The Imperial War Museums have been working on a project called Build The Truce for the last three years. The project explores the idea of truce, how conflict escalates and de-escalates, and how modern conflict might be prevented or resolved.

We were delighted when the Learning Team at IWM North approached us a few months ago to build an app to help them run Build the Truce sessions with students. The app is intended to help the face-to-face sessions more effective by allowing groups of students to explore themes that contribute to conflicts, e.g. arms race in World War 1, and to make decisions about where those themes should be placed in the conflict cycle. Students can move the themes around the touch screen interface on the Museum’s Motorola Xoom tablets, dynamically creating curves to show the escalation and de-escalation of conflict.

How it works

The session leaders can take control of the students’ tablets so that they can display the work of groups on a whiteboard, promoting debate about the decisions of the different groups.

It’s all built in Android and the project wasn’t without its challenges. It had to be designed, developed, tested and installed locally within 6 weeks. And creating the dynamic curve in Android was tricky, but everyone involved is very pleased with the outcome. We just hope the students agree! We’re hoping to report back on their views in the coming months.

You can find out more about the IWM project on their Build the Truce blog. The exhibition is on at the IWM’s London site until 23 September.