While Child–Computer Interaction (CCI) research frequently reports successful outcomes, challenges and failures in studies conducted in school context are rarely examined in detail. This paper addresses this gap through a collective reflection on when and how research with children in school contexts can be considered successful, and what challenges threaten such success. Based on decades of CCI experience from fifteen researchers across multiple countries, the study used a structured, multi-phase process informed by confessional research and child-centered ethics. The analysis identifies nine aspects of success across three areas (stakeholder experience, data generation, and children’s engagement) alongside fifteen recurring challenges organised into seven areas. We also map the relationships between successes and challenges, revealing ethically consequential tensions often overlooked in published accounts. The paper offers practical guidance, an analytical vocabulary, and a reflective method to foster more transparent and ethical CCI research in school settings.

This paper examines how children’s capacity to imagine educational futures is shaped by the conditions under which participatory speculative design is introduced. Drawing on workshops with 47 eighth-grade students in India, we explore how scaffolding influences engagement with emerging technologies and future-oriented thinking. Across two sessions, students encountered generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), virtual reality, and a social robot, engaging in design fiction and scenario drawing. Our findings show that rather than generating distant fantasies, speculative design enabled a critical examination of students’ existing educational contexts. With careful scaffolding, children articulated transformative visions that challenged exam-centric schooling and prioritized emotional well-being; without it, imaginaries remained anchored to present constraints. We contribute to Child-Computer Interaction research by framing scaffolding as a decolonial intervention essential for future-making in high-pressure pedagogical environments. Specifically, we propose affective scaffolding and agency-preserving design as frameworks to bridge emotional gaps and ensure human-centric innovation in the Global South.

Children increasingly interact with a myriad of technologies in their everyday lives, yet are seldom invited to envision the future trajectories of these technologies or what futures they want to see. To address this gap, we conducted design futuring workshops with 31 school children in India (ages 10-13 years). Participants imagined future classrooms and the different types of technologies situated within these classrooms. Participants’ resultant socio-technical imaginaries reveal an underlying hope to be empowered in the learning process, underscoring the values of empathy, care, inclusion, and empowerment. Their imaginaries also highlight the everyday problems that concern them the most and how they imagine overcoming them, deliberating also on the role of humans in these futures. Our work contributes to Child-Computer Interaction (CCI) research on engaging children to critically envision their digital futures by illustrating the value of design futuring and socio-technical imaginaries, especially created by an under-represented group, Indian children.

Emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and mixed reality (MR) increasingly pervade the world of children, from their schoolwork to leisure activities and social relationships. This has led to Child Computer Interaction (CCI) research supporting children's critical understanding of digital technologies and their ability to influence the design of future digital technologies. Despite these efforts, there are several limitations and challenges in terms of Computational Empowerment (CE) of children. This workshop unites such research 1) to create a shared manifesto for CE of children and 2) to jointly develop a research ‘roadmap’ to push the boundaries of CE of children.

The extensive research in the domain of computational thinking has identified itself as one of the critical skills that needs to be a part of regular K-12 curriculum. However, most of the tangible computational thinking toolkits that are being developed are bulky and expensive to be deployed in classroom environments. In this paper we present Code Bits, a paper based tangible computational thinking toolkit that is inexpensive, portable and scalable. The students create programs using the tangible paper bits on any flat surface and use the Code Bits mobile application to process the code, which runs on any android device with a camera and uses augmented reality based games to improve the computational thinking skills of the students. The toolkit has been designed in way so as to promote collaboration amongst students.