ALA

A computer avatar called marvin™ is about to make a big difference for Northern Territory Indigenous employment and business opportunities and has been mentioned on the world stage by Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

In Perth on 7 May, the Australian Government Minister for Education and Employment, Julia Gillard, announced an exciting new partnership between the Australian Government and the marvin™ team at the Northern Territory Institute for Community Engagement and Development (NTICED).

The Australian Government is working with the marvin™ team to help create employment and business opportunities for Indigenous Australians; the chance to share their stories, train others in animation and travel the globe.

marvin™ was created in 2003 to overcome cultural and language barriers in information and education campaigns, such as tackling substance abuse in remote communities.

Microsoft founder Bill Gates launched marvin™ on the international stage at the 2008 Government Leaders Forum Asia in Jakarta on 9 May. Mr Gates introduced marvin™ founder and Creative Director Mr J Easterby-Wood to demonstrate marvin™ to the delegates at the forum.

This exciting new partnership with the Australian Government means all Indigenous organisations and individuals in regional and remote locations across Australia can access a free licence to use marvin™.

 Mr Easterby-Wood originally used computer cartoons to distract the children of the students in his remote Northern Territory adult education classes, but soon found that his adult students’ attention was also focused on the computer characters on screen.

“It was definitely a case of if you can’t beat them, join them,” he said. “Instead of fighting the distraction I decided to use it.

“Now we have a system where users can create characters to deliver communication and education campaigns to any culture in the world. Users control the size and location of the characters on screen, and choose one of the animations built within the character to provide emphasis for what is being discussed by the character. But the biggest impact comes from the user’s ability to record the script in their own language.”

Users construct a digital cartoon to discuss a topic or enact a scenario. The script is recorded using a simple microphone and the computer matches the movement of the character’s mouth with the recorded script.

Partnering with Microsoft’s Partners in Learning (PiL) Program, this alliance marks the largest licensing access alliance of Australian built software in the world — over the next five years access to marvin™ will be available across the globe with the aim of ‘bringing animation to education and learning to life!’.

The flexible nature of marvin™ enables it to engage any community or classroom in the world in any language, with very little skills required, while being powerful enough to deliver broadcast quality animations.

One added bonus of the computer generated characters is that they can be used to discuss uncomfortable topics. “Because the characters are not ‘real people’ they are great for discussing topics that are culturally embarrassing or taboo.”

Whether it’s educating locals about bird flu in South East Asia, or a guide to accessing medical services in South America, marvin™ can deliver complex messages to the most isolated communities and cultures in Australia and overseas.

 For more information or to register your community and/or school for access to marvin™ visit  http://www.marvin.com.au  

For more information about the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, telephone (07) 3307 4700, email: enquiries@flexiblelearning.net.au or visit: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au

For more information about the Framework, its products, resources and support networks, contact: (07) 3307 4700, email: enquiries@flexiblelearning.net.au or visit: http://www.flexiblelearning.net.au