| Children's programming, reconsidered: settings, stuff, and surfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 1-8 | |
| Michael Eisenberg; Nwanua Elumeze; Michael MacFerrin; Leah Buechley | |||
| The subject of children's programming has long been a vexed and
controversial one in the field of educational technology. Debates in this area
have typically focused on issues such as how to create a child-friendly
programming language; or whether children can learn particular topics (e.g.,
recursion) in programming; or indeed, whether it is worthwhile for children to
encounter programming at all. For the most part, these debates have taken place
against an implicit background of assumptions about what children's programming
looks like -- namely, an activity focused on creating effects on a desktop
screen or, occasionally, robotic toy. This paper argues that the cultural and
anthropological contexts of children's programming are now poised to change:
that new programming materials, physical settings, and unorthodox display
surfaces are likely to shift the nature of the children's-programming debate in
profound ways, and to make programming a far more informal, approachable, and
natural activity than heretofore. We illustrate this argument with projects
underway in our own research. Keywords: ambient computing, children's programming, paper computing, spherical
surface programming | |||
| EduWear: smart textiles as ways of relating computing technology to everyday life | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 9-17 | |
| Eva-Sophie Katterfeldt; Nadine Dittert; Heidi Schelhowe | |||
| In this paper, we report on the outcomes of the European project EduWear.
The aim of the project was to develop a construction kit with smart textiles
and to examine its impact on young people. The construction kit, including a
suitable programming environment and a workshop concept, was adopted by
children in a number of workshops.
The evaluation of the workshops showed that designing, creating, and programming wearables with a smart textile construction kit allows for creating personal meaningful projects which relate strongly to aspects of young people's life worlds. Through their construction activities, participants became more self-confident in dealing with technology and were able to draw relations between their own creations and technologies present in their environment. We argue that incorporating such constructionist processes into an appropriate workshop concept is essential for triggering thought processes about the character of digital media beyond the construction process itself. Keywords: children, construction kits, education, smart textiles | |||
| Designing wiimprovisation for mediation in group music therapy with children suffering from behavioral disorders | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 18-26 | |
| Samuel Benveniste; Pierre Jouvelot; Edith Lecourt; Renaud Michel | |||
| We present qualitative experimental evidence that the "Wiimprovisation"
process of using Nintendo Wiimotes as virtual instruments linked to a musical
sound system within the framework of Group Music Therapy sessions can provide
effective psychodynamic mediation for patients. We designed and implemented
specific modalities for movement-based sound control and tested our tool in two
clinical settings with children (age 7 to 12) suffering from behavioral
disorders. Our preliminary results show immediate acceptance of, long term
motivation for and meaningful expression through our system by patients. Future
work will focus on assessing the therapeutic potential of our platform's
personalization features in a controlled experiment. Keywords: Wiimote, mediation, music therapy, video game | |||
| Designing a story-based platform for HIV and AIDS counseling with Tanzanian children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 27-35 | |
| Marcus Duveskog; Kati Kemppainen; Roman Bednarik; Erkki Sutinen | |||
| Our research was conducted within a larger HIV and AIDS counseling project
in the southern part of Tanzania. We spent six months creating a pilot version
of an interactive digital platform that would allow learners to share their
experiences with the disease. The platform, called Sura ya UKIMWI (The Face of
AIDS), was designed by a team consisting of secondary school children,
university counseling students, HIV counseling experts and experts in ICT. We
took the case study approach and report on observations and experiences with
the participatory design (PD) process and its outcomes, in this specific
context. The results of the project indicate that the technology created under
the PD paradigm helps students to easily compose their own stories thereby
supporting their understanding and reflection on how these stories relate to
their own life experiences. Interacting with the stories was entertaining to
the students and they could identify the lessons to be learned. The approach
can be an alternative to past attempts that mostly imported technology for HIV
and AIDS education. Our experience can be used as a guide in establishing
similar digital projects in other parts of the HIV and AIDS affected world. Keywords: HIV and AIDS education, ICT for development, interactive stories,
participatory design | |||
| An investigation of purpose built netbooks for primary school education | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 36-43 | |
| Meg Cramer; Russell Beauregard; Mayank Sharma | |||
| This paper is a qualitative evaluation of student netbooks used in a
classroom setting. Netbooks are thought to be one promising development in the
next generation of learning devices, pairing everyday PC capabilities with a
purposeful design built for students and schools. The findings suggest that the
design is appropriate and engaging for the unique needs of individual primary
school students. Nevertheless, the design and specifications of the netbooks do
not yet address some classroom-level practices that are crucial to the success
of the technology in classrooms. This paper describes some of the key findings
of this evaluation, as well as a summary of design considerations for the
future design of mobile PCs for education. Keywords: 1 to 1, 1:1, K-12, classmate, education netbooks, netbooks, one-to-one
computing, one-to-one learning, user-centered design | |||
| Interactive storytelling in pre-school: a case-study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 44-51 | |
| Nicoletta Di Blas; Bianca Boretti | |||
| This paper presents a successful case-study of introduction of an authoring
tool for multimedia storytelling in a class of 27 preschool children. Unlike
more sophisticated and demanding approaches, the tool requires basic technology
and is very easy to use: in spite of this simplicity, the results are highly
rewarding in terms of creativity, media literacy and "traditional" educational
benefits (above all the ability to narrate). We deem this extreme simplicity a
pre-requisite for large-scale deployment of computational systems for kids in
standard, low-tech environments. Keywords: children, digital storytelling, eLearning, educational applications | |||
| Ten design lessons from the literature on child development and children's use of technology | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 52-60 | |
| Heléne Gelderblom; Paula Kotzé | |||
| The existing knowledge base on child development offers a wealth of
information that can be useful for the design of children's technology.
