top of page

Marvels of the World

Overview and Learning Objectives

  • The objective is to provide an app that students can use to be exposed to other cultures in the world.

    • The purpose of this is:

      • For different cultures in the classroom to be recognized 

      • Break down social barriers that could occur in the classroom between students

      • Acquire the basics of a new language

      • Create a positive learning environment

      • Promote diversity

      • Resolve stereotypes of other cultures

Target Audience

​

  • The target audience of our app are students who are in the lower grade of elementary school with a diverse student body. It’s also targeted for teachers who would like to provide an opportunity for their students to learn about different cultures and introduce them to the basics of different languages as well. 

  • Students who are in the lower grade of elementary school have the ability to express themselves while talking but may have trouble in writing or reading. Therefore, many audios and pictures are being used in the design. 

App Breakdown

Screen Shot 2020-12-01 at 9.01.59 AM.png

Interactive Prototype

This is a high-fidelity prototype that users can interact with. Click through the prototype for more experience with the Marvels of the World app. 

Design Process

  • We first designed the application as a way for students to learn a new language. During our observations of a classroom, we realized that children enjoy learning about different cultures, especially those that their own peers are from. With this in mind, we decided to design an app that can serve as an introduction for children to learn a new language while also teaching them about different cultures. Each classroom will always have a diverse student body so promoting this diversity can serve as a great way to acknowledge each student in the classroom, meeting their emotional levels, and drawing the class closer together. After meeting with our partner for this project, we recognized that we needed to avoid reinforcing stereotypes of other cultures. 

Stage 1: Identify Desired Results

Students should: 

​​

  • Recognize different cultures in the classroom

  • Acquire the basics of a new language

  • Acquire the basics of different cultures

Stage 2: Determine Acceptable Evidence

Informal assessment

​​

  • Mock conversation 

  • More information will be provided below

Stage 3: Learning Plan

Explore & play

​​

  • Language & Culture

  • Enhance their knowledge

Theory and Research Applied

Piaget-constructivism

  • Children learn from actions rather than from passive observations

    • Children need to construct knowledge for themselves

    • Active learning, deeper understanding

Vygotsky- Social- Cognitive theories

  • Learning and development occurs through interaction with others and the social context

  • Learning is about “fit in” the environment 

Learning through Play

  • According to Fromberg and Gullo (1992), play enhances language development, social competence, creativity, imagination, and thinking skills.

Research/ Study: The effectiveness of computer-assisted pronunciation training for foreign language learning by children

  • Training with a computer-assisted pronunciation training system with a simple automatic speech recognition component can thus lead to improvements in pronunciation. 

Comparison with Other Platforms

Screen Shot 2020-12-01 at 9.59.51 AM.png

Assessment

  • Playing Part in the app  (Games)

    • Students can use what they learned in the Learning Part to play these games. It’s a way to do self-assessment.

  • Mock conversation between teacher and students

    • This can be done through informal assessments where they aren’t necessarily graded, but the teacher takes note of areas of struggle and provides feedback to the students.

    • The assessments can be conduct during a time where students have different stations to work at. One of these stations can be a time where the teacher will meet with a student one on one.

    • After determining what sort of level that the student is at. For future sessions, the teacher can determine if questions that require more complex answers should be used or continue to ask basic questions.

Evaluation

Students

  • Non-built in Self-reflection

  • Questions about motivation, engagement, and self-improvements. Students can respond to these questions by giving thumbs up/down. 

Teacher

  • Non-built in the evaluation form

  • Requires feedback from the educator based on their own observation in the classroom,  questions about overall students’ engagement, general feedback about each feature within the app, overall language improvements, and the usability and the accessibility of the app.

Concerns / Limitations

  • The app itself has some limitations when it comes to assessing if a student is learning.

    • This will require an outside user to test if a student is acquiring the content

  • It could be expensive for each student to have their own devices in order to access the app

  • The app cannot be used as the primary source for learning a language, it requires human interactions

    • Conversations are difficult to replicate through technology

  • Some students could assume some stereotypes of other cultures are true if not enough information about them is given.

Future Suggestions

  • The app we designed is primarily targeted towards elementary school students, but we would like to expand this out to be accessible for every grade level.

  • The app could also be expanded to worldwide interactions, maybe providing students the opportunity to interact with students from around the world and receiving an authentic relationship with these different cultures. 

bottom of page