geekids is a web site that provides video-based media art education for children.
So what is media art education?
According to Wikipedia, media art, also as know as new media art, is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including computer graphics, computer animation, the Internet, interactive technologies, robotics, and biotechnologies8). Terms that I use in this project include computer graphics, animation, Internet, and interactive technology as well as digital storytelling. Media art education is about how to create media art and how to be good at it and feel comfortable with it.
Why video contents?
Internet video is quick and easy to produce and get responses. Many Internet users have a Video Blog, which they post their video to on a regular basis—weekly or even daily. I adopted this method to Geekids to avoid longer process and formality of written text. For educational contents, video is very suitable. There are some existing media art education websites using video contents. For example, Lynda.com is an educational materials provider, including Hands-On Training™ instructional books, the Online Training Library™, CD- and DVD-based video training, and events for creative designers, instructors, students, and hobbyists9). It is not open source. Lynda.com charges a monthly fee or annual fee. But its source and format is worth for its video training. Lynda.com uses a screen recorder to capture and document training video. It was so much more effective and easier to understand than a small, still-frame screen shot demonstration and text instruction that I could find easily at the other educational websites or in the books because the video shows the steps instead of explaining steps. Not only for the media education websites, but also many instructional websites are using video content format for these reasons.
What is the web site like?
This web site—http://geekids.org—is built on HTML and instructional movie clips formatted in Flash. Users watch the several options of instructional video clips, than post their questions or requests for further features that they want to know. The site updates on a regular basis for answers, questions and to add video content. Therefore, much of the video content is made based upon on request. Instructors provide knowledge and project videos on Geekids, and users watch the video on Geekids. When users have questions or requests, they post them on Geekids, then instructors collect these requests and update Geekids with new videos.
Feature
Feature
Also, Geekids provides server space where users can develop their own online portfolio site. It will be linked on the Geekids web site so users can see each other’s work.
This web-base program consists of 4 categories that I will explain in further detail in a while:
• Classes-How to use computer tools/How to design
• Tutoring-Actual project follow up. Project by project.
• Discussion Board-Questions, Answers, Sharing Information between users
• Registration-Stretch to physical classes
2.2 Rationale
I tried to combine elements from all my inspirations into my thesis. In addition to my inspirations, the reason for building this project is because it is right time for this project to succeed and be popular. For one reason, Geekids has features of user generated web sites. According to an article from InStat, User generated web sites have been a big success and will continue to grow till 201010). Instead of allowing users to post their profile from a template, Geekids directs users to build their own web site from scratch. Basically, through Geekids, children can have their own website and build it throughout the course curriculum. Another aspect of user-generated page on Geekids is the Discussion Board. Users can upload their own instruction to this page and share the information with other users. These functions are unique for the educational website and it has potential to succeed as a business model.
2.3 Goals
The goal of Geekids is to educate children about how to design and create media art; and how to use computer tools and web tools. More specifically, Geekids will teach children how to design graphic, print, digital storytelling, web site, and how to organize their works online. In order to do this, Geekids will provide knowledge of how to use design software, development tools, and camera and computer equipment. Children will be able to gain a sense of design in creating media art and web sites. The delivery method of their ideas and work will be extended broadly by having the ability to use multi media.
Using Geekids, I would like to encourage children to build their own web site as an online portfolio. This online portfolio will help children to better organize, collect and present their work. Many colleges and universities require an ePortfolio to document students’ school works. The effectiveness of an electronic portfolio is proven well enough for collecting, reflecting and presenting works. From my interview and workshop experience with children I believe that they can start their documentation habit as early as 8 years old.
Since Geekids is a business plan, I would also like to build this site into a profitable business. By charging a small amount of money for server space for their online portfolio, advertising on the website, and pay per view or periodical pass; or by having sponsors by the software company, Geekids will earn money.
By building Geekids, I would like to provide equal opportunity for art and technology education for all children. When I was interviewing children and teenagers about their computer skills and availability, I realized that having computer skills is not a part of public education for them. Even though a few schools have special classes about HTML and Dreamweaver, they do not fully cover the functionality of the software. The lack of the equipment was another reason schools were not able to conduct the program. In the case that children want to learn more about media and technology, they have to attend private institutions.
My Personal goal for this project is to build a foundation for a solid business model. However, more importantly, I want to have the opportunity to interact with children and teenagers and listen to them about how they understand technology and media and its influence on them. Before I listen to them, I would like to introduce them what technology can do for them and what can they do with it.
3. Context and Background
I cannot emphasize enough of the importance of art education. I spent many hours drawing and painting in my childhood, but my school did not include many art classes so I had to attend after school institute to practice my artwork. Until now, the school situation has not changed. We are all well aware of the importance of the art education. Art education is not only for the children whom are the potential artist of the future, but also for the improvement of overall performance for all students. According to the Arts Education and School Improvement Resources for Local and State Leaders12), Students who participate in arts class for three hours a day for three times a week through a year are 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools and to win an award for school attendance. Also they are 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, participate in a math and science fair, and win an award for writing an essay or poem. On the other hand, the reality of our art education at the school is much less that what the research recommended. The table below is an average timetable for an elementary school second grade student in Chee Dodge Elementary School, New Mexico.
“Mrs. King's Second Grade Weekly Schedule”
“Mission Statement
The Mission of our class is to learn, read, do math and listen to my teacher while obeying PAWS”
“Your child will have homework every evening. It will be math, Reading & spelling. Please work with your child in completing and returning all homework everyday.13)”
The schedule shows that the art classes take very small portion of the entire curriculum. I loved art classes when I was in elementary school. I used to wait for a whole week to enjoy my painting and crafting class because it used to be only once a week. The research result made me even more disappointed because upper grade children had less art class in their schedule. While Math and Science classes are being valued and emphasized, and all the attention of the parents is on sending their children to well known college, the art education has been ignored in the school system.
Parents were willing to pay money to have their children learn new technology, as I could see from the experience in Children’s Museum. According to Children’s Museum staff member, Jamie Kelty, any kinds of classes that involve computer are very popular and higher in price that the art classes.
To add some time on children’s art activities, accessing Geekids can be a great resource. To fully understand the Motion Media and usability design, computer class should be followed by art education, such as drawing and painting. Obtaining a good sense of color and composition allow children to present their projects in an attractive and well-organized way. Using this sense of art can be applied directly to computer skills. This project will allow children to draw and paint in the monitor, have basic idea of design and digital storytelling as well as web documentation.
