DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

Title: HistoraStep

 

Brief Description: HistoraStep is an interactive timeline aimed to help teach children and people of all ages about historical periods and events. Most current methods of educating people, especially children, about history are found in textbooks and academic facilities. HistoraStep aims to bridge the gap in our technologically evolving generations by adding a technological based interactive element to a fundamental subject in our educational process.

 

Target Audiences: Our target audience is mainly children and young adults, but is meant to be sophisticated enough to engage people of all ages. The intended age range for this application are children from the ages from 7-13, but includes all people with basic knowledge of computers and literacy. As long as one has access to a computer, HistoraStep can be anyone’s journey to the past.

 

Client or Collaborator: HistoraStep was innovated and produced by Mathew Raineri, Tyler Lappe, and Colin Chan for Stony Brook University class CSE 323 with collaborative help by Anthony Scarlatos faculty of Stony Brook University. Further detailed information about HistoraStep can be found at stonybrook.digication.com/323_historastep/Welcome.

 

Similar/competitive product genre: Educational video games are becoming more and more common as we become more intertwined with technology. With most educational games focused on teaching the basic math, science, geography, history and language curriculum, there are few that provide a truly immersive environment for kids to become engaged and learn at the same time. HistoraStep provides that immersive environment in a 3D format to give kids and people of all ages a fun virtual step through time.

 

Full Description: The goal of HistoraStep was to provide an immersive and fun learning tool for children and young adults. HistoraStep was created in Adobe Director and set up to function as a standalone application that implements a 3D environment as its main virtual atmosphere, but has the potential to be distributed and accessed through a website. Through the 3D environment, implemented with shockwave 3D and created in SketchUp, you can maneuver or step through a prehistoric forest filled with dinosaurs while learning facts. With further support and updates, more environments and historical time periods will be added as well as a database for storing user logins. In addition to further updates a physical input will be implemented where the user may choose to use a motion sensing device such as the Kinect to move and maneuver around our historical 3D environments.

 

Special Requirements: HistoraStep was built in Adobe Director using elements from Adobe Photoshop and Google SketchUp. Executable runs on Mac OSX and Windows. In addition with further updates to the HistoraStep application a motion sensing input would be implemented in order to add further interactivity and engagement.

 

Bibliography: Anthony Scarlatos (CSE 323), Adobe Director, Photoshop, SketchUp 3D Warehouse

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.