Griot

Griot was a short course project for SYDE 342 – User Centered Design Methods with 3 other students.

Problem: Students in developing countries often do not have many applications which they can use to learn. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project distributes small laptops to children in these areas, but programs are needed to utilize them. Specifically, literacy is important, but often causes loss of culture and loses students’ interests as most tools are from different cultures and are not applicable to their everyday lives.

Solution: Griot is the name of a mythical story-teller. The application allows students to create and share their own multimedia-rich stories. There are three main aspects considered:

• Literacy Development: create their own stories, read others’ stories, listen to readings of stories and pronunciation of words
• Cultural Preservation: making their own stories make them relevant,  teachers could create stories that are culturally significant for students
• Engagement: multimedia is engaging, students take pride in their stories and encourage others to read