Furthermore, academic journals and conference proceedings provide us with a
constant stream of new research papers on child-computer interaction and
interaction design for children. It will require some effort from designers to
gather and digest the scattered research results and theoretical knowledge
applicable to their products. We conducted an extended research project whereby
the existing knowledge relating to the design of technology for children aged
five to eight have been gathered and presented in a way that makes it
accessible and useful to designers in practice. This paper provides and extract
from that research, focusing on ten useful lessons learnt from existing
literature. Keywords: children's technology, cognitive skill development, design guidelines,
interaction design for children | |||
| Out of the box: exploring the richness of children's use of an interactive table | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 61-69 | |
| Rune Nielsen; Jonas Fritsch; Kim Halskov; Martin Brynskov | |||
| In this article we explore how to enrich the experience of toys that usually
spend a boring time in their boxes in the toy store by digitally bringing them
out of the box. For this purpose we have developed an interactive table based
on the 3D game engine Virtools, together with the reacTIVision software and
have studied and evaluated the use of the table in a full-scale, realworld
situation in the toy department of a major Danish retailer. Our detailed
analysis highlights the wide range of interaction forms and interaction modes
facilitated by the table, moving from initial exploration to playful and
engaging experiences, both on individual and social levels. We sum up our
findings and their relevance for future design and show how the interplay of
physical design, interaction, and content has been instrumental in giving
children and adults a richer and extended experience of the toy -- even though
it remains in the box. Keywords: children, experience design, interaction design, interaction forms,
interaction modes, interactive tables | |||
| The fantasy table | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 70-79 | |
| Evi Indriasari Mansor; Antonella De Angeli; Oscar de Bruijn | |||
| We explore the possibility of creating an interactive system which can
foster fantasy play in preschool children in a tabletop environment. This paper
reports our experiences designing and testing two prototypes with young
children aged 3-4 years old. In the first study, we focused on understanding
the similarities and differences between the type of play afforded by real
objects and virtual objects. In the second study, we focused on testing
solutions for the interaction difficulties evinced in the first study to see
how to provide an engaging experience for children. Data were collected by
observing children while they played with the study materials. Both
quantitative and qualitative methods were used for data collection and
analysis. Keywords: fantasy play, physical and virtual objects, preschool children, tabletop
interfaces | |||
| Hands on what?: comparing children's mouse-based and tangible-based interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 80-88 | |
| Alissa N. Antle; Milena Droumeva; Daniel Ha | |||
| We investigate the similarities and differences -- in terms of quantitative
performance and qualitative behaviors -- between how children solve an object
manipulation task using mouse-based input versus tangible-based input. This
work examines the assumption common in tangible computing that direct physical
manipulation is beneficial for certain spatial tasks. We describe an
ecologically valid comparison of mouse-based versus tangible-based input for a
jigsaw puzzle task in order to better understand the tradeoffs in choosing
input and interaction styles. We include a traditional cardboard puzzle for
comparative purposes. The results of an experiment with 132 children indicate
children are more successful and faster at solving puzzles using a
tangible-based approach. Detailed temporal analysis indicates that pairs in the
tangible group spend most of their time using a combination of epistemic and
pragmatic actions which support mental problem solving. Conversely, pairs in
the mouse group use an ineffective trial and error strategy. Keywords: children, comparative experiment, digital tabletop, embodied interaction,
evaluation, input methods, interaction styles, jigsaw puzzle, methodology,
object manipulation, tangible computing, tangible interaction, video analysis | |||
| How children search the internet with keyword interfaces | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 89-96 | |
| Allison Druin; Elizabeth Foss; Leshell Hatley; Evan Golub; Mona Leigh Guha; Jerry Fails; Hilary Hutchinson | |||
| Children are among the most frequent users of the Internet, yet searching
and browsing the web can present many challenges. Studies over the past two
decades on how children search were conducted with finite and pre-determined
content found in CD-ROM applications, online digital libraries, and web
directories. However, with the current popularity of the open Internet and
keyword-based interfaces for searching it, more critical analysis of the
challenges children face today is needed. This paper presents the findings of
our initial study to understand how children ages 7, 9, and 11 search the
Internet using keyword interfaces in the home. Our research has revealed that
although today's children have been exposed to computers for most of their
lives, spelling, typing, query formulation, and deciphering results are all
still potential barriers to finding the information they need. Keywords: children, internet, query formulation, search, search engine, search
results, typing | |||
| Developing a media space for remote synchronous parent-child interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 97-105 | |
| Svetlana Yarosh; Stephen Cuzzort; Hendrik Müller; Gregory D. Abowd | |||
| While supporting family communication has traditionally been a domain of
interest for interaction designers, few research initiatives have explicitly
investigated remote synchronous communication between children and parents. We
discuss the design of the ShareTable, a media space that supports synchronous
interaction with children by augmenting videoconferencing with a
camera-projector system to allow for shared viewing of physical artifacts. We
present an exploratory evaluation of this system, highlighting how such a media
space may be used by families for learning and play activities. The ShareTable
was positively received by our participants and preferred over standard
videoconferencing. Informed by the results of our exploratory evaluation, we
discuss the next design iteration of the ShareTable and directions for future
investigations in this area. Keywords: computer-mediated communication, distributed families, media space, parents
and children | |||
| Children designing together on a multi-touch tabletop: an analysis of spatial orientation and user interactions | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 106-114 | |
| Jochen Rick; Amanda Harris; Paul Marshall; Rowanne Fleck; Nicola Yuill; Yvonne Rogers | |||
| Applications running on multi-touch tabletops are beginning to be developed
to enable children to collaborate on a variety of activities, from photo
sharing to playing games. However, little is know as to how children work
together on such interactive surfaces. We present a study that investigated
groups of children's use of a multitouch tabletop for a shared-space design
task, requiring reasoning and compromise. The OurSpace application was designed
to allow children to arrange the desks in their classroom and allocate students
to seats around those desks. A number of findings are reported, including a
comparison of single versus multiple touch, equity of participation, and an
analysis of how a child's tabletop position affects where he or she touches. A
main finding was that children used all of the tabletop surface, but took more
responsibility for the parts of the design closer to their relative position. Keywords: co-located collaboration, collaborative design, log-file analysis,
multi-touch, shareable interfaces, touch analysis | |||
| Putting interference to work in the design of a whole-class learning activity | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 115-122 | |
| Tom Moher | |||
| Who's Who is a single-display groupware application designed for use by an
entire class of young students. Utilizing a shared display, each user controls
the state of discrete display elements using a simple interface on a handheld
device; however, the semantics of user operations are left unspecified and
become the subjects of guided student discovery. Interference among users is
leveraged in support of student learning about the scientific principle of
"control of variables," in particular, the strategy of varying one independent
variable at a time in multivariate systems. We present the experience of a
third-grade classroom that used Who's Who, including both an account of
learning outcomes and a description of the technology and social interactions
that led to those outcomes. Keywords: control of variables, elementary school learners, interference, science
inquiry, single-display groupware | |||
| Designing for spatial competence | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 123-130 | |
| Susanne Seitinger | |||
| Child-computer interaction designers are increasingly concerned with
