The Story Map, a multimodal environment and learning scenario developed for the SMALLab
The Story Map, 2006-2007, SMALLab scenario developed for literacy, language and social justice curriculums, deployed to local high school
The Story Map is an interactive environment developed for the SMALLab space. A Story Map consists of a background image created by a designer (usually middle or high school students), and this image is projected onto the floor of SMALLab. Students create a collection of sounds, images, and video clips that they virtually arrange in a 3D topology using the SMALLab software tool kit. Students program a set of interactive behaviors for these media elements that trigger multimodal events in response to 3D movements. Once complete, classmates are invited to physically move in SMALLab, freely navigating and discussing the Story Map. Because of its open-ended template structure, it has been used in a number of ways. We have used it during a summer intensive game camp where students came up with a language trivia game and mystery pirate game. A middle school girl’s technology program has attended a Story Map workshop where they recorded sounds and designed a reflective space about how graffiti in their school affects them. Additionally, we have used it to teach Ray Bradbury’s “A Sound of Thunder” and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Tools, scripts, software, equipment and ephimera:
the SMALLab system, original audio and visuals, Max/Msp/Jitter, SMALLab Core for Realizing Experiential Media aka SCREM (pronounced “scream”, it is the SMALLab software toolkit for scenario development)
Images of various Story Map projects
Students explore a Story Map designed by their peers, based off of Romeo and Juliet
Top down view of story map designed by middle school girls about the graffiti in their school
Video Documentation of a Student-Designed Story Map
The video below can also be viewed directly on the SMALLab project web site here. The video shows students who came in for a SMALLab workshop and created a story map. They worked in three groups to create three different stories related to the picture presented. These sounds were placed in different 3D locations so students could explore the space to hear different narratives associated with specific places on the picture.
Story Map Example from Sarah Hatton on Vimeo.
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