The ambient horn: designing a novel audio-based learning experience

The Ambient Horn is a handheld audio device designed to support a novel learning experience for children learning about habitat distributions and interdependencies in an outdoor woodland environment. Children use the horn to listen to non-speech audio sounds that represent ecological processes. The sounds are triggered according to the children's location in the wood using short-range RF pingers. A main objective is to provoke children into interpreting and reflecting upon the significance of the sounds in the context in which they occur. Studies with pairs of children showed the sounds to be provocative, generating discussion about the different sounds and their relationship within the wood. In addition, children appropriated the horn in creative ways, trying to ‘scoop’ up new sounds as they walked in different parts of the woodland.