Abstract
To improve and augment elementary school level computer-based education classes, we developed a new educational support tool named Cyber Theater and the script language named Cyber Theater Scenario Language (CTSL). Cyber Theater enables to produce the 3DCG animation easily, which includes virtual actors who can speak by using speech synthesizer, virtual stages, stage parts, sound effects, and the background music. The scenario of animation story can be written by using CTSL. CTSL is a Tag-based hypertext language like the HTML language. At first, we developed several 3DCG animations stories for children. As a result of this work, we integrated the 3DCG contents (Actors, Stages, and Stage parts) to the database named Cyber Theater gallery. By using Cyber Theater, CTSL, and Cyber Theater gallery, we designed the Creative Lesson, where upper-aged pupils (including junior high school and high school) studied how to make a 3DCG animation and produced their original animation stories as their short presentation. Moreover, as a teaching material of Creative Lesson, we have developed the CTSL Learning Kit (CLKit), which includes several sample scenarios written by using the CTSL. It is designed for learning how to make a 3DCG animation step by step. In this paper, we report the design details of Cyber Theater, CTSL, the results of Creative Lesson's experiment, and the CLKit.
