Children use their imagination to see their surroundings in their own way, construct their own rules and manipulate everyday objects for play, and create narratives. Most current digital environments, however, are virtual playgrounds that don't support full-scale sensorimotor activity and narration. MonnoM offers children safe digital play experiences that bridge embodied experience and narration.
MonnoM allows children to create original visuals and playscapes they dream of using physical and digital media simultaneously. MonnoM perceives select objects in the children’s everyday environment with parameters of color and depth and translates them to digital patterns on a screen. You don’t need any digital attachments. Just a computer, tablet, or cellphone with a webcam is enough. MonnoM's technology helps children use their fine and gross motor skills and transform their select objects into digital narrative tools. MonnoM offers online/offline play solutions to museums, preschool institutions, and primary schools to support their curriculum in cooperation with learning programs.
The first design of the MonnoM was assessed in studies with 67 children (4–12 years old) in two different settings, one at a museum and one at a school in the context of İpek Kay's Ph.D. Dissertation titled "Designing Digitally-Enhanced Environments For Children's Play With Everyday Objects" Our study protocol was approved by the Istanbul Technical University Committee On the Use of Humans as Experimental Subjects. We observed that children followed various interaction paths and tend to move while playing with MonnoM. The online version of MonnoM is free and has been used in 19 countries, also during the pandemic. We designed context-based interactive environments for children's biennials and museums. Our aim is to design novel digitally-enhanced settings for children around the world.
The audience is educators working in pre-K and K-2 level schools, museums, after-school programs, and other formal/ informal learning environments, as well as families interested in supporting children’s bodily engagement while interacting with the digital environment. They can directly use the online version of MonnoM or collaborate with us to create new online/offline play solutions.
