Rolling Stories team meeting the mentors. From left: Kemal Ahson, Tero Jartti, Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö, Ilkka
Kumpunen, Maija Itkonen, Juho Jouhtimäki
We have had a busy month or so; in fact, it has been so busy we have had little time to celebrate getting through the first stage of the competition!
Our key focus has been twofold: finessing our technical demo and gearing up for our piloting phase. On the technical front, then, working with the user interface has been our priority – our first demo version had a very crude user interface; but now it is evolving more towards how we think it should work. Of course, this is based on our initial research and conversations but the real test will be when we pilot it – the latest version will be sent to our first pilot groups/contacts shortly (week 16). From this we aim to get a better understanding of the effectiveness and appeal of Rolling Stories in practice which, by extension, will feed back into further development for the second phase of our piloting.
That said, we have also built new features, such as the ability to continue working with a previously saved roller. In terms of the first phase of the piloting we will have instructions, a link, and an UI feedback template ready to share with a number of key stakeholders and contacts working in the fields of education and health. These will cover both national/international leads and include: Aalto University, Argue to Think (UK Alzheimer’s Association), Institute of Education, Kehitysvammaliitto, London Borough of Greenwich (Schools), Miessakit Ry, Playful Learning Centre (University of Helsinki), Public Health England, University of Cambridge, University of Exeter, and Science Shops (Dublin). With the Playful Learning Center we will also be show-casing and testing our demo with ‘educationalists’ interested in multi-literacy at a national event on 19th May.
As an aside, but an important one, we met our mentors (Maija Itkonen and Jyrki Ali-Yrkkö).
PS. And, of course, many thanks to Helsingin Sanomain Säätiö for providing this timely boost to help us achieve our long-term goals. Congratulations also to the other finalists, keep the wheels rolling!
Rolling Stories is a new publishing technology where the publication is placed horizontally on a moving platform. The Uutisraivaaja team includes Tero Jartti, Ilkka Kumpunen, Kemal Ahson, Juho Jouhtimäki ja Pekka Pärnänen.
