Introduction:
Bullying is a problem where children in younger age need to learn how to manage. The idea of this project to help children visualise the problem and connect it to their own situations. The teacher opens a discussion about it in the classroom to help them understand such situations and deal with it the right way. This production completed and approved but the Swedish Law.
The Challenge:
One of the most strict laws in the world is the Swedish School Law. We were restricted to not to use real names, assosciated human origin or skin colour, religion, gender, orientation, violance or any other issue related to human race or belief! Thus we should create an animation which presents bullying!
Beating the Impossible!
So, we started with a deep research. We went to 5 different schools and chatted with the pupils, teachers. We have also involved the children in the design process and let them decide what are the colours and shaped they think is Miko (the victim) and Pixel (the bully). They also decided what kind of background... We also followed a school psycology expert recommendations who said that we are not allowed to show one figure hits the other.
The Work:
We created the characters and the background with two siuations as a beginning for the test. Each animation which is long between 19 to 120 seconds. After the animation a question gets up: "What should Miko do?" here is the point where class interactivity starts. After the discussion, the teacher reveals the rest of the animation with the right way.
Results:
We tested the product and we found that; many pupils who never say a word in the class were active and have something to share. Children were more open to tell their own stories. Teachers felt less pressure in providing clear information about a sentitive problem for children. The Borlänge Council Education Department were pleased to buy the product