developing technologies that support and encourage physical activity in
children in everyday indoor and outdoor settings. This trend mirrors commercial
developments towards so-called exertion interfaces like the Nintendo Wii that
require full-body engagement. Physical health benefits aside, these types of
interfaces present an important and underexplored design opportunity because
they also engage children's spatial cognitive abilities. Can we harness this
potential and design interfaces that support the development of spatial
competence in children? To explore this question, the paper describes some of
the cognitive and neural underpinnings of spatial competence as they relate to
interaction design for children. With this background, I explore five
interaction design examples: taking multiple perspectives on the environment,
zooming in and out, estimating distances, experiencing motion, and encountering
rich visual cues. These examples provide a starting point for new directions in
designing exertion interfaces and ubiquitous computing interfaces for children
that support different aspects of spatial cognitive development. Keywords: design theory, exertion interfaces, physical play, spatial cognitive
development | |||
| A novel approach to interactive playgrounds: the interactive slide project | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 131-139 | |
| Joan Soler-Adillon; Jaume Ferrer; Narcís Parés | |||
| The incipient research on interactive playgrounds is a promising field that
can enhance in many ways growth, health and education of children and
youngsters. In this paper, we present a novel approach to interactive
playgrounds by describing the physical and interaction design of a new
platform: the Interactive Slide. We concentrate on the main design issues and
relate the acceptance of this platform; specifically through two applications
that we have designed for it: one for children 4 to 8 years and a second for
youngsters 10 to 14. This platform can provide a fertile ground for creative,
leisure and educational applications and experiences. However, our main focus
is on countering lack of physical activity and lack of socialization in
children, which are important issues in all developed countries (and some
underdeveloped ones) and especially important in Europe because of their
accelerated pace of incidence. Keywords: exertion interfaces, full-body interaction, interaction design, physical
activity, playgrounds, socialization | |||
| Identifying embodied metaphors in children's sound-action mappings | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 140-149 | |
| Saskia Bakker; Alissa N. Antle; Elise van den Hoven | |||
| Physical activity and manipulating physical objects can be beneficial for
learning. Earlier studies [2] have shown that interaction models that rely on
unconscious and embodied knowledge (based on embodied metaphors) can benefit
the learning process. However, more than one embodied metaphor might be
applicable. In this paper, we present the results of a user study (n=65)
designed to identify embodied metaphors seven to nine year old children use
when enacting abstract concepts related to musical sound. The results provide
evidence that multiple different embodied metaphors can unconsciously be used
to structure the understanding of these concepts. In addition, we have
identified and categorized commonly used metaphors based on the children's
enactments of changing sound concepts. Keywords: auditory interaction, children, design research, embodied metaphor, embodied
schemas, image schemas, learning, music, sound enactment, tangible interaction,
tangible user interfaces | |||
| A team of presentation agents for edutainment | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 150-153 | |
| Bernardina De Carolis; Veronica Rossano | |||
| This paper presents the development of a presentation team that shows,
explains and provides useful advices to children in the domain of "healthy
nutrition". Agents of the team are endowed with different roles and personality
traits so as to explain domain concepts from different viewpoints. In order to
develop a system independent from the domain and the bodies of the agents,
explanations and pieces of advice are generated and not statically scripted.
The presentation plan is distributed to the various team actors and it is
adapted to the characteristics of the interlocutor. To test the system and to
evaluate the efficacy of the team in this domain we used a family of characters
already present in the cartoon world: the Smurfies. Keywords: edutainment, presentation team | |||
| Formative evaluation of a didactic software for acquiring problem solving abilities using Prolog | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 154-157 | |
| Pierpaolo Di Bitonto; Teresa Roselli; Veronica Rossano | |||
| Informatics has permeated the educational environments at all levels. In
Italian primary schools Informatics teachers present the computer and how it
works rather than the programming languages. At present, there is a deep debate
about the use of programming languages and, in particular, logic programming in
the primary school. On the basis of these premises, the paper presents a
didactic software, named KidsPro, addressed to pupils attending fifth-grade of
primary school. It aims at improving the user problem solving abilities using
Prolog. In order to build an effective and efficient software the User-Centred
Design approach was used and the paper presents the results of the formative
evaluation performed. The results of this pilot study will be used in the
further implementation of the software. Keywords: didactic software, formative evaluation, user centred design | |||
| Virtual sandbox: adding groupware abilities to Scratch | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 158-161 | |
| Timo Göttel | |||
| This paper highlights shortcomings of programming environments designed for
novices to be used as a collaborative tool in game design. It also addresses
these issues in the context of the bad image of informatics today. This article
focuses on the graphical programming environment Scratch, which is well
received by pupils and teachers. We will present observations on group behavior
using Scratch in two projects at schools. The pupils were between 12 and 18
years old and had to design games within a week. Finally, we will introduce a
Scratch mock-up to support collaboration, whose features were derived from our
observations. Keywords: cooperative game design, online project resources, scratch | |||
| SyCo: a collaborative learning tool for generating ideas in private and in public | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 162-165 | |
| Chrisovalantis Kefalidis; Georgia Lazakidou; Symeon Retalis | |||
| In this paper a synchronous computer supported collaborative learning tool
called SyCo is presented. It was designed to facilitate students in performing
tasks according to the principles of various collaborative learning strategies,
such as Jigsaw and eARMA. SyCo innovates because during the collaborative
learning process it allows each student to have a private space to think and
draw their ideas before presenting them to their peer-students in the public
space. Thus, within SyCo peers can move into and out of a shared space, work
privately, copy and paste parts of their own work that had been sketched in
their private space in order to share them with others. Keywords: collaborative tool, creativity support tool, learning, synchronous | |||
| MunchCrunch: a game to learn healthy-eating heuristics | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 166-169 | |
| Anna Mansour; Mugdha Barve; Sushama Bhat; Ellen Yi-Luen Do | |||
| Children and adolescents are at an age where they are beginning to gain
autonomy over choosing the foods they eat, yet may not have adequate support or
information to make informed choices. This paper describes the design of a
heuristic-based health game called MunchCrunch to help this age group learn
more about healthy and unhealthy foods to develop balanced eating habits. Keywords: adolescents, children, food pyramid, health, healthy eating, tangible game | |||
| State machines are child's play: observing children ages 9 to 11 playing Escape Machine | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 170-173 | |
| Michael Philetus Weller; Ellen Yi-Luen Do; Mark D. Gross | |||
| We developed Escape Machine, a puzzle game in which children control the
behavior of characters in a maze by manipulating a tangible state machine built
with Posey, our computationally-enhanced hub-and-strut construction kit. We
observed children ages nine to eleven playing the game in several sessions. The
qualitative results of this observation validate the promise of Posey and
Escape Machine to engage children in manipulating algorithmic specifications
for behavior. Keywords: algorithmic specification, construction kits, evaluation, games, tangible UI | |||
| Lali: exploring a tangible interface for augmented play for preschoolers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 174-177 | |
| Hester Bruikman; Annemiek van Drunen; He Huang; Vanessa Vakili | |||
| This paper outlines the exploration of a Tangible user interface for
unstructured play, in which a physical plush toy is used to remotely control an
augmented digital representation of itself. Preschool users were profiled and
an initial prototype was built and evaluated using a co-discovery exploration.