It is not only about writing and posting one’s idea on the web. Learning how to express one’s idea better on the web will be valuable in the future. The point is, on a well-designed and organized site, well written article can be more powerful. A well-presented web site with a well-designed interface gets more attention. Additionally, streaming video is becoming a powerful new media.
Digital storytelling and design for usability are the foundation of Motion Media, soon will be the foundation of reading and writing. As I mentioned earlier, Internet video is a new method of writing. Children can create their own web site and post their writing and video that they made. How to do these things may not be the issue anymore since children are very quick at picking these skills up. How to do these things better can be challenging. By Geekids, I want to provide how to use computer tools to create media, at the same time, direct children to use tools in a sense of design for better presentation.
I wanted to find children’s technology education program that is well balanced with art and design. There are numerous web sties and projects that provide information about how to use computer tools, but there are only handful that actually tried to integrate art and technology. In elementary school, children have computer class where they learn how to create homepage by using Dreamweaver. However, most computer instructors do not have knowledge of design or how to integrate computer class with design class. I searched for educational projects that have been done for integration of art and technology and found none.
2006 was a year of great success for user generated web sites such as YouTube and MySpace. I adapted user generated web site feature to Geekids for its attraction and educational purpose. Users can build their own site on the Geekids server. Each site will be posted on Geekids and can be found by ‘search ID’ and ‘Recent Updates.’ Geekids will post the best user’s web site of the day on the front page. By doing this, children can see what other users are working on and learn from them. Also, they can be inspired, motivated, and critique other’s work. Building a homepage is like putting on clothes one’s web site shows personality and style. It actually tells a lot about oneself. For these reasons, children will try harder to build well-designed web sites. I wanted to add this feature on my project to attract and motivate my users.
As I mentioned earlier, the target audience of Geekids is children age from 8 to 15. Therefore the contents of the web site should be appropriate to them in many different ways. Some web sites for children in this age children are little too childish. For example, ‘iCamp’ from Children’s Technology Workshop program2) web site might not be a proper design to attract parents and children for 8th grade even though they targeted for grade 2nd to 8th. Some web sites for children’s media art experience are too easy. There is a web site for children’s media art experience from MIT, calls MIT Treehouse Studio14). It provides an easy and clean environment for children to play with simplified version of software tools. But it misses many important elements from the original software. For example, Treehouse Paint tool does not include the concept of how to use layers, which is crucial for making graphics in professional software such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. More importantly, children will actually be able to use those professional versions after little bit of training. Clean web environment is necessary for children’s web site. Children can visit professional web sites for online training web sites like Lynda.com, which I mentioned earlier. I tried and found out that it was a great method to teach myself, and also found out it was quite difficult to follow up its speed. Straightforward instruction could bore children. Also, some images from the example library are not proper for children in these ages, such as a half naked female figure. Some of my peers from thesis class suggested that I post the children’s video work on Youtube and let people to share them. However, much of the content on Youtube includes provoking images, which are not appropriate for an educational environment. I intend my project to be suitable in age and purpose, with a clean web environment and easy to learn, professional quality contents.
How can I make profit from this project?
There are three possible methods to make this business profitable.
First of all, Geekids will give choice of using its server space for the user’s online portfolio. For example, ePortfio.org offers server space for user’s web site. Unlike this, Geekids does not require purchasing server space. It gives option to users with no server account. For The options can be
1) Use other server space
2) 100 mb for beginners
3) 1Gb for economy
4) 100 Gb for expert individuals
5) Request by institutes for larger space
6) Get Free 25 mb on Geekids server.
The second method is to sell advertisement space on the site. There are many advertising banners targeting children and their search is ongoing to find the place to post their advertisement. Children’s market size is huge. According to MarketReaserch.com, American children’s retail market is up to 500 billion dollars15). By allowing side space on the web site, the business can collect money. See Feature for the space for advertisement on the wire frame for Geekids web sites.
Feature—Wireframe for Index Page
The last method— the main method is to charge for the view the video contents. Many VOD sites are using this method. For example, in case of DemandFitness, it gives users options to choose periodically with unlimited access—see Feature. Geekids will implement the same pricing structure for its Plan, Access, and Duration except lower price than DemandFitness16).
Feature –DemandFitness Price Chart
Since Geekids is for children who need supervision from their parents to pay the online bill, I came up with different ideas.
The first idea is to give options to users to be charged on their phone bill. If users choose to pay from cell phone bill other than using credit card, which is impossible for children users to use credit card by themselves, they will receive a text message that has an access number to the site. The fee will be added on their phone bill next month.
The Second idea is to use a money unit. In Cyworld.com, they use ‘Acorn’ for their money unit17). For instance, one acorn costs about 10 cents. After charging acorns, they can spend acorns to buy music and graphics. Also Cyworld gives acorns away to users through various events. I will use ‘star’ unit instead of ‘acorn’ for my project.
Geekids will hold many ‘star’ give away events such as ‘Geekids gives 50 stars for the best online portfolio of the month’ so children can be motivated to work hard and show their web site.
These are the three methods to make the project profitable. Of course, there should be a generous length of trial period for first time users. I am thinking of giving 100 ‘stars’ for registering Geekids. Also, the price of ‘star’ unit should not be excessive. There is another money making option for the site. I would like to get sponsored by software companies, which will actually be better for the purpose of this project. Not charging any money for viewing video will be a part of my goal, which is to provide equal media art and technology education opportunity. The possible sponsors that I am considering are Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Kumon, Sylvan, and Google.
2.1 Concept Overview
Geekids is a web site that provides video-based media art education for children.
So what is media art education?
According to Wikipedia, media art, also as know as new media art, is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including computer graphics, computer animation, the Internet, interactive technologies, robotics, and biotechnologies8). Terms that I use in this project include computer graphics, animation, Internet, and interactive technology as well as digital storytelling. Media art education is about how to create media art and how to be good at it and feel comfortable with it.
Why video contents?
