Haptic devices have the potential to enhance the learning experience by foregrounding embodied, sensory and multi-modal elements of learning topics. In this paper, we report on-going work investigating a game prototype with haptic feedback for seven year old children's engagement with geometrical concepts as part of an iterative design study. Our findings include a new game play mode adopted by the children, that empowers the use of haptic feedback in game play and has the potential to enable the enactment of shape properties in the game play process.

Learning about computing technology has become an increasingly important part of the school curriculum but it remains unclear how best to teach it to children. Here, we report on an empirical study that investigated how the process of making affects how children of different ages learn about computing technology. In one condition, they had to first make an electronic cube before conducting other activities and in the other they were given a ready made one to use. The results of the study show that for younger children, the making significantly improved their performance in a post-lesson test, whereas the older children performed equally well in both conditions. We discuss possible reasons for this, in terms of differences in creative appropriation. We also saw much spontaneous collaboration between the children that suggests making can encourage a collaborative relationship between children of different ages.

Internet of things (IoT) devices and sensor kits have the potential to democratize the access, use, and appropriation of data. Despite the increased availability of low cost sensors, most of the produced data is "black box" in nature: users often do not know how to access or interpret data. We propose a "human-data design" approach in which end-users are given tools to create, share, and use data through tangible and physical visualizations. This paper introduces Physikit, a system designed to allow users to explore and engage with environmental data through physical ambient visualizations. We report on the design and implementation of Physikit, and present a two-week field study which showed that participants got an increased sense of the meaning of data, embellished and appropriated the basic visualizations to make them blend into their homes, and used the visualizations as a probe for community engagement and social behavior.

The growth of image-guided procedures in surgical settings has led to an increased need to interact with digital images under sterile conditions. Traditional touch-based interaction techniques present challenges for managing asepsis in these environments leading to suggestions that new touchless interaction techniques may provide a compelling set of alternatives. In this paper we explore the potential for touchless interaction in image-guided Interventional Radiology (IR) through an ethnographic study. The findings highlight how the distribution of labour and spatial practices of this work are organised with respect to concerns about asepsis and radiation exposure, the physical and cognitive demands of artefact manipulation, patient management, and the construction of "professional vision". We discuss the implications of these key features of the work for touchless interaction technologies within IR and suggest that such issues will be of central importance in considering new input techniques in other medical settings.