SAWBO

Animation without Borders: Mobile Cartoons as a Teaching Tool

Posted by MelissaUlbricht on May 14, 2011

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Animation without Borders: Mobile Cartoons as a Teaching Tool data sheet 3199 Views

A team of scientists, animators, and educators are working together to create animated videos that can be sent and downloaded to mobile phones around the world. The animations can be done in any language, are targeted toward low-level literate learners, and convey methods to obtain safe water in Haiti or  techniques to farm effectively in Africa, and concepts such as value in a marketplace exchange.

This University of Illinois project is called "Scientific Animation Without Borders", or SAWBO, for short. The project started about a year ago. As the team delivers the animations via mobile phone and other mechanisms, they also hope to deliver a more collaborative and bottom-up approach toward effective educational materials.

MobileActive.org spoke with university faculty and graduate students to hear more about animation, education, and mobile technology.

Website URL: 
http://susdeviki.illinois.edu/...
Organization involved in the project?: 
University of Illinois
Project goals: 

Short-term goal: Working with educators to help them to demonstrate teaching concepts using visual aids. A longer-term goal is to develop a library of animations with easier access to a wide audience.

Brief description of the project: 

A team of scientists, animators, and educators are working together to create animated videos that can be sent and downloaded to mobile phones around the world. The animations can be done in any language and are targeted toward low-level literate learners.

Target audience: 

The target audience is low-level literate learners.

Status: 
Ongoing
What worked well? : 

Animation is a cost-effective approach to creating multiple language versions of content. The team is able to tap into a volunteer network of translators at the university. The online library allows for peer review of the concepts and content.

What did not work? What were the challenges?: 

One challenge is that for mobile delivery, access is dependent on bluetooth technology and video-enabled phones.

Global Regions: 
Asia
Australia and Oceania
Central America and the Caribbean
Europe
Middle East and North Africa
North America
South America
Sub-Saharan Africa
Last Name: 
Pittendrigh
First Name: 
Barry
City: 
Chicago
State/Province: 
Illinois
Country: 
U.S.A.
Email: 
pittendr@illinois.edu