Clover: Connecting technology and character education using personally-constructed animated vignettes

K-12 schools need effective methods for delivering technology and character education. In this paper, we describe the iterative design, use, and evaluation of a tool that enables kids to construct animated vignettes expressing personal experiences. By building, sharing, and responding to vignettes, kids become engaged in reflection and problem solving moral and social issues, activities that build character. By creating their own vignettes, kids are able to acquire and apply technology skills within a learning activity meaningful to them. Evaluations of our tool were conducted with both teachers and kids. Results showed that all users were able to build meaningful vignettes, our tool was easy to learn and fun to use, and our tool’s multimedia features were often used and wellliked, facilitating the creation of vignettes not possible with paper. Others can download and use our tool and draw upon our design rationale, results, and lessons learned when building similar tools.