PUPPET is a virtual theatre for 4-8 year-olds, developed as part of the European Union Espirit-LTR-i3 Experimental School Environment Programme. It provides an environment where children can learn about narrative in a playful way.

The PUPPET world is populated by two autonomous agents:
a freedom-loving cow and an authoritarian farmer.
Children can play in the world in a variety of ways:

• As audience they can passively watch the interaction between the two agents
• As actor they can select a third character, the sheep, as avatar and engage in interaction with the other characters
• As scriptwriter they can record dialogue for the three characters
• As editor they can review and revise their recorded dialogue

In line with a theory of external cognition (Scaife and Rogers, 1996), PUPPET makes aspects of the environment explicit, allowing the child to stand back from the detail of the interactions and focus more on the structure. For example, children can record and replay dialogue for the characters. This facilitates reflective thought and discussion about what motivates character speech.

A retrospect overview of the project with publications can be found here.

Researchers:
Mike Scaife, Yvonne Rogers, Pat George, Yvonne Hindle, Jon Howell, Malcolm McIllhagga, Paul Marshall (COGS)
DFKI, Saarbrucken, Germany, LIA, University of Aalborg , Denmark, and IDAU, University of Aarhus, Denmark

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