Jorge Luis Borges in his short story The Other meets his former self from many years ago on a bench in Cambridge. Many of us — at sometime or the other — imagine meeting our own self from another time. What would you talk about if you had 5 minutes with your past self?

Such fantasy is both sweet and bitter, as you realize the many regrets as well as delights that made you into what you are today. What if you could instill upon your younger self-attributes and virtues to make you a better person? Would you tell them how to nurture and develop it?

The Samsung Play-Board is an educational play platform designed to present a learning guide for parents and teachers based on insights learned from children’s actions and characteristics… it’s also fun to play with! With this interactive board it’s possible to fathom the possibilities of the above mentioned time loop.

Insights and analysis derived from children playing with the board allow teachers and parents to design a method of learning that is unique and catered to each individual child. Confidence in one’s abilities is established in the formative years making it crucial to have children realize their potential at an early age and be able to develop it, as well as have it nurtured by others.

• Children can interact and arrange
  the wooden modules while they play.

• Vibrant colors, different shaped modules
  and special “container” modules – where
  teacher and parents can insert any
  kind of picture, drawing or flat material–
  enable the stimulation of all children’s
  multiple intelligences. A virtually endless
  number of configurations is possible.

• The interaction with the child is tracked,
  recorded and logged.

• This data is relayed to a pre-installed app
  that turns them into graphics, supporting
  the educators’ activity of analysis.

• The app maintains a profile of the child’s
  multiple intelligence development.

• The app suggests special education
  programs - called “bridging techniques” –
  specifically designed to improve
  the detected weaknesses areas by
  leveraging on the tracked strengths.

• Parents and teachers optimize
  education programs based on each
  child’s individual profile.

What makes this even more exciting is that the software and the hardware is open-source, allowing almost anyone, within the international community of educators, to built a new Play-Board from scratch, and to add new content.

A seemingly endless array of play provides precious information on potential areas of success, and pinpoints areas of weakness. This data is displayed and quantified in a variety of settings. Also, the accumulated date can be utilized for research in potential growth for children and applied in a broader educational capacity.

Shall we try out the board for ourselves?

• Let’s try the color modules for starters.
  First parents or teachers suggest the child
  to plug in the ‘educational avatar’
  into the board.
• Then, they help him/her connect
  the activity board to the main board.
  Now, it’s time for children
  to start playing.
• Choose six nature boxes and fill them with branches, grass or leaves. Next connect them to the mainboard.
• Have the child connect the branches and
  leaves along the grid using the pointer.
  Children can have fun creating
  their own various patterns.
• When children are done, remove the
  educational avatar. Date acquired from
  the play session is sent to the smart
  device application for parents
  and teachers. Fast and simple,
  but also very scientific.

• IDEA

  The Samsung Smart Play-Board was created by Pietro Rigamonti, a student of the Samsung Maestros Academy Master’s Degree Course at IED (Istituto Europeo di Design).

• MAKING

  The project was developed by Samsung Italy along with specialists from various fields such as universities and creative agencies. Also, the Department of Humanistic Studies at the University of Macerata is conducting beta testing in various pre-schools.

• AWARD

  A prototype started by a young digital artisan is being developed into a global innovative education project and has received accolades at the 2015 Milan Design Week and at the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

The Samsung Smart Play-Board is a platform that supports teachers and parents, hugely amplifying their capability to learn from children’s spontaneous behaviors, but avoiding any “prescription” or “judgment”. The pre-installed app gathers data and organizes them into graphs, but doesn’t automate a “judgment” decision. This is because we believe that can only be done by a skilled educator who has a broader view of the child and their situation. The app is instead intended to synch the tracked data with meaningful tips for better educational activities; based on a library developed, updated and reviewed by the international community of educators.

Some people voice concern that technology will stunt the learning capacity of children. That technology will do all the work leaving the child passive and dependent. However, like the puzzle games many of us played with when we were children, the capacity for problem solving is equally inherent in the Samsung Smart Play-Board providing a platform that nurtures possibilities and potential. It all comes down to how technology is used to help us. As the Samsung Smart Play-Board shows, meaningful technology and design open up possibilities for the future of our children.