Internet video is quick and easy to produce and get responses. Many Internet users have a Video Blog, which they post their video to on a regular basis—weekly or even daily. I adopted this method to Geekids to avoid longer process and formality of written text. For educational contents, video is very suitable. There are some existing media art education websites using video contents. For example, Lynda.com is an educational materials provider, including Hands-On Training™ instructional books, the Online Training Library™, CD- and DVD-based video training, and events for creative designers, instructors, students, and hobbyists9). It is not open source. Lynda.com charges a monthly fee or annual fee. But its source and format is worth for its video training. Lynda.com uses a screen recorder to capture and document training video. It was so much more effective and easier to understand than a small, still-frame screen shot demonstration and text instruction that I could find easily at the other educational websites or in the books because the video shows the steps instead of explaining steps. Not only for the media education websites, but also many instructional websites are using video content format for these reasons.
What is the web site like?
This web site—http://geekids.org—is built on HTML and instructional movie clips formatted in Flash. Users watch the several options of instructional video clips, than post their questions or requests for further features that they want to know. The site updates on a regular basis for answers, questions and to add video content. Therefore, much of the video content is made based upon on request. Instructors provide knowledge and project videos on Geekids, and users watch the video on Geekids. When users have questions or requests, they post them on Geekids, then instructors collect these requests and update Geekids with new videos.
Feature
Feature
Also, Geekids provides server space where users can develop their own online portfolio site. It will be linked on the Geekids web site so users can see each other’s work.
This web-base program consists of 4 categories that I will explain in further detail in a while:
• Classes-How to use computer tools/How to design
• Tutoring-Actual project follow up. Project by project.
• Discussion Board-Questions, Answers, Sharing Information between users
• Registration-Stretch to physical classes
2.2 Rationale
I tried to combine elements from all my inspirations into my thesis. In addition to my inspirations, the reason for building this project is because it is right time for this project to succeed and be popular. For one reason, Geekids has features of user generated web sites. According to an article from InStat, User generated web sites have been a big success and will continue to grow till 201010). Instead of allowing users to post their profile from a template, Geekids directs users to build their own web site from scratch. Basically, through Geekids, children can have their own website and build it throughout the course curriculum. Another aspect of user-generated page on Geekids is the Discussion Board. Users can upload their own instruction to this page and share the information with other users. These functions are unique for the educational website and it has potential to succeed as a business model.
2.3 Goals
The goal of Geekids is to educate children about how to design and create media art; and how to use computer tools and web tools. More specifically, Geekids will teach children how to design graphic, print, digital storytelling, web site, and how to organize their works online. In order to do this, Geekids will provide knowledge of how to use design software, development tools, and camera and computer equipment. Children will be able to gain a sense of design in creating media art and web sites. The delivery method of their ideas and work will be extended broadly by having the ability to use multi media.
Using Geekids, I would like to encourage children to build their own web site as an online portfolio. This online portfolio will help children to better organize, collect and present their work. Many colleges and universities require an ePortfolio to document students’ school works. The effectiveness of an electronic portfolio is proven well enough for collecting, reflecting and presenting works. From my interview and workshop experience with children I believe that they can start their documentation habit as early as 8 years old.
Since Geekids is a business plan, I would also like to build this site into a profitable business. By charging a small amount of money for server space for their online portfolio, advertising on the website, and pay per view or periodical pass; or by having sponsors by the software company, Geekids will earn money.
By building Geekids, I would like to provide equal opportunity for art and technology education for all children. When I was interviewing children and teenagers about their computer skills and availability, I realized that having computer skills is not a part of public education for them. Even though a few schools have special classes about HTML and Dreamweaver, they do not fully cover the functionality of the software. The lack of the equipment was another reason schools were not able to conduct the program. In the case that children want to learn more about media and technology, they have to attend private institutions.
My Personal goal for this project is to build a foundation for a solid business model. However, more importantly, I want to have the opportunity to interact with children and teenagers and listen to them about how they understand technology and media and its influence on them. Before I listen to them, I would like to introduce them what technology can do for them and what can they do with it.
3. Context and Background
I cannot emphasize enough of the importance of art education. I spent many hours drawing and painting in my childhood, but my school did not include many art classes so I had to attend after school institute to practice my artwork. Until now, the school situation has not changed. We are all well aware of the importance of the art education. Art education is not only for the children whom are the potential artist of the future, but also for the improvement of overall performance for all students. According to the Arts Education and School Improvement Resources for Local and State Leaders12), Students who participate in arts class for three hours a day for three times a week through a year are 3 times more likely to be elected to class office within their schools and to win an award for school attendance. Also they are 4 times more likely to be recognized for academic achievement, participate in a math and science fair, and win an award for writing an essay or poem. On the other hand, the reality of our art education at the school is much less that what the research recommended. The table below is an average timetable for an elementary school second grade student in Chee Dodge Elementary School, New Mexico.
“Mrs. King's Second Grade Weekly Schedule”
“Mission Statement
The Mission of our class is to learn, read, do math and listen to my teacher while obeying PAWS”
“Your child will have homework every evening. It will be math, Reading & spelling. Please work with your child in completing and returning all homework everyday.13)”
The schedule shows that the art classes take very small portion of the entire curriculum. I loved art classes when I was in elementary school. I used to wait for a whole week to enjoy my painting and crafting class because it used to be only once a week. The research result made me even more disappointed because upper grade children had less art class in their schedule. While Math and Science classes are being valued and emphasized, and all the attention of the parents is on sending their children to well known college, the art education has been ignored in the school system.
Parents were willing to pay money to have their children learn new technology, as I could see from the experience in Children’s Museum. According to Children’s Museum staff member, Jamie Kelty, any kinds of classes that involve computer are very popular and higher in price that the art classes.
To add some time on children’s art activities, accessing Geekids can be a great resource. To fully understand the Motion Media and usability design, computer class should be followed by art education, such as drawing and painting. Obtaining a good sense of color and composition allow children to present their projects in an attractive and well-organized way. Using this sense of art can be applied directly to computer skills. This project will allow children to draw and paint in the monitor, have basic idea of design and digital storytelling as well as web documentation.
It is not only about writing and posting one’s idea on the web. Learning how to express one’s idea better on the web will be valuable in the future. The point is, on a well-designed and organized site, well written article can be more powerful. A well-presented web site with a well-designed interface gets more attention. Additionally, streaming video is becoming a powerful new media.
