Computational thinking (CT) is increasingly introduced in early childhood, yet teachers often face a gap between young children’s developmental needs, classroom orchestration constraints, and the interaction demands of digital programming activities. We report an iterative, participatory design field study that explores how CT learning activities can be designed and implemented under real classroom conditions. The study focuses on a learning programme for children aged 4–6 that combines unplugged embodied activities, tabletop tangible sequencing, and an Android tablet-based tangible user interface (TUI) prototype called CETA.

This paper presents a participatory design process to adapt JO!, a tangible literacy game, for blind and low-vision children.In collaboration with students and teachers from a public special education school in Uruguay, we conducted classroom observations, interviews, simulator testing, and co-design workshops to identify accessibility barriers and inform the redesign of tangible and digital components.Preliminary findings emphasize the need for simplified multisensory cues, adaptable physical elements, and supportive audio feedback.This work contributes to the inclusive design of tangible user interfaces (TUIs) and highlights how participatory methods can support the development of meaningful educational tools for diverse learners.

The use of technology in education has seen substantial growth. One promising aspect is the adoption of Tangible User Interfaces (TUI), which offer particular advantages for children’s learning by facilitating hands-on experiences with objects, a teaching strategy commonly employed in the classroom. Despite growing research and commercial development, TUIs remain poorly integrated in classrooms. To address this, we developed JO! a TUI for learning language by engaging in a participatory process with teachers and children. In this WiP, we report the results of the first pilot evaluation of JO! in a session designed and led by two teachers in their classrooms, involving 22 students. We found that JO! aligns with teaching strategies, adapts to class dynamics, supports children’s collaboration and engagement, and minimizes classroom disparities.

Physical manipulatives, such as rods or tiles, are widely used for mathematics learning, as they support embodied cognition, enable the execution of epistemic actions, and foster conceptual metaphors. Counting them, children explore, rearrange, and reinterpret the environment through the haptic channel. Vision generally complements physical actions, which makes using traditional manipulatives limited for children with visual impairments (VIs). Digitally augmenting manipulatives with feedback through alternative modalities might improve them. We specifically discuss conveying number representations to children with VIs using haptic and auditory channels within an environment encouraging exploration and supporting active touch counting strategies while promoting reflection. This paper presents LETSMath, a tangible system for training basic mathematical skills of children with VIs, developed through Design-Based Research with three iterations in which we involved 19 children with VIs and their educators. We discuss how the system may support training skills in the composition of numbers and the impact that the different system features have on slowing down the interaction pace to trigger reflection, on understanding, and on incorporation.

We present iCETA, an inclusive interactive system for math learning, that enables children to autonomously engage and solve additive composition tasks. It was designed through a set of participatory sessions with visually impaired children and their educators, and supports math learning through the combination of tangible interaction with haptic and auditory feedback. Tangible blocks representing numbers 1 to 5 were used to add or subtract and correctly solve the task embedded in a computerized game. Our approach aims to provide better scaffolding for understanding the abstract concept of a number by working with different representations of that number, as the size of the block, Braille, color and audio feedback.

The benefits of applying technology to education have been often questioned. Learning through digital devices might imply reducing the children's physical interaction with the real world, when cognitive theories hold that such interaction is essential to develop abstract concepts in Mathematics or Physics. However, conflicting reports suggest that tangible interaction does not always improve engagement or learning. A central question is how cognitive theories can be successfully applied to the design of interactive systems in order to achieve enhanced learning experiences. In this paper we discuss the interaction design of a mixed-reality system for mathematics learning for school-aged children. Our design approach combines inspiration from previous frameworks with a user-centered design process with early prototype evaluations. As a result of this process we have created a mixed-reality environment for low-cost tablets and an augmented version of the Cuisenaire rods, a milestone of the manipulatives for mathematics learning.

Mixed-reality environments allow to combine tangible interaction with digital feedback, empowering interaction designers to take benefits from both real and virtual worlds. This interaction paradigm is also being applied in classrooms for learning purposes. However, most of the times the devices supporting mixed-reality interaction are neither portable nor affordable, which could be a limitation in the learning context. In this paper we propose CETA, a mixed-reality environment using low-cost Android tablets which tackles portability and costs issues. In addition, CETA is open-source, reproducible and extensible.

This article details a two-step method of quantifying eye movement transitions between areas of interest (AOIs). First, individuals' gaze switching patterns, represented by fixated AOI sequences, are modeled as Markov chains. Second, Shannon's entropy coefficient of the fit Markov model is computed to quantify the complexity of individual switching patterns. To determine the overall distribution of attention over AOIs, the entropy coefficient of individuals' stationary distribution of fixations is calculated. The novelty of the method is that it captures the variability of individual differences in eye movement characteristics, which are then summarized statistically. The method is demonstrated on gaze data collected from two studies, during free viewing of classical art paintings. Normalized Shannon's entropy, derived from individual transition matrices, is related to participants' individual differences as well as to either their aesthetic impression or recognition of artwork. Low transition and high stationary entropies suggest greater curiosity mixed with a higher subjective aesthetic affinity toward artwork, possibly indicative of visual scanning of the artwork in a more deliberate way. Meanwhile, both high transition and stationary entropies may be indicative of recognition of familiar artwork.