Daniel Trattler: Educational computer games for kids

Daniel’s talk about educational computer games for kids was uplifting and passionate. Being an artist as well as a scientist, Daniel is interested in the part both professions have in common: solving the problem.


© Alex Blumhoff

In his introduction he guides us through a few case studies but also describes the coolness factor of advertising agencies as we go along. The audience laughed quite a bit which made this talk quite enjoyable.

In children education you need to raise public awareness.

Presenting the ‘Ampelinis’ as three cartoon figures he shows us how they teach the kids interactively and playful, how to be safe in their environment. Have a look on www.ampelini.de. Daniel laughs: It works quite well, up to the point where the kids instruct their mum to ware a helmet for safety.

If you work to develop an educational game for kids first of all you have to start with the parents, they are also the ones paying for the game.

He convinced us to drop the waterfall method and believe in the iterative method with the example of his ‘stickerstars’ project. He explains the method as such: 1. Making a guess, 2. Design an experiment, 3. Test it. Like a scientist you go through the process over and over again to have an outcome people care about. In a metaphor Daniel describes the method: ‘Change the way of gravity, create a flying machine instead’ that at some point will fly!

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Daniel Trattler

Born into the chain store despair of the great white people's hatching ground called Long Island, Daniel Trattler escaped at  first chance and moved to big city New York and Chicago. He studied math, created performance art, did scientific experiments and made art zines before moving to Berlin in 1993. Wanting to start fresh he started working as a graphic designer and in 2000 he co-founded the agency eobiont. He also teaches at the HTW (Berlin University of Applied Sciences).

His final advice for us today was: Be passionate! Use your knowledge! Save the world! Thank you very much Daniel Trattler

 

Text — Sandra — GraphicBirdWatching