It was observed that the children enjoyed playing with the toy, and that the
children over 2 years of age understood the remote coupling of the physical and
digital representation. Keywords: co-discovery, play, preschool children, tangible interfaces, user centered | |||
| First steps in distributed tangible technologies: a virtual tug of war | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 178-181 | |
| Antony Harfield; Ilkka Jormanainen; Hassan Shujau | |||
| The paper introduces an example of a 'distributed tangible technology' as a
new type of technology that enables children in different physical locations to
engage in physical interaction. A virtual tug of war game is an example of a
distributed tangible technology that is played by groups of children pulling a
rope from two separate locations. The game was launched when teams in Finland
and South Africa competed during an international science festival. The paper
describes the design and implementation of the tug of war game. It explores the
challenges combining tangible user interfaces with distributed computing and
distributed technologies to be overcome in future educational applications for
children. Keywords: distributed computing, educational technology, games, participatory design,
tangible user interfaces, tug of war | |||
| Increasing children's social competence through games, an exploratory study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 182-185 | |
| Koen Hendrix; Robert van Herk; Janneke Verhaegh; Panos Markopoulos | |||
| We describe the design and evaluation of Playground Architect, a
multi-player game designed to help shy children gain social confidence. The
game is played by a small group of children around an interactive tabletop
surface using a tangible user interface. The game was evaluated with 32
children (mean age 9.5). All players enjoyed the game. Shy children enjoyed
being in charge and were quite talkative during play. Interviews with teachers
show that some shy children behaved notably more outgoing. These results
illustrate the potential of socially educational games. Keywords: children, shyness, social competence, social games | |||
| Sniff: designing characterful interaction in a tangible toy | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 186-189 | |
| Sara Johansson | |||
| This paper presents a design case of an interactive, tangible toy dog called
Sniff that through the use of wireless technology gives auditory and tactile
feedback from tagged objects in the world. By focusing on non-visual
interactive qualities the project aims to engage with the particular needs of
children with sight impairment, but also for inclusion across a range of user
abilities and age.
Sniff has been developed through an interleaved concept, product and prototype design process that has resulted in a highly characterful soft toy that supports playful activities. The design findings relate the importance of physical prototyping in design of embodied interactions and reflections on the role of character and abstraction in interaction design. Keywords: RFID, character design, interaction design, product design, tangible
interaction | |||
| User-oriented design and tangible interaction for kindergarten children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 190-193 | |
| Javier Marco; Eva Cerezo; Sandra Baldasarri; Emanuela Mazzone; Janet C. Read | |||
| This paper describes a tabletop prototype that allows kindergarten children
to take the benefits of the new pedagogical possibilities that tangible
interaction and tabletop technologies offer to manipulative learning. After
analyzing children's cognitive and psychomotorial skills, we have designed and
tuned a prototype game suitable for children aged 3 to 4 years old. Our
prototype uniquely combines low cost tangible interaction and tabletop
technology with tutored learning. The design has been based on observations of
the children using the technology, letting them freely play with the
application during three play sessions. These observational sessions informed
the design decisions for the game whilst also confirming the children's
enjoyment with the prototype. Keywords: augmented reality, children, game, input devices, interaction design,
learning, tabletop, tangible interaction, user center design | |||
| Designing for physical-digital correspondence in tangible learning environments | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 194-197 | |
| Sara Price; Taciana Pontual Falcão | |||
| In tangible learning environments the potential to exploit different
physical-digital links increases representational power but also broadens the
complexity of design. This paper presents studies that illustrate the effect of
physical correspondence design choices on learners' interpretations,
particularly regarding meaning making and conceptual mappings between objects
and representations, and learners' ability to generalize. Preconceptions and
associations with familiar real settings were found to have a significant level
of interference in children's perception, interpretation and comprehension of
the concepts. Keywords: children, design, interactive surfaces, learning, physical correspondence,
tangible | |||
| Drama prototyping for the design of urban interactive systems for children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 198-201 | |
| Andrea Alessandrini; Antonio Rizzo; Elisa Rubegni | |||
| In this paper, we present Wi-swing, a case study approach in designing a
networked playground for children located in a public garden. The approach
adopted in the case study is based on prototyping using the technique of
scenario dramatization. The process of designing augmented interactive systems
needs to be addressed to consider the physical, aesthetic and social aspects of
interaction.
In the case study illustrated in this paper, the design process is based on prototyping using the scenario dramatization technique. This technique allows us to explore and investigate the possible features of interactive artifacts focusing on the potential of the technology and the emergent practices. Wi-swing is the concept developed using dramatization: a tool for listening to stories in public spaces, controlled entirely by children. In the paper we show the results of the early design process and the development of the concepts by scenario dramatization. In what follows, we describe a case study in which we applied this technique for the development of an interactive urban playground through which children can be authors of the stories to which they are listening. Keywords: ambient device, augmented furniture, human factors, interaction design,
prototyping, scenario-based design, ubiquitous computing | |||
| Kingdom of the Knights: evaluation of a seamlessly augmented toy environment for playful learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 202-205 | |
| Steve Hinske; Matthias Lampe; Nicola Yuill; Sara Price; Marc Langheinrich | |||
| Ubiquitous technologies offer new opportunities for digitally augmenting
children's toys and play experiences. A key question is how augmented toy
environments affect children's playful learning, and whether this differs from
non-augmented play environments. This paper presents preliminary results of a
user study we conducted to evaluate an augmented toy environment that we built
-- the Augmented Knights Castle -- in terms of fun and storytelling,
particularly when compared with an identical, non-augmented version. All
sessions were observed, video-recorded and further feedback was elicited
through small group interviews and questionnaires. Findings suggest ways in
which digitally augmented play environments promote different kinds of activity
from an equivalent non-augmented play environment. Keywords: RFID technology, augmented knights' castle, augmented toys, children,
playful learning, user study | |||
| Bubble Letters: a child-centric interface for virtual and real world experience | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 206-209 | |
| Jinyoung Kim; Donggi Jung; Kibeom Lee; Yongjin Jin; Woon Seung Yeo | |||
| In this paper, we suggest a new interactive game for children, Bubble
Letters, which allows children to experience both real and virtual environments
by interacting with physical interfaces. A user composes a message from the
screen and displays it on the public screen. With this process, children can
learn how to compose and deliver their messages to their friends with fun, and
may also develop a conception of the world by involving physical interactions.
Adults can also enjoy Bubble Letters by retrieving childhood memories through
childlike acts with their children. Keywords: interactive games, personal and public experience, tangible user interfaces,
virtual and real world | |||
| Augmented-reality scratch: a children's authoring environment for augmented-reality experiences | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 210-213 | |
| Iulian Radu; Blair MacIntyre | |||
| In this paper we introduce AR Scratch, the first augmented-reality (AR)
authoring environment designed for children. By adding augmented-reality
functionality to the Scratch programming platform, this environment allows
pre-teens to create programs that mix real and virtual spaces. Children can
display virtual objects on a real-world space seen through a camera, and they
can control the virtual world through interactions between physical objects.
