Bridging distance with distributed tangible technologies: An educational game for learning to tell the time

This paper describes the implementation of an educational game for learning to tell the time that relies on a tangible user interface to offer physical interaction between learners in different locations. The game involves the learner physically moving their arms and hands in direct correspondence with the hands of a clock on the computer. The learner is able to physically interact with the game using the sensors in a controller in the learner´s hand. Using this tangible technology, an educational game for ‘telling the time’ is introduced. This application builds upon previous research that has focused on enhancing educational technology using tangible user interfaces between learners situation in different locations. The contribution of this paper is in providing further evidence of how ‘distributed tangible technologies’ can provide an enhanced sense of physical presence in virtual human-to-human communication.