Digital storytelling and design for usability are the foundation of Motion Media, soon will be the foundation of reading and writing. As I mentioned earlier, Internet video is a new method of writing. Children can create their own web site and post their writing and video that they made. How to do these things may not be the issue anymore since children are very quick at picking these skills up. How to do these things better can be challenging. By Geekids, I want to provide how to use computer tools to create media, at the same time, direct children to use tools in a sense of design for better presentation.
I wanted to find children’s technology education program that is well balanced with art and design. There are numerous web sties and projects that provide information about how to use computer tools, but there are only handful that actually tried to integrate art and technology. In elementary school, children have computer class where they learn how to create homepage by using Dreamweaver. However, most computer instructors do not have knowledge of design or how to integrate computer class with design class. I searched for educational projects that have been done for integration of art and technology and found none.
2006 was a year of great success for user generated web sites such as YouTube and MySpace. I adapted user generated web site feature to Geekids for its attraction and educational purpose. Users can build their own site on the Geekids server. Each site will be posted on Geekids and can be found by ‘search ID’ and ‘Recent Updates.’ Geekids will post the best user’s web site of the day on the front page. By doing this, children can see what other users are working on and learn from them. Also, they can be inspired, motivated, and critique other’s work. Building a homepage is like putting on clothes one’s web site shows personality and style. It actually tells a lot about oneself. For these reasons, children will try harder to build well-designed web sites. I wanted to add this feature on my project to attract and motivate my users.
As I mentioned earlier, the target audience of Geekids is children age from 8 to 15. Therefore the contents of the web site should be appropriate to them in many different ways. Some web sites for children in this age children are little too childish. For example, ‘iCamp’ from Children’s Technology Workshop program2) web site might not be a proper design to attract parents and children for 8th grade even though they targeted for grade 2nd to 8th. Some web sites for children’s media art experience are too easy. There is a web site for children’s media art experience from MIT, calls MIT Treehouse Studio14). It provides an easy and clean environment for children to play with simplified version of software tools. But it misses many important elements from the original software. For example, Treehouse Paint tool does not include the concept of how to use layers, which is crucial for making graphics in professional software such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. More importantly, children will actually be able to use those professional versions after little bit of training. Clean web environment is necessary for children’s web site. Children can visit professional web sites for online training web sites like Lynda.com, which I mentioned earlier. I tried and found out that it was a great method to teach myself, and also found out it was quite difficult to follow up its speed. Straightforward instruction could bore children. Also, some images from the example library are not proper for children in these ages, such as a half naked female figure. Some of my peers from thesis class suggested that I post the children’s video work on Youtube and let people to share them. However, much of the content on Youtube includes provoking images, which are not appropriate for an educational environment. I intend my project to be suitable in age and purpose, with a clean web environment and easy to learn, professional quality contents.
How can I make profit from this project?
There are three possible methods to make this business profitable.
First of all, Geekids will give choice of using its server space for the user’s online portfolio. For example, ePortfio.org offers server space for user’s web site. Unlike this, Geekids does not require purchasing server space. It gives option to users with no server account. For The options can be
1) Use other server space
2) 100 mb for beginners
3) 1Gb for economy
4) 100 Gb for expert individuals
5) Request by institutes for larger space
6) Get Free 25 mb on Geekids server.
The second method is to sell advertisement space on the site. There are many advertising banners targeting children and their search is ongoing to find the place to post their advertisement. Children’s market size is huge. According to MarketReaserch.com, American children’s retail market is up to 500 billion dollars15). By allowing side space on the web site, the business can collect money. See Feature for the space for advertisement on the wire frame for Geekids web sites.
Feature—Wireframe for Index Page
The last method— the main method is to charge for the view the video contents. Many VOD sites are using this method. For example, in case of DemandFitness, it gives users options to choose periodically with unlimited access—see Feature. Geekids will implement the same pricing structure for its Plan, Access, and Duration except lower price than DemandFitness16).
Feature –DemandFitness Price Chart
Since Geekids is for children who need supervision from their parents to pay the online bill, I came up with different ideas.
The first idea is to give options to users to be charged on their phone bill. If users choose to pay from cell phone bill other than using credit card, which is impossible for children users to use credit card by themselves, they will receive a text message that has an access number to the site. The fee will be added on their phone bill next month.
The Second idea is to use a money unit. In Cyworld.com, they use ‘Acorn’ for their money unit17). For instance, one acorn costs about 10 cents. After charging acorns, they can spend acorns to buy music and graphics. Also Cyworld gives acorns away to users through various events. I will use ‘star’ unit instead of ‘acorn’ for my project.
Geekids will hold many ‘star’ give away events such as ‘Geekids gives 50 stars for the best online portfolio of the month’ so children can be motivated to work hard and show their web site.
These are the three methods to make the project profitable. Of course, there should be a generous length of trial period for first time users. I am thinking of giving 100 ‘stars’ for registering Geekids. Also, the price of ‘star’ unit should not be excessive. There is another money making option for the site. I would like to get sponsored by software companies, which will actually be better for the purpose of this project. Not charging any money for viewing video will be a part of my goal, which is to provide equal media art and technology education opportunity. The possible sponsors that I am considering are Adobe, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Kumon, Sylvan, and Google.
Audience
2.4 Audience
I have referenced the term ‘Users’ many times so far. In very broad and basic terms, the target audience for Geekids is children from age 8 to 15. In this age, children are already used to Internet and computer games. The ‘Users’ are the children. They use search engines for their assignments and download music to their iPod. According to IES research on ‘Computer and Internet Use by Students in 2003’, most students use computers and a majority use the Internet. About 91 percent (53 million children) age 3 and over and in nursery school through grade 12 use computers, and about 59 percent (35 million) use the Internet11). From this research, I could find that children whose age from 10 to 15 have highest number of Internet and computer users. The following table shows the percentage of student computer users and their categories. I originally planned on targeting children between 10 and 15 years old, but after interviews and workshops with children and teenagers, I had to extend the age range. When children showed up for the workshop, they brought their sisters, brothers, and cousins. Some of them were slightly younger or older, but they all wanted to be part of it, and they produced great works.
