City of Tampere: Aarrearkku

Accessible Database for Everyone

While working on Globi Kamu AR, the City of Tampere asked if we would be interested in another more web-based project. An easily accessible database was needed for all early education language teachers across Finland. The database, eventually called Aarrearkku, would also include minigames that a wide range of young users could play to practice their language skills.

Due to Tampere having the most diverse language choices for children in Finland in 2020, City of Tampere was chosen to be in charge of the creation of Aarrearkku. There are materials for 7 different languages, which include Swedish, English, Russian, German, French, Spanish, and Chinese. Teachers in Tampere, along with a freelance artist Meri Papunen, worked together with the City of Tampere to plan out and create the materials for the database. Aarrearkku will allow for other cities to teach these languages in the future with more ease. 

Techincalities

Our UX wizard, Eetu Eskelinen, was in charge of setting up the site structure and the data architecture for the database. The website was hosted on a blog site that is run by the City of Tampere. There are up to 13 different categories for each language, each having a range of different materials. The site also inclueds an image bank and a game bank that teachers can use. There is also a page for classroom games with instructions for kids to play together.

The digital minigames inside the game bank have been created by Anthony and Severi. These minigames were designed for young users who could still learn the language of choice even if they aren’t able to read yet. The minigames are web-based, which enables them to be freely accessible at any time, including mobile. Severi programmed the minigames using Javascript. The art was made by aforementioned Meri and the audio was recorded by the language teachers involved in the project.

Already in action

Usability testing with the Aarrearkku minigames showed amazing results. After just a few minutes of playing children as young as 3 started to learn new words from randomly chosen languages. The database is already in use all across Finland.

We enjoy working with the City of Tampere in the early education area. It was amazing to have professional language teachers plan and create the materials. Mohavi is always happy to develop new or improved early education methods and materials.