TellTable: Collaborative Creative Storytelling on a Multi-touch Table, from Microsoft Research, UK.

The TellTable is a collaborative digital storytelling application designed for Microsoft's Surface interactive multi-user multi-touch table. It was used by children in a school library in the UK, and was quite successful. The video below provides an overview about the way the TellTable worked. I think every school library/media center should have something like this!

"TellTable, a system developed in the Soci-Digital Systems group, uses Microsoft Surface technology to provide an interactive storytelling experience, similar to how children would tell stories using physical toys. Children can create various digital characters and sceneries on Surface, made out of photos taken of real world objects and environments as well as finger paintings. By manipulating these characters using multi-touch gestures, children can narrate, act and record imaginative stories together, before sharing them with friends later on.

TellTable was deployed in a primary school, and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. It has seen crowds of kids create stories featuring characters as diverse as Ninja chickens and rampaging teddy bears. Teachers were also enthusiastic about the potential of TellTable as an education tool, to help children develop communication skills and to create interactive tutorials when teaching foreign languages." -- Microsoft Research UK

Publications

Xiang Cao, Siân E. Lindley, John Helmes, Abigail Sellen. (2010). Telling the whole story: Anticipation, inspiration and reputation in a field deployment of TellTable. Proceedings of CSCW 2010, ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. p. 251-260.

John Helmes, Xiang Cao, Siân E. Lindley, Abigail Sellen. (2009). Developing the story: Designing an interactive storytelling application. Proceedings of ITS 2009, ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces. p.49-52.