I have referenced the term ‘Users’ many times so far. In very broad and basic terms, the target audience for Geekids is children from age 8 to 15. In this age, children are already used to Internet and computer games. The ‘Users’ are the children. They use search engines for their assignments and download music to their iPod. According to IES research on ‘Computer and Internet Use by Students in 2003’, most students use computers and a majority use the Internet. About 91 percent (53 million children) age 3 and over and in nursery school through grade 12 use computers, and about 59 percent (35 million) use the Internet11). From this research, I could find that children whose age from 10 to 15 have highest number of Internet and computer users. The following table shows the percentage of student computer users and their categories. I originally planned on targeting children between 10 and 15 years old, but after interviews and workshops with children and teenagers, I had to extend the age range. When children showed up for the workshop, they brought their sisters, brothers, and cousins. Some of them were slightly younger or older, but they all wanted to be part of it, and they produced great works.
Implementation
4.1 Form and Structure
Basically, the Geekids curriculum is going to include:
• Digitizing. – Scanning, digital picture, adjusting and changing image (photoshop)
• Posting – how to post to the web, how to organize documentation (dreamweaver)
• Drawing – How to draw digital image (Illustrator, Photoshop)
• Design and Production – Making Birthday card, Christmas card, etc.
• Moving Image – Making a short film, Video editing (Digital Storytelling)
• Animation – Short animation production using Flash, 3D
• Making presentations
• Web design and usability
• Web developing
• How to podcast
• Blogging
• Other possible subjects
One issue is how to categorize them and put them on the web site. I questioned what video contents I should start adding after the first few clips. Then, I had a chance to read an article about South Korea’s TV drama “Jumong” in New York Times18). According to the article, 24 hours after shooting scenes for prime time show, a full 70-minuite episode goes on the air. One of the reasons for making the show in a short time is to change their shows in response to audience demands. In recent years, TV drama fans have more voices on the Internet, which has led producers to reflect fans’ opinions. I found that it is somewhat user-generated. It became a motivation for me to listen to the users. Geekids will update the video contents based on user demands. I will post basic video contents for each category. Than, according to requests and questions from users, the contents will be updated.
The Below Feature is flow chart for Geekids web site front end.
Feature—Flowchart
From the user’s perspective, the web site is divided to 4 main sections—Class, Project, Discussion Board, and Gallery page.
The Class(2.1) section covers fundamental usage of software tools and basic equipment in video contents. Therefore it is one of the biggest parts of the web site along with the Project section. The sub categories of the Class section are Tools and Design. The ‘Tools’ Section includes user guides for general software and equipment that is used in all projects on the Geekids web site. Graphic tools are Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign; Web tools are Web browsers, blog, FTP, Dreamweaver, and Basic HTML to advanced languages; Animation tools are Flash, 3D Maya, as well as traditional animation methods; Video Tools are shooting equipments such as camera, light, and mic, and editing software like Premiere, Final CutPro, and DVD studio Pro. The Next section under Class is Design, which is the foundation of all projects. The Design part has basic Color Theory for color pallet and theme; Typography for web and print; how to plan on template and user interface design; and how to plan digital storytelling. In addition to these categories, the subject is open to possible fundamental classes for the future.
Another big part of the site is the Project (2.2). The Project section also consists of video contents, which include the actual follow up instructions for various kinds of projects. At the moment, I planned on Web site production, Print Production, and Film production. These courses are divided to 3 levels—Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced—so the user can choose their proper steps. The Web site production part consists of Plan, Design, Developing, and Organizing section. The Print production part includes Birthday and special holiday card making, Business card making, and Presentation making. The Film production section has instructions for planning and storyboard; shooting scenes; editing and postproduction; and formatting for storage and posting on web. On Project section, there are many other subject can be added—such as making Podcast, and making digital music.
The next main category is Discussion Board. This page is where users request what subject they want to learn. As I mentioned earlier about Korean Drama production, listening to the demands of audience is as important as video production. Once the requested video has been uploaded, the responding message will appear on the board with link to the video. Another function of the section is to allow users to leave questions and answers. When users have specific questions on their work, they write them on the board. The questions could be functions of software, trouble shooting for the problems with computer equipment, or could be asking opinions on their design. The instructors from Geekids or other users can post the answers for the questions on the board. The format of answers can be text or video or both. Other possible features for the board can be general information and tips to share from users and instructors. By sharing information and uploading their own instructional video, users can be instructors for themselves. In summary, the board will include:
Users Instructors from Geekids
• Questions
• Answers for other users
• Requests for video contents
• General information and tips to share with other users • Answers for Questions
• Response to the video requests with link to the video
• Comments about user’s video
The last part is Gallery. Gallery page has peeks and links to the other user’s web sites. Users can leave critique and recommendation for each other’s work while they are learning from each other. Since I’ve also been working on this page as a final project for AJAX class, it has AJAX features and functions. The page is a portal aggregator, which has small windows of many sites on one page. User can enlarge the window size or they can go to this site directly from the link. Without opening each link, user can see the site and functions from this page. See Feature.
Feature- Gallery Site
These 4 main sections—Class, Project, Discussion Board, and Gallery—are under the homepage of Geekids. Once the user logs in, the homepage will have a link to the user’s web site. The User’s web site is where user builds and posts the works. The server for this web site could be user’s personal server, or server space provided by Geekids. It can be decided by provided information from ‘Sign in’ process. If a first time user goes to the User’s homepage site, he or she will see a blank page with a directional comment.
In addition to these 4 main categories, there is a page for registration, which is different from Sign In section. In the beginning of this project, I wasn’t intending to have this class online, it was originally intended as a real class in a physical space. I changed the plan to online courses, but I still wanted to have some space for users to reach out to the real class. By registering, users can reach out to the actual classes available around their neighborhood by using AJAX and Google Map. Also, I am going to build online registration system by using PHP. For the current moment, my project does not offer any actual class. In time, I would like to rent class spaces and have instructors provide courses. The Registration page is for when the actual classes are ready. I have conducted 1.5 hours of workshops with children and teenagers. If I hold this type of workshop on a regular basis and get more attention from participants, I will be able to start teaching courses as a type of after school program. However, for the time being, this page will be used as a ‘Shopping for Star’, which is about purchasing money unit.
4.2 Look and Feel
The theme of the Geekids is playful, clean, and well-organized. Because the site is for both children and teenagers, it should be neither too childish nor too simple. Instead of using a brilliant color theme like other web sites for children, I limited the middle part of the site to use monotone colors such as black, gray, and brown. I used clothes patches for the side banners and buttons to add a fun atmosphere. They are colorful and aligned irregularly. These two separate sections—the middle section for contents and side banners with buttons—have different styles, but they are well combined.
