TICLE: Using multimedia multimodal guidance to enhance learning

Tangible Interfaces for Collaborative Learning Environments (TICLE) explores new ways that multimedia can enhance education without becoming the focus of the educational experience. A TICLE system "watches" as children work together on puzzles and other educational tasks in a physical environment. The system then responds as a "guide on the side", providing the sort of encouragement and prodding that a teacher would. This builds on children's innate love of puzzles, their collaborative tendencies, and their inclination to learn by doing. Although such a system cannot replace a qualified teacher, it can help teachers to motivate and reach more students simultaneously. This paper outlines the strategies used to create a TICLE system, and describes one implementation: a multimedia multimodal system that responds to children playing with a Tangram puzzle. This system has been installed in the Goudreau Museum of Mathematics in Art and Science, located on Long Island in New York.