This paper describes the system design process, which focused on appropriately
presenting the AR technology to the typical Scratch population (children aged
8-12), as influenced by knowledge of child spatial cognition, programming
expertise, and interaction metaphors. Evaluation of this environment is
proposed, accompanied by results from an initial pilot study, as well as
discussion of foreseeable impacts on the Scratch user community. Keywords: augmented reality, children, interaction design, metaphors, programming
environments | |||
| GENTORO: a system for supporting children's storytelling using handheld projectors and a robot | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 214-217 | |
| Masanori Sugimoto; Toshitaka Ito; Tuan Ngoc Nguyen; Shigenori Inagaki | |||
| This paper describes a system called GENTORO that uses a robot and a
handheld projector for supporting children's storytelling activities. GENTORO
differs from many existing systems in that children can make a robot play their
own story in a physical space augmented by mixed-reality technologies. A user
study conducted in collaboration with elementary school children and teachers
indicates that GENTORO's features can enhance children's embodied participation
in, and their level of engagement with, their storytelling activities, and can
support children in designing and expressing creative and original stories. Keywords: children, design, handheld projector, mobile mixed reality, robot,
storytelling | |||
| StoryTime: a new way for children to write | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 218-221 | |
| Alex Kuhn; Chris Quintana; Elliot Soloway | |||
| The StoryTime project explores the benefits of and issues surrounding the
use of mobile finger-touch devices to support struggling writers. StoryTime is
a mobile finger-touch tool designed from a learner-centered design perspective
to be a supportive writing tool for children 7-9 years old. StoryTime allows
children to write stories by providing simpler writing mechanics, increased
user engagement, and a contextualized writing experience. The combination of
these attributes allows struggling writers to focus more on the sentence
construction task. Here we describe the iterative design and testing of three
versions of StoryTime on 13 children to date. Keywords: children's literacy, finger-touch interface, learner-centered design, mobile
learning, usability | |||
| LEGS system in a zoo: use of mobile phones to enhance observation of animals | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 222-225 | |
| Mariko Suzuki; Itsuo Hatono; Tetsuo Ogino; Fusako Kusunoki; Hidefusa Sakamoto; Kazuhiko Sawada; Yasuhiro Hoki; Katsuya Ifuku | |||
| In the LEGS system, GPS-equipped mobile phones are used to learn about
animals and their bodies from the viewpoint of evolution in a zoo. This system
identifies nearby animals, asks questions about the animals' bodies to enhance
observation, provides navigations for the next observations, and summarizes
several observed animals' parts from the viewpoint of evolution. 24 students
(age: 14-15 years old) learnt about animals using the mobile phones in a zoo.
We evaluated the system and found that it helped students explore, observe, and
learn about animals' bodies independently in the zoo. Keywords: GPS, location awareness, mobile phones, zoo | |||
| WeWrite: 'on-the-fly' interactive writing on electronic textiles with mobile phones | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 226-229 | |
| Thomas Winkler; Martina Ide; Christian Wolters; Michael Herczeg | |||
| In this paper, we describe the background of the design and the new
possibilities of interaction for teenagers with WeWrite, a JAVA-based
interaction tool for mobile phones. WeWrite opens up new possibilities for
interacting with self-designed and programmed wearables, using the Lily-Pad,
the iconic programming interface Amici, as well as IDE Arduino. WeWrite has
been designed and developed by three university students in close cooperation
with teachers and thirty-one 10th grade students. WeWrite enables its young
users to experience and reflect on e-textiles as creating new modes of
communication, interaction and identity construction while writing letter
strings. Using LED matrixes, animated forms of digital writing can be displayed
on clothes (e.g. jeans and sweatshirts). Furthermore, LEDs can be attached to
gloves that create the impression of air letters when moved quickly in darkened
rooms. Keywords: e-textiles, iterative design, learning, mobile phones, programmable
environments, user centered design, wearable computing | |||
| "Playing with" museum exhibits: designing educational games mediated by mobile technology | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 230-233 | |
| Nikoleta Yiannoutsou; Ioanna Papadimitriou; Vassilis Komis; Nikolaos Avouris | |||
| In this paper, we describe two educational games mediated by mobile
technology which were designed for use in the context of a traditional
historical museum by young children. Our analysis focuses on the principles of
the educational design, on the use of mobile technology and on the envisaged
interaction between the exhibits and the children. The main argument of the
paper is that mobile technology can support the play with the exhibits of a
museum -- instead of just viewing them in the more traditional way -- and in
this context the spectrum of children interaction with the exhibits can be
broadened and enriched. Keywords: educational games, mobile technologies, museums | |||
| Learning abstract concepts through bodily engagement: a comparative, qualitative study | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 234-237 | |
| Anja Hashagen; Corinne Büching; Heidi Schelhowe | |||
| The emergent discussion about embodiment offers new perspectives in
Human-Computer-Interaction and needs further fundamental research in particular
for its usefulness in the field of education. With our approach we want to use
the concept to foster children's motivation to gain insight into the secrets of
"intelligent" behavior of computer-generated artifacts. In this paper, our
leading question is: Does bodily engagement support children in learning
abstract models implemented through digital technologies better than through
traditional software applications? We developed an installation Der Schwarm,
which aims at motivating children to learn by whole body interaction as well as
a learning software application Boids Regeln. We conducted and evaluated the
study during a workshop with children aged 9-10 years. Finally we discuss the
method and the results of this comparative, qualitative study. Keywords: abstract concepts, children education, embodied interaction,
human-computer-interaction, virtual environments | |||
| Materiality, practice, body | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 238-241 | |
| Helle Karoff; Stine Liv Johansen | |||
| In order to understand the interaction between human and technology, the
triangulation between materiality, body and practice must be emphasized. By
introducing play situations from a just finished empirical study in three
bigger cities in Denmark, this paper will address the interplay from the
human's point of view, as a body doing a certain practice, which is constantly
produced by taking approaches which comes from phenomenology and practice
theory. We introduce aspects of play understood as a dynamic between
materiality, body and practice with the goal of inspiring not only for new
design approaches, but also to use the concept of affordance in a broader
sense. Also we want to think about testing as not being just about usability,
but related to a broader cultural practice. Keywords: affordance, body, cultural practice, materiality, phenomenology, play,
practice theory | |||
| Awakening to maker methodology: the metamorphosis of a curious caterpillar | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 242-245 | |
| Jay Silver | |||
| For a couple of years, I have used what I now see to be the Maker
Methodology to develop a project called "Drawdio." I first learned parts of the
methodology from fellow academics who are practicing it at my lab as an
un/partially/multi named part of Media Lab culture [1]. I refined how I viewed
the meaning of this way of conducting research further through my interactions
with several pockets of the maker community. In this paper, I will try to make
more concrete what and why Maker Methodology is. Ultimately, we'll need to make
close case studies of other researchers who are already using this methodology,
slowly refining the nuances. But first, I'll start with a narrative about how I
came to know the Maker Methodology as a slice through one project. Keywords: DIY, Drawdio, maker, methodology, nature | |||
| "It has to be a group work!": co-design with children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 246-249 | |
| Kirsikka Vaajakallio; Jung-Joo Lee; Tuuli Mattelmäki | |||
| Design researchers are increasingly interested in techniques that support
creative teams in various design processes. The methods developed for sharing
knowledge and generating solutions are mostly focusing on adults. Creative
collaboration with and among children have a specific set of challenges to be
considered. In this paper, we describe two design experiments that were
conducted with children aged 7 to 9, to explore the applications of co-design
methods with children. In those experiments, we observed that children are
capable of utilizing make tools but have challenges in group dynamics and
reflecting everyday experiences into design ideas. Keywords: children, co-design, design games, make tools | |||
| Evaluating outdoor play for children: virtual vs. tangible game objects in pervasive games | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 250-253 | |
| Iris Soute; Maurits Kaptein; Panos Markopoulos | |||
| In this paper we report a case study where two versions of the same outdoor
pervasive game were compared: one featuring a virtual game object and the other
with a tangible representation of it. Our aim was to explore the effect on
social interaction and physical activity; two characteristics of Head-Up Games.
