The document describes a project called Building Stories that aims to create interactive digital stories for educational use. It involves developing tools for teachers to author interactive stories using raw data and share them for classroom or mobile learning. A prototype was tested on students visiting historical sites with context-aware stories on mobile devices. The results showed students were engaged and preferred an active role over passive guidance. Overall, the project aims to better support learning "in context" through teachers creating and sharing interactive lessons.

1. Building
Stories
Kris
Luyten,
Kris
Gabriëls,
Jan
Schneider-­‐Barnes
Hasselt
University
-­‐
IBBT
-­‐
EDM

2. Digital cultural heritage
Legal aspects
User research
EPICS platform Didactization
Storage
Mash ups Creation tools
Interfaces
E-learning Existing learning
environments platforms
Classroom
distribution
Public libraries
Mobile distribution

3. Digital cultural heritage
Legal aspects
User research
EPICS platform Didactization
Storage
Mash ups Creation tools
InterfacesInteractive Stories
E-learning Existing learning
environments platforms
Classroom
distribution
Public libraries
Mobile distribution

4. “Raw” data User Experience
?

5. From
data
to
stories
DATA
classroom
usage
content authoring
DATA aggregation tool STORY
‘sharing’
mobile tour
DATA

6. NarraIve
interfaces
Stories
are
so
much
more
interesIng
and
easier
to
remember
M.Y.Lim
&
R.
AyleN
(2007),
Narra$ve
construc$on
in
a
mobile
tour
guide,
LNCS
4871.
Dyson,
A.
H.
&
Genishi,
C.
(1994).
The
need
for
story:
Cultural
diversity
in
classroom
and
community.
Urbana,
IL:
NaIonal
Council
of
Teachers
of
English.

7. [Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics]

9. DATA
classroom
usage
content authoring
DATA aggregation tool STORY
‘sharing’
mobile tour
DATA
Content creators Content Content
transformers consumers
historian/conservator/ teachers students
archeologist

10. Pre-visit & post-visit
DATA
classroom
usage
content authoring
DATA aggregation tool STORY
‘sharing’
mobile tour
DATA
Teacher’s During visit
preparation

11. [History]
Teachers
in
charge
Defn.:
Teacher
=
transforms
“raw
data”
into
content
suitable
for
students
Goal:
build
a
tool
that
allows
them
to
create
stories,
make
them
interac$ve
and
share
them
with
others.

12. Step
1:
create
your
scenes

13. Step
2:
put
content
in
context

14. Step
3:
compose
a
storyline

15. Step
3.
compose
a
storyline

16. Content
comes
alive
in
InteracIve
Stories
Story
progresses
because
of
user
(inter)acIons
changes
in
place
or
Ime
predefined
(soeware)
events

17. Authoring
tool
Scene templates
Actors
Searchable
Web-based Content Library

18. Authoring
tool:
behind
the
scenes
Teacher
builds
stories
è
tool
creates
soeware
– Flex-­‐based
user
interfaces
– Web-­‐enabled
communicaIon
with
content
servers
– Soeware
behavior
according
to
story
and
context

19. Authoring
tool:
technical
stuff
• Tool
was
created
with
Adobe
Flex:
a
powerful
soeware
development
framework
for
mobile
and
web-­‐based
applicaIons.
• JSON
for
serialising
Stories
– Open
dataformat
– Easy
to
transmit
over
the
Internet
– Can
be
saved
in
a
database
– Ubiquitous
in
support
(mobile,
web,
desktop)

20. Deployment

21. Mobile
app
-­‐
features
• Target
plaiorm:
Android
(free,
accessible,
widespread)
• Mobile
device
equiped
with
EPICS
story
player
– Interprets
a
story
created
with
authoring
tool
– Builds
the
user
interface
on
mobile
device
– Takes
care
of
story
logic
(e.g.
scene
progress)
– Observes
changing
contexts
(e.g.
uses
GPS
to
detect
change
in
locaIon)

22. Request:
story
X?
Lookup:
JSON
for
story
X
Send:
story
X!
Deserialize
JSON

24. Avoid
huge
bills
(aka
mobile
Internet
is
expensive)
1. List
media
elements
used
in
story
2. When
used
for
the
first
Ime:
if
not
on
device,
retrieve
them
from
server
3. Store
media
element
permanently
on
device

25. Context-­‐aware
stories

26. First
use
study
• The
story
of
Jeanne
Mesdom
(during
WWI)
• LocaIon:
Ypres
• ParIcipants:
12
youngsters
• Set-­‐up:
– Test
feasibility
authoring
tool
(no
teachers
yet…)
– See
whether
context-­‐aware
interacIve
stories
work
– Aim:
Guided
walk
through
Ypres
by
means
of
a
mobile
device

27. End-­‐user
results
– Mo$va$on:
very
enthousiasIc
– Ac$ve
par$cipa$on:
prefer
to
be
acIve
themselves
over
being
passive
observers
(e.g.
guided
tour)
– Iden$fica$on:
they
prefer
a
contemporary
as
their
virtual
guide,
more
than
the
child

28. End-­‐user
results
Remaining
open
issues
no
user
test
for
authoring
tool,
only
feasibility
quality
mobile
guide
is
not
core
for
us
–
what
one
can
do
with
the
authoring
tool
is

29. Summary
Stories
work.
BeNer
support
for
learning
“in-­‐context”.
Teachers
can
create
and
share
interacIve
lessons
for
mobile
and
classroom
usage.

30. Classroom
usage

32. Building
Stories
Kris
Luyten,
Kris
Gabriëls,
Jan
Schneider-­‐Barnes
Hasselt
University
-­‐
IBBT
-­‐
EDM