What is the intended idea / concept behind the proposed project?
To educate young children on global environmental issues in todays society through an interactive fairytale, and by doing so create awareness and encourage good “green” habits from a young age.
Justify the idea / concept in terms of the needs for its existence (if purely for entertainment, state this and how the output will be innovative/original and creative):
There is no denying that the global environmental issue is still unresolved, despite plenty initiatives, organisations and high profiled social figures addressing the issue through a variety of mediums – social media, television, online streaming services, books etc. As an addition to all these methods, I propose to encourage good eco-friendly, habits in children from an early age by teaching them about the environmental issues at hand and show them how they can contribute through small changes and improvements.This project will hopefully do so.
Describe the intended audience:
The intended audience will be the children aged approximately 4-8, but also their parent(s) and potential older siblings. I want the project to have enough content to be entertaining to a secondary audience, but still fundamentally be designed for the target audience.
How will this project extend your or your team’s creative and technical skills?
Creatively this project will be a challenge as I will have to look into both the design and animation aspect of creating a interactive story. I will to create a series of designs for the story itself, as well as the layout of whatever medium (Game, app,webpage) the story will work on. As for the technological, I will have to look into what goes into creating an interactive story. I will also have to look into children’s education and school curriculum to make sure the fairytale contains relevant information.
Outline how the practical work will be carried out by you / the team (division of labour) and the time-scales involved for each task:
1-4
I will use the the first weeks to research:
Use of fairytales in an educational manner.
Children’s curriculum and to what extent they cover environmental topics.
Existing texts for children with environmental themes.
Similar products for inspiration.
5-10
These weeks will be used for design research and development, as well as animating my product.
11-12
I will use the last weeks to finalise the animations and designs, as well as completing the R&D file.
What other work (by animators, designers, film-makers, writers, digital media producers, etc.) is relevant to your project? (This work may either be relevant for its conceptual or technical similarity):
I really liked the idea of using a fairytale/story as an educational tool, and started researching the topic. From a young age, we are all exposed to fairytales and through them learn important moral lessons. We are informed of right and wrong, good and evil and other ideal concepts through a relatable story.
“The fairy-story expresses the unconscious longings, hopes, and struggles of the child. It speaks to him in a language he understands; it gives expression to that which he feels but dimly and sees but darkly; through it he catches glimpses of laws governing human life”
“Long before “going green” was mainstream, Dr. Seuss’s Lorax spoke for the trees and warned of the dangers of disrespecting the environment. In this cautionary rhyming tale (printed on recycled paper) we learn of the Once-ler, who came across a valley of Truffula Trees and Brown Bar-ba-loots, and how his harvesting of the tufted trees changed the landscape forever. With the release of the blockbuster film version, the Lorax and his classic tale have educated a new generation of young readers not only about the importance of seeing the beauty in the world around us, but also about our responsibility to protect it.”
Hayao Miyazaki has alway had an undertone, if not more, of environmentalist messages in his films. His subtle way of showing the benefits and disadvantages of not living in peach with nature. I did some extra research on Miyazaki because I believe his approach to “preaching” if you can call it that, would be suitable for my project as well.
“Often his films’ environments feature nature and humanity in harmony, whether in agricultural landscapes, towns, or even cities. People, for Mr. Miyazaki, are meant to live in nature. Human culture is integrated with nature and is meant to inhabit it. Mr. Miyazaki opposes the exploitative use of nature for ends that are opposed to the harmonious flourishing of nature and human civilisation.
Mr. Miyazaki’s respectful view of nature understands that the world is meant to be inhabited and stewarded by human beings. To exploit or even destroy nature for short-term gain is bad stewardship and harmful to humankind, since this world is given to us as our permanent home. Mr. Miyazaki’s villains attempt to dominate nature in pursuit of political domination, and are ultimately destructive to both nature and human civilisation.
“Environmentalism is a key theme in Hayao Miyazaki’s films. Miyazaki (1997) has “come to the point where I just can’t make a movie without addressing the problem of humanity as part of an ecosystem”; there is a need to acknowledge nature, because it is a powerful and autonomous force (Cavallaro, 2006). He laments the fact that children are disconnected from nature (Talbot, 2005). Children today spend their time playing video games, watching TV, or on the internet that they rarely spend time outside. As such many of Miyazaki’s films hold “nostalgia for a time when humans lived more in harmony with nature” (Wright, 2005).
