Mini Challenge 4 — Storyboard
OUTPOST
The use context : The main person in this scenario is Jack who has two other siblings and they are staying with their grandparents in a small country town. The school the children is not well equiped and many students often don’t get to use the computers to work on their work. The older child has an assignment to be completed and is concerned because the grandparents don’t have computer access either. The grandfather takes all the children to the community library to research on OUTPOST. The grandfather is able to have all three children in his view while he is able to help the older child.
Outpost recognises a person in front of the screen and shows a network of topics that people are researching at that time. Outpost asks what they would like to research today and Jack responds that he is searching for information about solar energy for his school assignment.
On the screen Jack is presented with general information about Solar Energy as well as a list of similar information that other people have been researching about that same topic which he may browse through. A network of closely related researches such as fossil fuels and the benefits that solar energy has for the environment. A trail of his current searches allows him to retrace his steps and find information that may have been previously disregarded. Knowing that Jack has asked for information for a high school all of the information he is presented at a level that he is able to understand and relevant to his assignment.
All of the information being researched is sent to a central hub at the Victorian State Library which disseminates the relevant searches to the posts. Jack is then able to download a copy of his research history onto his library card and take it home or to school where he can manipulate the information into his final assignment.
Jack hands in his assignment and is rewarded with great results with acknowledgment for his in depth and broad range of research. Other students become aware of the great work that Jack has been able to achieve and become interested in the library. The SLV also is looking at providing this service to the school so more students are able to use this facility.
This concept allows any student to use the interface and not just those who have the ICT and computer skills to drive a complex search engine.
