A flexible solution which is easy to move from space to space and which stimulates movement of children who are reluctant with physical activity in certain circumstances.
This is the experience of a Danish kindergarten, which has been using WizeFloor Go for the past year. The children use their hands and feet on the interactive floor to interact with the different games, thus training their collaborative skills.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/cjneWlxFETA
Watch a video recorded in the kindergarten.
FULLY MOBILE
So far the interactive floor has only been available in a permanent ceiling-mounted version, but now you can get a mobile unit on wheels which includes camera, projector and pc. This allows you to set up WizeFloor with ease in any room. The flexibility is particularly important when dealing with children with special educational needs. This means that you can move the interactive floor into the exact room where the child has its safe base.
Gitte Voetmann Johansen, manager of the kindergarten “Margrethe Børnehaven” explains:
“It gives us a flexibility in being able to create a different ‘room inside the room’, and to our children with special educational needs it means that we can try out new sensory impressions in a well-known physical space“.
BRINGING CHILDREN TO THE FLOOR
The kindergarten has particularly used WizeFloor GO to create appropriate, alternative learning situations and give the children alternative sensory impressions. For the small children in the nursery, WizeFloor GO has programs with for example flowers or stars which must be stepped on in order to stimulate physical activity. For the kindergarten group, there are a lot of learning games and activities that work really well in collaboration with an educator who initiates the games.
“Many children are watching with interest from the sideline to see what is going on. But it also stimulates movement of children who are otherwise reluctant to physical activity. It seems as if the image on the floor gets so exciting and calls for movement that they cannot resist” says Gitte Voetmann Johansen“.
It is interesting to see how long time the children with special needs spend on the floor, as they are easily caught and filled with impressions. “They are higly motivated and completely absorbed by the floor and they can concentrate for longer time than with other activities. It is definitely a positive step,” she says.
ABOUT WIZEFLOOR GO
WizeFloor GO is an interactive floor that combines movement, play and learning, which is designed for kindergartens, schools and institutions but can also be used for senior citizens.
WizeFloor GO includes a projector, a camera and a computer in a box on wheels making it easy to move between multiple locations.
The projection size can be customised to what is needed in the room. You can use the same apps as in the ceiling-mounted version. Up to four players can use the floor at the same time. The solution is cloud-based and your activities can be easily shared with other users.
The software package includes a wide range of activities including quizzes, memory games, balloon games and categorisation games. They are designed in such a way that they stimulate interactivity, collaboration and inclusion of all users on the floor.
WizeFloor is based on more than ten years of research and product development at Aarhus University and the Alexandra Institute. Throughout the process, Danish schools and daycare institutions have contributed significantly to the development of the product. It has received a Red Dot Design Award as “Best of the Best in Education” under the name of Wisdom Wells. It has also been nominated for a Bett Award in 2016 in the category “ICT Tools for Learning, Teaching and Assessment – non web-based”.