Based on evaluation with 27 children we can conclude that both approaches
support Head-Up Games well, and offer different design opportunities that
should be explored further. Keywords: children, outdoor games, pervasive games | |||
| Computer game design and the imaginative play of young children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 254-257 | |
| Irina Verenikina; Jan Herrington | |||
| This paper discusses preliminary findings of the study of computer game
design in relation to current understanding of imaginative play and its
developmental value for young children. The crucial role of children's play in
their development is well documented. A number of criteria, which are essential
in building a foundation for children's cognitive development in play, were
identified based on a literature review of the theoretical and empirical
studies of child's play. The identified criteria were utilized to observe two
young children playing various types of computer games to explore the
opportunities that the games provide for imaginative play in the early
childhood years. Keywords: child development, computer games, design criteria, imaginative play, young
children | |||
| Designing the 'record' button: using children's understanding of icons to inform the design of a musical interface | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 258-261 | |
| Lorna McKnight; Janet C. Read | |||
| While standard icons often exist for common tasks, it can be difficult to
design meaningful icons for non-standard tasks. Following a desire to build a
music application that does not rely on text-based instructions, this paper
explores suitable iconic representations for a 'record music' function on a
mobile device. A study was carried out with primary school children (aged 8-10)
to explore their current understanding of icons and elicit their requirements.
It was seen that they were familiar with common icons, but that audio recording
remains a difficult concept to represent through icons alone. Keywords: audio functions, children, icons, interface design, usability | |||
| Exploring children's investigation of data outliers | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 262-265 | |
| Juan Pablo Hourcade; Keith B. Perry | |||
| In spite of the increasing amounts of digitized data that will be available
to children when they grow up, little attention has been paid toward preparing
them for the process of exploring data, researching related information,
synthesizing findings, and presenting them to peers. In this paper we present
our observations on activities conducted with 10-12 year old children that
involved identifying outliers using an information visualization tool,
researching the reasons behind the outlying data, and synthesizing and
presenting results using a media authoring tool. Our observations suggest
children in this age group can make use of information visualization tools
designed for a general adult population, but that great difficulties remain in
conducting online research, and in integrating data exploration, online
research, and presentation of results. Keywords: children, information presentation, information visualization, online
research | |||
| Experience it, draw it, rate it: capture children's experiences with their drawings | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 266-270 | |
| Diana Xu; Janet C. Read; Gavin Sim; Barbara McManus | |||
| This paper investigates the use of drawings as a tool for the evaluation of
children's interfaces. In the study, children's experiences on a variety of
computer interfaces were captured in drawings. A group of four researchers
participated in the coding of the drawings, before the results were aggregated
and statistically analysed.
The evaluation of the approach is positive: the chosen drawing method could be used easily and was effective in conveying the user experience from the drawings; a number of the drawings conveyed information pertaining to user experiences: fun (F), goal fit (GF) and tangible magic (TM); the method was found generally reliable at capturing all three elements and particularly reliable at capturing fun. Keywords: TUI, children, drawing, evaluation, fun, tangible magic, tangible
technology, user experience | |||
| Enhancing user experience while gaming in archaeological parks with cellular phones | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 270-271 | |
| Carmelo Ardito; Maria Francesca Costabile; Rosa Lanzilotti | |||
| Traditional visits to archaeological parks, which are usually organized by
schools, tend to generate little interest in young students, especially when
they are faced with the ruins of ancient settlements whose current appearance
no longer reflects their initial purpose. We have designed Explore!, an
m-learning system which allows students to visit the park while playing a game.
By exploiting the imaging and multimedia capabilities of the latest generation
cell phone, the game improves young visitors' experience. In particular,
contextual sounds have been integrated to recreate the historical atmosphere:
users can hear sounds generated by ancient people engaged in their daily
activities. The slim architecture of the system absolves the archaeological
park from any need to invest in hardware infrastructure. An Authoring Tool can
be used by history experts to implement in Explore! games to be played in
different parks. In this demo paper we briefly present the game and the main
components of Explore!: 1) the Game Application running on cellular phones, to
be used during the game, 2) the Master Application running on a notebook, used
by the game master (i.e. a teacher) to perform a reflection phase, which
follows the game and 3) the Authoring Tool to modify/create new games. Keywords: children, edutainment, mobile learning | |||
| Game as life -- life as game | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 272-273 | |
| Winslow Burleson; Collin Ruffenach; Camilla Jensen; Uday Kumar Bandaru; Kasia Muldner | |||
| In Game As Life -- Life As Game (GALLAG), ubiquitous computing and
personally-tailored game scenarios integrate activities across the virtual and
physical domains to further extend emerging avant-garde "real-life games" that
are coordinated by digital means to blur digital-physical-social barriers.
Influences and activities in GALLAG game scenarios affect real life and vice
versa. To realize this, we are using several methods of experience and
behavioral assessment, as well as environmental, contextual and physiological
sensors, in conjunction with participatory design approaches that include
end-user-programming. This agenda empowers users to create their own synergies
between their on-line activities to help them achieve their personal realworld
aspirations. Ultimately GALLAG is leading to "Life Long Games" that provide
persistent, supportive, and actualizing experiences. Keywords: interaction design, learning and creativity, pervasive games, ubiquitous
computing | |||
| Petimo: safe social networking robot for children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 274-275 | |
| Adrian David Cheok; Owen Noel Newton Fernando; Charith Lasantha Fernando | |||
| As social networking widely spreads among the community, especially among
the younger generation, the negative influence created on children has become a
serious social concern. "Petimo" is an interactive robotic toy designed to
protect children from potential risks in social networks and the virtual world
and it helps them to make a safely connected social networking environment. It
adds a new physical dimension to social computing through enabling a second
authentication mode, providing extra safety in making friends by physically
touching each others robot. Petimo can be connected to any social network and
it provides safety and security for children. As a proof of concept, we have
developed a 3D virtual world, "Petimo-World" which demonstrates all of the
realizable basic features with traditional online social networks. Petimo-World
stands out from all other virtual worlds with its interesting and sophisticated
interactions such as the visualization of a friends' relationships through
spatial distribution in the 3D space to clearly understand the closeness of the
friendship, personalized avatars and sending of special gifts/emoticons. Keywords: digital neighborhoods, robotics, social networking, ubiquitous computing | |||
| FearNot!: providing children with strategies to cope with bullying | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 276-277 | |
| Lynne Hall; Susan Jones; Ana Paiva; Ruth Aylett | |||
| This paper presents FearNot!, an innovative anti-bullying intervention for
8-12 year old children, illustrating the potential of Virtual Learning
Environments in providing supportive secure experiential learning for
challenging social situations. The innovative technological approach taken to
FearNot! is briefly described, along with an overview of the evaluation
approach used to assess FearNot! with over 800 children in the UK and Germany.
