Community sharing fosters resourceful, socially engaged lifestyles that challenge current economic systems based on extraction and exploitation. Previous designs for supporting sharing communities often target digital platforms and physical sharing sites, relying on members to promote the culture of sharing. This paper reports on the initial exploration of utilising shared objects as a site of design and as active agents in promoting sharing cultures. We introduce Senito, a speculative cordless drill designed with agency to encourage sharing cultures through speech and movement. We report on the design and initial testing of Senito with 14 members of sharing communities. Our results indicate that agency in shared objects could be leveraged to enhance accountability, strengthen community bonds, and facilitate knowledge sharing. Our design approach further proposes directions for future research to explore different ways of configuring and understanding the potential of agentic objects in community sharing.

Personal data and digital technologies increasingly shape children's daily experiences, but younger children are seldom presented with opportunities to reflect in-depth about their perspectives on personal data, beyond simple warnings about not sharing information online. We present Grasping Data, a set of portable activities aimed at helping children explore what counts as personal data, why some data feel more personal than others, and how meaning changes between audiences and purposes. The demo combines three linked tangible activities: a teddy-bear proxy for card sorting-based discussion, a wooden tangible prototype for self-generated activity data, and a set of shape-changing multi-material objects for embodied interpretation of personal data. For the IDC community, the demo contributes a 10-minute encounter highlighting concrete, research-based, low-tech methods to discuss personal data with young children across formal and informal learning settings.

Recent computational approaches have opened up new possibilities in filmmaking, particularly in the narrative analysis of screenplays and early-stage development materials. Neurosymbolic methods offer the potential to leverage Large Language Models while anchoring them within a well-defined theoretical framework. In this paper, we explore the construction of ontologies grounded in semiotic narrative theory, and then present cases of screenplay textual analysis that employ this approach. Subsequently, we hypothesize how such approach could benefit the development of creativity support tools for textual analysis through the generation of specialized annotations based on a narrative theory. The experiment represents an intermediate stage of this research: its results will inform a subsequent phase in which the proposed approach will be tested under controlled experimental conditions involving a panel of experts in screenplay analysis.

Contemporary technologies and data-driven methods have much potential to support innovation in the creative industries - from fashion design and craft, to architecture and music. However, discussing and understanding the applied potential of data and technology can be especially difficult for creative practitioners who have limited previous experience with data-driven research and development. In this pictorial, we address this challenge through the design of a ‘Visual Vocabulary’ of illustrations aimed to scaffold creative practitioners’ thinking about how they might innovatively employ a diverse range of data and technology to address their creative and business challenges. The illustrations serve as a resource for subverting common imageries of technologies and computational methods in popular media - which often fail to showcase their many creative affordances. Moreover, as an ideation card deck, they also serve to support discussion and exploration of new data-driven projects for creative practitioners.

HCI researchers are increasingly interested in the evaluation of educational technologies in context, yet acknowledge that challenges remain regarding the logistical, material and methodological constraints of this approach to research [ 18 , 53 ]. Through the analysis of the authors’ contributed thematic research vignettes, the following article exposes the practical realities of evaluating educational technologies in school settings. This includes insights into the planning stages of evaluation, the relationship between the researcher and the school environment, and the impact of the school context on the data collection process. We conclude by providing an orientation for the design of HCI educational technology research undertaken in school contexts, providing guidance such as considering the role of modular research design, clarifying goals and expectations with school partners, and reporting researcher positionality.

In the domain of computing education for children, much work has been done to devise creative and engaging methods of teaching about programming. However, there are many other fundamental aspects of computing that have so far received relatively less attention. This work explores how the topics of number systems and data representation can be taught in a way that piques curiosity and captures learners’ imaginations. Specifically, we present the design of two interactive physical computing artefacts, which we collectively call DataMoves, that enable students, 12-14 years old, to explore number systems and data through embodied movement and dance. Our evaluation of DataMoves, used in tandem with other pedagogical methods, demonstrates that the form of embodied, exploration-based learning adopted has much potential for deepening students’ understandings of computing topics, as well as for shaping positive perceptions of topics that are traditionally considered boring and dull.

Tangible interfaces have much potential for engendering shared interaction and reflection, as well as for promoting playful experiences. How can their properties be capitalised on to enable students to reflect on their learning, both individually and together, throughout learning sessions? This Research through Design paper describes our development of EvalMe, a flexible, tangible tool aimed at being playful, enjoyable to use and enabling children to reflect on their learning, both in the moment and after a learning session has ended. We discuss the insights gained through the process of designing EvalMe, co-defining its functionality with two groups of collaborators and deploying it in two workshop settings. Through this process, we map key contextual considerations for the design of technologies for in situ evaluation of learning experiences. Finally, we discuss how tangible evaluation technologies deployed throughout a learning session, can positively contribute to students’ reflection about their learning.

Learning through exploration is assumed to be a powerful way of introducing children to computer science concepts. However, it is uncertain how exploring physical computing toolkits can promote movement between conceptual knowledge and abstract reflection, and lead to critical thinking about technology. We investigated how children aged 9-11 years explored and reasoned about personal and environmental data sensors, using a playful exploration-based physical toolkit in their classroom. We report on the ways in which critical thinking about sensor accuracy and reliability developed through reflective dialogue and playful interaction, taking into account the support structures embedded in the classroom. Finally, we discuss strategies for designing exploration-based learning for classroom settings, to promote critical thinking about data sensing.

With a growing call for an increased emphasis on computing in school curricula, there is a need to make computing accessible to a diversity of learners. One potential approach is to extend the use of physical toolkits, which have been found to encourage collaboration, sustained engagement and effective learning in classrooms in general. However, little is known as to whether and how these benefits can be leveraged in special needs schools, where learners have a spectrum of distinct cognitive and social needs. Here, we investigate how introducing a physical toolkit can support learning about computing concepts for special education needs (SEN) students in their classroom. By tracing how the students' interactions-both with the physical toolkit and with each other-unfolded over time, we demonstrate how the design of both the form factor and the learning tasks embedded in a physical toolkit contribute to collaboration, comprehension and engagement when learning in mixed SEN classrooms.