Hayao Miyazaki’s films also “call for mindful awareness to the lived environment and vanishing wilderness” (West, 2009, p. 267). In Miyazaki’s films the vanishing wilderness and the Earths suffering is the result of human ignorance (Odell & LeBlanc, 2009). Human ignorance is what is causing the wilderness to vanish in Japan and worldwide, and is something which frustrates and sadness Miyazaki. Because of his love for nature all of Miyazaki’s films have a “sense of wonder and awe in the natural world” (Wright, 2005), main characters often have respect for nature or curious about it.”
Although not entirely sure about the target audience just yet, as in what age group they will be, I started by looking at preschool curriculum as I think I will aim the product on around 4-6 year olds.
THE ENVIRONMENT
Most children are interested in and curious about their environment. They can further develop their awareness of the environment by:
Helping to care for plants and animals;
Observing aspects of nature, such as rainbows, sunlight, shadows, day and night and new born animals, thereby developing a sense of wonder;
Taking some responsibility for caring for their environment, for example by caring for play equipment and keeping the playroom tidy;
Talking about environmental issues such as litter, bottle and paper banks; and being encouraged to consider the needs of others in the environment.
THE WORLD AROUND US
From their earliest days, children try to make sense of their world. They are naturally curious about their environment and the people around them and frequently ask questions. They enjoy using their senses to explore the immediate indoor and outdoor environments. Through their natural curiosity and by providing them with a wide variety of activities and experiences in play, children begin to develop a range of skills and concepts including observation, experimentation and free exploration of their surroundings. Interaction and discussion with adults further develops these skills and concepts and helps to promote the use of appropriate language. By commenting, asking open-ended questions encouraging children to experiment and evaluate, adults can extend children’s understanding of themselves and their families, their pre-school setting (both indoors and outdoors) and the wider environment. Children can also learn about the world around them from books, pictures, posters, photographs and by using appropriate ICT.
The children will learn to take some responsibility for caring for their own environment, become aware of some environmental issues like litter and the use of paper and bottle banks; Children show interest in and are learning to care for their environment. They care for and respect living things and handle them sensitively. They talk about themselves, their homes, their pre-school setting and the wider environment. They know about some of the people who work within the setting and the local community. They are becoming aware of some environmental issues.
Nature gives room for a spectre of experiences and activities through all seasons and weather. Nature is a source of beauty and gives inspiration for aesthetic expression. This area of expertise purpose is to contribute to children’s understanding and familiarity with plants and animals, scenery , seasons and weather. It is a goal that children shall get a certain level of understanding of sustainable developing as well as a love for nature and an understanding of the interaction in nature and between humans and nature.
The goal of this area of expertise is to teach the children to:
Experience nature and the wonders of natures diversity.
Experience the joy of interacting with nature and develop basic insight to nature, environmental protection and interaction in nature.
Get experience with, and knowledges about animal, growths and their co-dependency and relevance for the food production/animal agriculture.
Learn to observe, wonder, experiment, systematise, describe and converse about phenomenons in the physical world.
During the first workshop we were introduced to an online sort of “pin-board” called Padlet. I used this to brainstorm any ideas I got when looking into the topics we could choose from.
Out of the six topics I ended up focusing on Learning as well as Environment. In my padlet, I pinned down a few examples of digital technology that is already used for educating children. Quite a few were focusing on teaching very young children about coding such as the Cubetto and the Hackaball , and while at looking these as well as the others examples of digital technology made especially for children, I came up with a few rough ideas for what could be my project.
My Ideas:
A digital VR type game for children.
A virtual AR assistant/app that would mainly be focusing on helping with homework management.
An interactive story/game about environmental issues.
I looked into the technology behind the development of VR and AR games/apps and it made me realise that this was way ahead of my skill level, so I choose to focus more on my third idea. I split my research into three main parts:
Storytelling
Environment
Childrens Educations
In the upcoming week I will collect information on these three topics to use for my project.