The demo of FearNot! provides participants with the opportunity to experience
leading edge technology adopted for a classroom intervention. Keywords: bullying, coping strategies, role play, synthetic characters, virtual
learning environments | |||
| Tangible optical chess: a laser strategy game on an interactive tabletop | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 278-279 | |
| David Joyner; Chih-Sung (Andy) Wu; Ellen Yi-Luen Do | |||
| This paper presents Tangible Tracking Table, an interactive tabletop
display, and Optical Chess, a strategy game. We discuss the design and
implementation of both systems and report our evaluation game play sessions
with young adults, with a special focus on how the Tangible Tracking Table
enhances interaction over a point-and-click interface. Keywords: Chess, game, tabletop, tangible interaction | |||
| Human-robot interactions to promote play and learning | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 280-281 | |
| Byron Lahey; Natalie Freed; Patrick Lu; Camilla Nørgaard Jensen; Kasia Muldner; Winslow Burleson | |||
| Research shows that children construct much of their knowledge through
active manipulation of the environment, which allows them to connect abstract
concepts to observable outcomes. Despite these findings, although the
integration of novel pedagogical technologies into classroom settings has
begun, the technologies predominantly have focused on instruction in virtual
contexts. To date, however, little is known about novel technologies that step
outside of the virtual realm into the physical classroom, thereby leveraging
findings on embodied mathematical cognition to influence educational practices.
As a first step in filling this gap, we present the Active Learning Environment
with Robotics Tangibles (ALERT) framework. Our system relies on human-robot
interaction and tangible instruction to motivate and trigger learning in
students through a variety of activities that integrate play and instruction in
mixed reality environments. Here we describe some of the activities supported
by ALERT, and discuss plans for evaluating the pedagogical utility of the
system. Keywords: affect, human-robot interaction, learning | |||
| A museum mobile game for children using QR-codes | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 282-283 | |
| Ugo B. Ceipidor; Carlo M. Medaglia; Amedeo Perrone; Maria De Marsico; Giorgia Di Romano | |||
| We present a mobile game to play a museum treasure hunt, addressed to
students that are about 11-14. They have to search for the "materializations"
of the solutions to a sequence of riddles, and to photograph them by personal
camera phones. The letters of a secret word are orderly provided on right
answers, spurring the interest for the exhibition through the cellular phone.
The novelty is the use of QR-Codes, a kind of 2D codes, to identify the correct
answers and to enjoy some other services. A preliminary field test in the Norsk
Telemuseum gave very good results. Keywords: QR-codes, educational games, mobile interaction | |||
| Jots: reflective learning in scratch | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 284-285 | |
| Eric Rosenbaum | |||
| This paper presents early work on the "Jots" system, integrated with the
Scratch programming environment, which aims to help learners reflect on their
learning processes. The design of the software tool and associated pedagogical
strategies is presented in the context of a map of reference frames, which are
levels of analysis that learners move between as they reflect. The design of a
study to evaluate and further develop the system is described. Keywords: microblogging, reflection, scratch | |||
| Pendaphonics: an engaging tangible pendulum-based sonic interaction experience | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 286-288 | |
| Anne-Marie Skriver Hansen; Dan Overholt; Winslow Burleson; Camilla Nørgaard Jensen; Byron Lahey; Kasia Muldner | |||
| Pendaphonics is a tangible physical-digital-sonic environment and
interactive system that motivates children and adults to be physically active
and explorative. The development of this system presents a strategy for the
design and evaluation of a low-cost, flexible, large scale tangible system that
is engaging for children and adults alike. Pendaphonics has been installed in a
public new media arts space, where over 200 people have interacted with it.
Here, we describe Pendaphonics tangible interaction scenarios, including the
broad potential of this system as a compositional and choreographic tool, an
educational exhibit, and as an interface that facilitates playful interaction,
exploration, discovery and creativity. Keywords: embodied experience, interaction design, physical activity, play | |||
| Simple tangible language elements for young children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 288-289 | |
| Andrew Cyrus Smith | |||
| We propose simple tangible language elements for very young children to use
when constructing programmes. The equivalent Turtle Talk instructions are given
for comparison. Two examples of the tangible language code are shown to
illustrate alternative methods of solving a given challenge. Keywords: children, programming, syntax, tangible, turtle talk | |||
| Huggy pajama: a parent and child hugging communication system | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 290-291 | |
| James Keng Soon Teh; Adrian David Cheok; Yongsoon Choi; Charith Lasantha Fernando; Roshan Lalintha Peiris; Owen Noel Newton Fernando | |||
| Huggy Pajama is a novel wearable system aimed at promoting physical
interaction in remote communication between parent and child. This system
enables parents and children to hug one another through a novel hugging
interface device and a wearable, hug reproducing pajama connected through the
Internet. The hugging device is a small, mobile doll with an embedded pressure
sensing circuit that is able to accurately sense varying levels of the range of
human force produced from natural touch. This device sends hug signals to a
haptic jacket that simulates the feeling of being hugged to the wearer. It
features air pressure actuation to reproduce hug. Keywords: haptic interface, parent-child communication, remote hugging | |||
| TOFU: a socially expressive robot character for child interaction | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 292-293 | |
| Ryan Wistort; Cynthia Breazeal | |||
| The TOFU project introduces a robotic platform for enabling new
opportunities in robot based learning with emphasis on storytelling and
artistic expression. This project introduces a socially expressive robot
character designed to mimic the expressive abilities of animated characters.