Feature : Logo Design
Color Palette
Feature—Geekids Web Site Theme for Index Page
5. Implementation of Prototype
5.1 Production Plan and Schedule
I started this project on week 1, January 18th. It was vague at the beginning. On the first week, I focused on defining what the project is and what the concept for it.
On week 2, January 25th, I kept working on the concept including gathering inspiration, background, and contextual research. I started researching related areas on the web.
On week 3, February 1st, I drew a significant outline of the project. I named my project, Geekids, and I came up with methodology and statement for the thesis. I worked on concept paper that includes thesis statement, overview of project, rationale, goals, audience, market, environmental scenario, core features, media, technology, ballpark, and etc.
On week 4 and week 5, February 8th and 15th, I worked on design and development elements including flow chart, wire frame and user scenario. I categorized topics that my project will cover.
On week 6, February 22nd, I mostly focused on presentation for upcoming mid term.
On week 7, March 1st, I started developing prototype on URL http://geekids.org. I came up with frame design, theme, color pallet, and logo. I kept working on writing research paper for the depth in my project.
On week 8, 9and 10, starting from March 9th through spring break and a week after; I kept working on writing paper and prototype designing. I started planning contents scenario for instructional video.
On week 11, from March 30th, I prepared a workshop curriculum and searched for children to participate. Also, I tried shooting video contents based on contents scenario.
On week 12, from April 6th, I started interviewing children and teenagers for content development. I worked on a presentation based on class discussions.
On week 13, from April 13th, I had my first workshop with a group of teenagers on 14th and 15th. I worked on documentation of the workshop.
On week 14, from April 20th, I finalized the thesis paper with results and conclusion of the project. I completed the web site.
5.2 Resources
I used many resources to building Geekids. For PHP, I used Gilbut PHP5 book and http://php.net to teach myself the language. Also I relied on syllabus and handout web site from Shawn Van Every’s Producing Participatory Media Class, which I am currently taking to help build my thesis. For AJAX part, I referred Daid Nolan’s Graphical User Interface in AJAX class, which I am also currently registered. I also used examples from a book, AJAX in Action. I taught myself languages such as CSS and HTML from many miscellaneous tutorial web sites.
5.3 Workshop
As a part of research and user testing, I held workshops with a group of teenagers between 13 and 15, and a group of children between 9 and 11. Before I started the workshop, I had individual interview with each one to assess their computer fluency and experiences. Then I explained what the workshop is for and what the Geekids project is about. After that, I explained what we were going to do over the workshop and what we will achieve at the end of the workshop.
One teenager group was from Brooklyn, NY, and the workshop was held in my apartment. According to the interview, the children did not have any experience in making web sites. They have Myspace account and often watching Youtube. They spend about 2 hours using computer and Internet. They have a pc and Internet provider at home. I shared my computer with children and interacted with them face to face. It was a quite interesting experience for me, as it was for the children. We started with drawing with color pencils, pastels, color pen, and crayon on a 3 by 8.5 inch paper. Then we scanned the images and edited on Photoshop. Then, we made an individual web page to post it. I recorded the procedure on a first session of workshop, and then on the second session, we captured the video and edited on Final Cut Pro. We worked in Flash to make short animation clips for the documentation video. It was quite successful and children liked it very much. Because the workshop started with making art pieces—drawing on the paper—the children’s concentration was higher than when I started with software basics. The questions that I had most frequently from children are:
• how they can get the software,
• is the software expensive,
• how can they make ‘Reply and comments’ area on their web site (PHP).
The second workshop was planned in Queens, NY at a Korean community church. Children were in age 9 to 11, but the workshop was not well organized due to bad weather condition and water damage of the equipment.
Basically, the Geekids curriculum is going to include:
• Digitizing. – Scanning, digital picture, adjusting and changing image (photoshop)
• Posting – how to post to the web, how to organize documentation (dreamweaver)
• Drawing – How to draw digital image (Illustrator, Photoshop)
• Design and Production – Making Birthday card, Christmas card, etc.
• Moving Image – Making a short film, Video editing (Digital Storytelling)
• Animation – Short animation production using Flash, 3D
• Making presentations
• Web design and usability
• Web developing
• How to podcast
• Blogging
• Other possible subjects
One issue is how to categorize them and put them on the web site. I questioned what video contents I should start adding after the first few clips. Then, I had a chance to read an article about South Korea’s TV drama “Jumong” in New York Times18). According to the article, 24 hours after shooting scenes for prime time show, a full 70-minuite episode goes on the air. One of the reasons for making the show in a short time is to change their shows in response to audience demands. In recent years, TV drama fans have more voices on the Internet, which has led producers to reflect fans’ opinions. I found that it is somewhat user-generated. It became a motivation for me to listen to the users. Geekids will update the video contents based on user demands. I will post basic video contents for each category. Than, according to requests and questions from users, the contents will be updated.
The Below Feature is flow chart for Geekids web site front end.
Feature—Flowchart
From the user’s perspective, the web site is divided to 4 main sections—Class, Project, Discussion Board, and Gallery page.
The Class(2.1) section covers fundamental usage of software tools and basic equipment in video contents. Therefore it is one of the biggest parts of the web site along with the Project section. The sub categories of the Class section are Tools and Design. The ‘Tools’ Section includes user guides for general software and equipment that is used in all projects on the Geekids web site. Graphic tools are Photoshop, Illustrator, and Indesign; Web tools are Web browsers, blog, FTP, Dreamweaver, and Basic HTML to advanced languages; Animation tools are Flash, 3D Maya, as well as traditional animation methods; Video Tools are shooting equipments such as camera, light, and mic, and editing software like Premiere, Final CutPro, and DVD studio Pro. The Next section under Class is Design, which is the foundation of all projects. The Design part has basic Color Theory for color pallet and theme; Typography for web and print; how to plan on template and user interface design; and how to plan digital storytelling. In addition to these categories, the subject is open to possible fundamental classes for the future.
Another big part of the site is the Project (2.2). The Project section also consists of video contents, which include the actual follow up instructions for various kinds of projects. At the moment, I planned on Web site production, Print Production, and Film production. These courses are divided to 3 levels—Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced—so the user can choose their proper steps. The Web site production part consists of Plan, Design, Developing, and Organizing section. The Print production part includes Birthday and special holiday card making, Business card making, and Presentation making. The Film production section has instructions for planning and storyboard; shooting scenes; editing and postproduction; and formatting for storage and posting on web. On Project section, there are many other subject can be added—such as making Podcast, and making digital music.
