MATCh: Aim of project
The project aimed at developing a multimedia authoring tool for children – "a powerful, user-friendly, unified, transparent and open-ended environment capable of providing authoring, multimedia, networking and collaboration facilities to the student, the teacher and the developer" [Triantafillou et al, 1997].
The main goal of MATCh tools is to function as multimedia authoring environment for children. Children’s multimedia authoring tools give young designers the opportunity to create their own multimedia presentations and provide interactive experiences with pre-designed environments. Video, animation, sound, pictures, and text can be combined using these authoring tools created specially for children. They can create slide shows, interactive books, music, videos, interactive simulations, as the computer becomes a tool or an Expressive Medium for children to explore ideas and subject matter through paths that they choose.
The main goal of the MATCh project is to provide children, students and teachers with very strong - and still very natural - environment to develop and use computer multimedia educational environments (microworlds). This approach is based on our conviction and prior experience that children’s creativity, skills and personality can grow considerably if they freely choose the role of developers, not the role of users. Cross-curricular and inter-cultural computer activities are the most favourable topics for young developers. Their thinking goes across boundaries between cultures, between ages, between nations. They are able to communicate, to co-operate and to share their work with any other young people anywhere.
The process of designing this multimedia environments has brought together diverse professionals: technologists, researchers, graphic designers, musicians, animators, teachers, and so forth. The intersection of these professional talents is crucial in developing a creative and meaningful multimedia environment.
We hope that our extensive research in all fields, the involvement of children, teachers, artists, our activities in live school situations would all help develop a product that could produce a valuable tool for education.