This demonstration proposal describes the expressive abilities and operator
interface to the TOFU project. In this demonstration session, participants will
have the opportunity to physically interact with the TOFU project and puppeteer
the behavior of the robotic character through a simple joystick interface. Keywords: animation, education, interface design, robot, robot character | |||
| Cultural coding and de-coding as ways of participation: digital media for marginalized young people | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 294-297 | |
| Edith Ackermann; Francoise Decortis; Juan Pablo Hourcade; Heidi Schelhowe | |||
| Like literacy itself, access to digital media both reflects and shapes the
ways people play and learn, and more generally, how individuals and groups
perceive themselves, relate to others, treat things, and occupy space. We see
both opportunities and risks in today's infatuation for all things digital. As
organizers of the IDC 2009 workshop on "Digital Technologies and Marginalized
Youth: Reducing the Gap", our focus is on the empowerment and integration of
marginalized youth. We look at how marginalized youth adopt digital media and
what's in it for them. We summarize all the accepted position papers in an
attempt to draw lessons useful to researchers, educators, and practitioners. To
conclude, we draw from Paulo Freire's "pedagogy of the oppressed" as a useful
framework to rethink some of the prerequisites that may help marginalized youth
to find their voices while, at the same time, speaking the tongue of others (in
particular those in power). Getting "lost in translations" is what paves the
ways to many youngsters social exclusion. Keywords: Paulo Freire, digital divide, empowerment, inclusion, marginalized young
people, participation | |||
| Fostering inclusion in Portuguese schools: key lessons from ICT projects | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 298-301 | |
| Maria João Silva; Eduarda Ferreira; Cristina Azevedo Gomes | |||
| This paper reports on different projects aimed at fostering inclusion in
Portuguese elementary and high schools at national, regional and local level
through ICT projects. Based on our participation in these projects, we describe
the key lessons learned as regards using mobile technology, georeferenced
information as well as children's and youngsters' interest and expertise in
curricular activities. We argue that mobile technologies together with the
creation and the publishing of multisensory georeferenced information can
support educational engagement and inclusive participation in Portuguese school
communities. Keywords: Portugal, georeferenced, informal learning, mobile, schools | |||
| Voices beyond walls: the role of digital storytelling for empowering marginalized youth in refugee camps | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 302-305 | |
| Nitin Sawhney | |||
| In this paper we consider the role of digital storytelling for creative
empowerment of marginalized youth, through a three-year program of workshops
conducted in the context of Palestinian refugee camps in the West Bank and East
Jerusalem. We highlight the current situation regarding arts education and
cultural production, and the challenging environment experienced by the youth
there. We then describe the Voices Beyond Walls program and key lessons learned
to suggest novel tools and practices that may support broader adoption of
digital storytelling programs for marginalized youth in diverse global
settings. Keywords: creative expression, cultural agency, digital video, marginalized youth,
participatory media, refugee camps, storytelling | |||
| Children and embodied interaction: seeking common ground | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 306-308 | |
| Alissa N. Antle; Ylva Fernaeus; Paul Marshall | |||
| As computation plays an ever larger role as an embedded part of the
environment, research that seeks to understand the embodied nature of
children's interactions with computation becomes increasingly important.
Embodied interaction is an approach to understanding human-computer interaction
that seeks to investigate and support the complex interplay of mind, body and
environment in interaction. Recently, such a perspective has been used to
discuss human actions and interactions with a range of computational
applications including tangibles, mobiles, robotics and gesture-based
interfaces. Physically-based forms of child computer interaction including body
movements, the ability to touch, feel, manipulate and build sensory awareness
of the relationships in the world are crucial to children's cognitive and
social development. This workshop aims to critically explore the different
approaches to incorporating an embodied perspective in children's interaction
design and HCI research, and to develop a shared set of understandings and
identification of differences, similarities and synergies between our research
approaches. Keywords: child computer interaction, children, embodied interaction, embodiment,
interaction design, research agenda | |||
| Stimulating physical and social activity through open-ended play | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 309-312 | |
| Tilde Bekker; Janienke Sturm | |||
| In this paper, we describe our design research on tangible play objects that
stimulate social and physical play. We illustrate our work by describing a
design case about an open-ended play object for children called the ColorFlare.
The ColorFlare is an object that detects the player's movements and provides
light feedback and that can communicate with other ColorFlares. A user test is
described that examined how children use the ColorFlare to collaboratively
create various (physical) games. We relate our research to definitions of
embodied interaction, for example by describing how children allocate meaning
to the interaction behavior of the play objects and jointly create diverse
games during the play sessions. Keywords: embodied interaction, open-ended play, physical play, social interaction | |||
| Creative interactive play for disabled children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 313-316 | |
| Patrizia Marti; Alessandro Pollini; Alessia Rullo; Leonardo Giusti; Erik Grönvall | |||
| The workshop addresses the emerging field of research on robotics, assistive
technologies and interaction design promoting play for physically, visually,
and hearing impaired children and for emotionally and mentally handicapped
children. Interactive devices including toys, pets and educational tools as
well as interactive collaborative environments may represent a unique
opportunity for disable children to full engage in play and have fun. The
Creative Interactive Play workshop presents a collection of innovative
interactive technologies and case studies for inclusive play and discusses the
challenges and opportunities they can bid to disabled children. Keywords: assistive technologies, inclusive play, interactive toys | |||
| The huggable: a platform for research in robotic companions for pediatric care | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 317-320 | |
| Walter Dan Stiehl; Jun Ki Lee; Cynthia Breazeal; Marco Nalin; Angelica Morandi; Alberto Sanna | |||
| Robotic companions offer a unique combination of embodiment and computation
which open many new interesting opportunities in the field of pediatric care.
As these new technologies are developed, we must consider the central research
questions of how such systems should be designed and what the appropriate
applications for such systems are. In this paper we present the Huggable, a
robotic companion in the form factor of a teddy bear and outline a series of
studies we are planning to run using the Huggable in a pediatric care unit. Keywords: pediatrics, personal robot, robotic companion | |||
| Family communication: phone conversations with children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 321-324 | |
| Rafael Ballagas; Joseph 'Jofish' Kaye; Morgan Ames; Janet Go; Hayes Raffle | |||
| We interviewed and observed families in their homes to understand how they
communicate across generations and across distances. The phone is still the
most common way for keeping children in touch with distant relatives. However,
many children can't talk on the phone by themselves until 7 or 8 years old.
This paper examines the challenges children have with phone conversations, and
looks at how families are currently working around these issues. These findings
can help inform the design of future family communications technologies. Keywords: children, design, family communication, grandparents, intergenerational,
mobile, phone, user interfaces | |||
| Designing intergenerational mobile storytelling | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 325-328 | |
| Allison Druin; Benjamin B. Bederson; Alex Quinn | |||
| Informal educational experiences with grandparents and other older adults
can be an important component of children's education, especially in
circumstances where high quality educational services and facilities are not
readily available. Mobile devices offer unique capabilities to support such
interactions. We report on an ongoing participatory design project with an
intergenerational design group to create mobile applications for reading and
editing books, or even creating all new stories on an Apple iPhone. Keywords: children, design, digital libraries, iPhone, intergenerational design,
mobile reading, mobile user interfaces, participatory design, storytelling | |||
| Designing and testing mobile interfaces for children | | BIBAK | Full-Text | 329-332 | |
| Glenda Revelle; Emily Reardon | |||
| There is a growing body of research on usability and interaction design with
and for children using computers [1, 2, 3]. Less is known about interaction
design and usability as applied to children's use of mobile devices. Sesame
Workshop has redesigned a web-based literacy intervention for young readers to
run on the Apple iPod Touch. We report on design challenges in moving from
large screens and mouse-based interactions to small screens and touch-based
interactions, and make interface and interaction design recommendations based
on the results of our prototyping and research with children. Keywords: education, iPod Touch, interaction design, learning, literacy, mobile, user
interface, young children | |||