The next main category is Discussion Board. This page is where users request what subject they want to learn. As I mentioned earlier about Korean Drama production, listening to the demands of audience is as important as video production. Once the requested video has been uploaded, the responding message will appear on the board with link to the video. Another function of the section is to allow users to leave questions and answers. When users have specific questions on their work, they write them on the board. The questions could be functions of software, trouble shooting for the problems with computer equipment, or could be asking opinions on their design. The instructors from Geekids or other users can post the answers for the questions on the board. The format of answers can be text or video or both. Other possible features for the board can be general information and tips to share from users and instructors. By sharing information and uploading their own instructional video, users can be instructors for themselves. In summary, the board will include:
Users Instructors from Geekids
• Questions
• Answers for other users
• Requests for video contents
• General information and tips to share with other users • Answers for Questions
• Response to the video requests with link to the video
• Comments about user’s video
The last part is Gallery. Gallery page has peeks and links to the other user’s web sites. Users can leave critique and recommendation for each other’s work while they are learning from each other. Since I’ve also been working on this page as a final project for AJAX class, it has AJAX features and functions. The page is a portal aggregator, which has small windows of many sites on one page. User can enlarge the window size or they can go to this site directly from the link. Without opening each link, user can see the site and functions from this page. See Feature.
Feature- Gallery Site
These 4 main sections—Class, Project, Discussion Board, and Gallery—are under the homepage of Geekids. Once the user logs in, the homepage will have a link to the user’s web site. The User’s web site is where user builds and posts the works. The server for this web site could be user’s personal server, or server space provided by Geekids. It can be decided by provided information from ‘Sign in’ process. If a first time user goes to the User’s homepage site, he or she will see a blank page with a directional comment.
In addition to these 4 main categories, there is a page for registration, which is different from Sign In section. In the beginning of this project, I wasn’t intending to have this class online, it was originally intended as a real class in a physical space. I changed the plan to online courses, but I still wanted to have some space for users to reach out to the real class. By registering, users can reach out to the actual classes available around their neighborhood by using AJAX and Google Map. Also, I am going to build online registration system by using PHP. For the current moment, my project does not offer any actual class. In time, I would like to rent class spaces and have instructors provide courses. The Registration page is for when the actual classes are ready. I have conducted 1.5 hours of workshops with children and teenagers. If I hold this type of workshop on a regular basis and get more attention from participants, I will be able to start teaching courses as a type of after school program. However, for the time being, this page will be used as a ‘Shopping for Star’, which is about purchasing money unit.
4.2 Look and Feel
The theme of the Geekids is playful, clean, and well-organized. Because the site is for both children and teenagers, it should be neither too childish nor too simple. Instead of using a brilliant color theme like other web sites for children, I limited the middle part of the site to use monotone colors such as black, gray, and brown. I used clothes patches for the side banners and buttons to add a fun atmosphere. They are colorful and aligned irregularly. These two separate sections—the middle section for contents and side banners with buttons—have different styles, but they are well combined.
Feature : Logo Design
Color Palette
Feature—Geekids Web Site Theme for Index Page
5. Implementation of Prototype
5.1 Production Plan and Schedule
I started this project on week 1, January 18th. It was vague at the beginning. On the first week, I focused on defining what the project is and what the concept for it.
On week 2, January 25th, I kept working on the concept including gathering inspiration, background, and contextual research. I started researching related areas on the web.
On week 3, February 1st, I drew a significant outline of the project. I named my project, Geekids, and I came up with methodology and statement for the thesis. I worked on concept paper that includes thesis statement, overview of project, rationale, goals, audience, market, environmental scenario, core features, media, technology, ballpark, and etc.
On week 4 and week 5, February 8th and 15th, I worked on design and development elements including flow chart, wire frame and user scenario. I categorized topics that my project will cover.
On week 6, February 22nd, I mostly focused on presentation for upcoming mid term.
On week 7, March 1st, I started developing prototype on URL http://geekids.org. I came up with frame design, theme, color pallet, and logo. I kept working on writing research paper for the depth in my project.
On week 8, 9and 10, starting from March 9th through spring break and a week after; I kept working on writing paper and prototype designing. I started planning contents scenario for instructional video.
On week 11, from March 30th, I prepared a workshop curriculum and searched for children to participate. Also, I tried shooting video contents based on contents scenario.
On week 12, from April 6th, I started interviewing children and teenagers for content development. I worked on a presentation based on class discussions.
On week 13, from April 13th, I had my first workshop with a group of teenagers on 14th and 15th. I worked on documentation of the workshop.
On week 14, from April 20th, I finalized the thesis paper with results and conclusion of the project. I completed the web site.
5.2 Resources
I used many resources to building Geekids. For PHP, I used Gilbut PHP5 book and http://php.net to teach myself the language. Also I relied on syllabus and handout web site from Shawn Van Every’s Producing Participatory Media Class, which I am currently taking to help build my thesis. For AJAX part, I referred Daid Nolan’s Graphical User Interface in AJAX class, which I am also currently registered. I also used examples from a book, AJAX in Action. I taught myself languages such as CSS and HTML from many miscellaneous tutorial web sites.
5.3 Workshop
As a part of research and user testing, I held workshops with a group of teenagers between 13 and 15, and a group of children between 9 and 11. Before I started the workshop, I had individual interview with each one to assess their computer fluency and experiences. Then I explained what the workshop is for and what the Geekids project is about. After that, I explained what we were going to do over the workshop and what we will achieve at the end of the workshop.
One teenager group was from Brooklyn, NY, and the workshop was held in my apartment. According to the interview, the children did not have any experience in making web sites. They have Myspace account and often watching Youtube. They spend about 2 hours using computer and Internet. They have a pc and Internet provider at home. I shared my computer with children and interacted with them face to face. It was a quite interesting experience for me, as it was for the children. We started with drawing with color pencils, pastels, color pen, and crayon on a 3 by 8.5 inch paper. Then we scanned the images and edited on Photoshop. Then, we made an individual web page to post it. I recorded the procedure on a first session of workshop, and then on the second session, we captured the video and edited on Final Cut Pro. We worked in Flash to make short animation clips for the documentation video. It was quite successful and children liked it very much. Because the workshop started with making art pieces—drawing on the paper—the children’s concentration was higher than when I started with software basics. The questions that I had most frequently from children are:
• how they can get the software,
• is the software expensive,
• how can they make ‘Reply and comments’ area on their web site (PHP).
The second workshop was planned in Queens, NY at a Korean community church. Children were in age 9 to 11, but the workshop was not well organized due to bad weather condition and water damage of the equipment.
Conclusion
6. Summary and Conclusions
6.1 Goals and Successes
Geekids.org is still looking for the development. It is at http://geekids.org/geek3.html and http://geekids.org/index2.html at the moment, waiting for the final development and sponsorships. It was a great opportunity for me to interact with children and teenagers working on art and computer skills. I am personally satisfied with what I built on the web and all the tryouts. Especially, teaching children was one of the greatest experiences that I gained through the project. When I build the content video, I will always remember the eyes of children and teach in front of camera just like I was facing them in front of me.
6.2 Discoveries
There are two things that I found, which were profoundly relevant to my project. Through the interview and interaction with children and teenagers, I found something different from what I expected. When I was working on the concept of my projects, many peers and advisers told me that children are already good at using media and technology tools, which are considered toys for them. Initially, I was worried about these comments because the whole project could be useless for children if they already know how to work with technology and create media art. Surprisingly, the children’s media and technology skills were much lower than what many people told me. Most of student for my workshop had no experience of using Adobe design soft wares—Photoshop or Illustrator—Dreamweaver (HTML), FTP, or Flash. Not only that, they did not have much experience of using digital video camera and its equipment either. Only a few had experience of using Photoshop and Yahoo Geocities. Instead, they all had Myspace account. It meant a lot to me because I could see more possibility of my project. Children already acquired skills to use computer and Internet growing up in the modern technology environment. But what they really use on the Internet is online game and social networking sites that are already built for them. A few children who have experience on Photoshop and other tools such as Final CutPro, and they are really good at it, which means, if other children have opportunity and interest in this subject, they can be good at it, too. I believe that they did not have chance to learn media art and technology but they are capable to learning it.
Another issue that I found was the influence of artistic activities. In the workshop session, I had the group work on drawing in the beginning of the session. Until the end of the session, they showed their best attention in the class. The concentration rate was significantly different when I began the session with teaching how to make web page using soft ware. While they are planning on their own drawing and thinking how to create their little piece of art, they raised their concentration ability. This could be an important resource for helping the video contents development. Making a small hands-on artwork that can be applied to media art form can be useful and effective.
For the last discovery is more about my personal experience. I had not have much experience of interacting with children before this project. I was not sure that I could work with children because of my lack of experience with them. However, I realized that children have so much amusement in them. I really enjoyed working with them and interacting with them.
6.4 Future Directions
For the web site, there are additional assignments to do. Geekids will hire professional instructors to build up the video content development. Also, the backend of the site needs to be fixed. Geekids is a web-based program, but I also would like to hold after school workshops on a regular basis because the interaction with children helps build better video content for the web site. The workshop will invite more children to the Geekids.org and the site will eventually grow by itself.
Once Geekids.org reachs its certain goal, I am going to launch a Korean version of it. Because of high educational interest on technology and media in Korean society, I believe Geekids will fit in reasonably well.
6.1 Goals and Successes
Geekids.org is still looking for the development. It is at http://geekids.org/geek3.html and http://geekids.org/index2.html at the moment, waiting for the final development and sponsorships. It was a great opportunity for me to interact with children and teenagers working on art and computer skills. I am personally satisfied with what I built on the web and all the tryouts. Especially, teaching children was one of the greatest experiences that I gained through the project. When I build the content video, I will always remember the eyes of children and teach in front of camera just like I was facing them in front of me.
6.2 Discoveries
There are two things that I found, which were profoundly relevant to my project. Through the interview and interaction with children and teenagers, I found something different from what I expected. When I was working on the concept of my projects, many peers and advisers told me that children are already good at using media and technology tools, which are considered toys for them. Initially, I was worried about these comments because the whole project could be useless for children if they already know how to work with technology and create media art. Surprisingly, the children’s media and technology skills were much lower than what many people told me. Most of student for my workshop had no experience of using Adobe design soft wares—Photoshop or Illustrator—Dreamweaver (HTML), FTP, or Flash. Not only that, they did not have much experience of using digital video camera and its equipment either. Only a few had experience of using Photoshop and Yahoo Geocities. Instead, they all had Myspace account. It meant a lot to me because I could see more possibility of my project. Children already acquired skills to use computer and Internet growing up in the modern technology environment. But what they really use on the Internet is online game and social networking sites that are already built for them. A few children who have experience on Photoshop and other tools such as Final CutPro, and they are really good at it, which means, if other children have opportunity and interest in this subject, they can be good at it, too. I believe that they did not have chance to learn media art and technology but they are capable to learning it.
Another issue that I found was the influence of artistic activities. In the workshop session, I had the group work on drawing in the beginning of the session. Until the end of the session, they showed their best attention in the class. The concentration rate was significantly different when I began the session with teaching how to make web page using soft ware. While they are planning on their own drawing and thinking how to create their little piece of art, they raised their concentration ability. This could be an important resource for helping the video contents development. Making a small hands-on artwork that can be applied to media art form can be useful and effective.
For the last discovery is more about my personal experience. I had not have much experience of interacting with children before this project. I was not sure that I could work with children because of my lack of experience with them. However, I realized that children have so much amusement in them. I really enjoyed working with them and interacting with them.
6.4 Future Directions
For the web site, there are additional assignments to do. Geekids will hire professional instructors to build up the video content development. Also, the backend of the site needs to be fixed. Geekids is a web-based program, but I also would like to hold after school workshops on a regular basis because the interaction with children helps build better video content for the web site. The workshop will invite more children to the Geekids.org and the site will eventually grow by itself.
Once Geekids.org reachs its certain goal, I am going to launch a Korean version of it. Because of high educational interest on technology and media in Korean society, I believe Geekids will fit in reasonably well.
Url
http://geekids.org
Classes
Thesis
Keywords
Children, Education, Online education, User-generated contents, Video, Media Art, Technology education, Design