This paper introduces OSMoSIS, a novel tool for assessing Social Motor Synchrony (SMS) in naturalistic child-facilitator interactions. Unlike Motion Energy Analysis (MEA), which is limited to seated or highly controlled tasks, OSMoSIS captures full-body interactions and computes synchrony through position correlation (PC) and specific kinetic energy correlation (SKEC). We evaluated OSMoSIS during music therapy sessions with twelve autistic children, using synchronous (movement-contingent) and asynchronous (non-contingent) sound mappings as a testbed to elicit contrasting interaction dynamics. Our results show that SKEC was sensitive to condition differences, whereas PC was not in this setting, indicating that OSMoSIS provides a suite of indices in which SKEC serves as the primary marker for dynamic, whole-body contexts and PC as a supporting, posture-aligned measure. Complementary coding with Interact behavioural coding software revealed reduced non-response under synchronous conditions, supporting the convergent validity of OSMoSIS. We argue that OSMoSIS advances the measurement of SMS beyond MEA, enabling analysis in ecologically valid contexts such as therapeutic and educational interventions.

Children’s audio players have received scarce attention compared to their video counterparts, despite studies showing audio is often used daily for education and entertainment. We develop a design space rooted in the history of audio players for children and scholarly research on interaction design and audio for children. We use this design space to define and describe commercially available connected audio players for children, as well as outline avenues for further design research.

In an era where Artificial Intelligence (AI) permeates our lives, its impact on children raises critical considerations. This workshop aims to delve into the multifaceted realm of Human-Centered AI (HCAI) for children, exploring the transformative role of AI in fostering creative expression and inclusive learning environments. Our goal is to unite diverse research expertise and methodologies, focussing on how AI can be tailored to meet diverse learning needs, enabling personalized and engaging educational experiences which support creativity. This workshop will bring together researchers, educators, technologists, and practitioners for expert talks, interactive demonstrations, and collaborative discussions,. Our goal is to foster a multidisciplinary dialogue on developing child-centered AI solutions that enhance creative learning while being mindful of inclusivity, ethical considerations and safeguarding against potential risks.

UPDATED—2024/04/17 13:30:54. This paper reports on work in progress to develop an assessment tool for Social Motor Synchrony (SMS) in children’s interactions. Expanding upon the foundation provided by the OSMoSIS motor sonification tool, we have developed an innovative approach for measuring SMS with children. Our method aims to overcome challenges stemming from variations in research settings and objectives encountered in studying SMS within the context of full-body interaction. Current tools for investigating SMS have been conducted in fixed settings, often limiting the interacting individuals to a seated position. However, this is in stark contrast to interventions such as music therapy, where the emphasis is on full-body interactions, and the settings exhibit considerable diversity. In such contexts, unrestricted movement is recognised as a fundamental element contributing to the overall efficacy and authenticity of the therapeutic experience, making it important to preserve the inherent benefits of a naturalistic setting. The study described in this paper explores the utility of OSMoSIS as a tool for assessing social motor synchrony revealing intriguing differences when comparing OSMoSIS with the well-known MEA software. This study not only brings a fresh perspective to the evaluation of social motor synchrony but also offers unique insights that set it apart from existing tools.

With the recent growth in interest in computing education for younger children, concrete representations have enabled children to understand concepts that, in abstract form, may otherwise be considered too advanced. Introducing children to computing concepts through concrete representations may be necessary at younger ages, but there is also a need for effective methods for progressing from this towards abstract understanding. Concreteness Fading has previously been applied in computing contexts with some success, but questions remain about how to design learning environments that most effectively support this progression, including the role of intermediate representations. This paper presents an augmented reality (AR) environment that uses the Concreteness Fading approach to teach introductory topics in computer networks. An in-school experiment with 59 children aged 9-10 investigated the effect of three distinct methods of fading representations from concrete to abstract, using a between-groups pre-test / post-test design. Three groups were compared: concrete > concrete > abstract (“two-step”), concrete > intermediate > abstract (“three-step”), and concrete > concrete/intermediate > intermediate > intermediate/abstract > abstract (“five-step”). The results showed a statistically significant difference between the two- and three-step groups in favour of the three-step, confirming the value of explicitly linking mutual referents via an intermediate representation when moving from concrete to abstract. No statistically significant difference was found between the three- and five-step groups, suggesting that increasing the number of intermediate representations does not significantly improve the learning outcomes. We discuss the implications of these findings for the design of educational technology for children.

Computing concepts are often introduced to children using interactive concrete representations, such as Computer Science Unplugged (CSU) activities - an approach that may positively affect attitudes towards computing when applied in extra-curricular settings. However, within the classroom, children may be required to interact with abstract representations, e.g. during programming tasks, and little is known about how to design CSU activities that support this. Prior work in mathematics and computing suggests that the Theoretical Model of Concreteness Fading (TMCF) may effectively scaffold the progression from concrete to abstract and improve learning outcomes. This paper aims to investigate one of the TMCF recommendations: the use of physical manipulatives, motivated by the growing body of evidence that suggests that virtual manipulatives can, in many contexts, be equally effective while providing several design advantages. An experiment was conducted with 48 children to compare two alternative implementations of Concreteness Fading learning materials: physical concrete (Playmobil toys) vs. virtual concrete (an AR iPad app), on learning gains and attitudinal change. Using these materials, children were taught the fundamentals of network structure and internet routing. Results indicated no significant difference between groups on either measure.

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.

Interactional synchrony, the spontaneous coordination of movements during interaction, is increasingly considered important in research on the development of non-verbal communication by autistic children. There is evidence that interventions using embodied-interaction technologies to support interactional synchrony are possible, but we do not have a shared framework in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) for designing and evaluating such systems. We discuss existing measurement and evaluation tools used in experimental psychology and consider how the prevalent approach could be adapted to naturalistic HCI study contexts, with input from domain experts. We report on an exploratory case study evaluating a full-body interactive musical system with a group of ten autistic children. We provide methodological recommendations for the evaluation of future systems focusing on interactional synchrony, highlight limitations of current measurement tools and suggest mitigations.

Spontaneous gestures produced during mathematics learning have been widely studied, however, research on the role of gesture in computing education is limited. This paper presents an investigation into children's use of spontaneous gestures when learning programming using either a tangible user interface (TUI) or a graphical user interface (GUI). The study explored the relationship between spontaneous gestures, interface type and learning outcomes in a programming lesson for primary school students aged 6-7. In the study, 34 participants engaged in a learning activity lasting approximately 37 minutes, using a TUI or a GUI. The study used a between-subjects design, and mixed methods. Pre-test and post-test data were collected, and sessions were video recorded and subsequently coded and analysed. A video analysis scheme, adapted from mathematics education research, was used to code the spontaneous gestures produced during the learning session. We found a statistically significant difference between the mean learning gains of high-frequency gesturers and low-frequency gesturers, with the top quartile showing significantly greater learning gains. There was no significant difference in the frequency of gestures between interface types. A qualitative analysis of representational gestures showed that some children use spontaneous hand gestures to demonstrate abstract computational concepts, providing evidence for the embodiment of children's offline thinking in the computing domain.

Despite recent advances, uptake of climate and weather services is limited for many groups that need forecasts for safe and sustainable livelihoods such as artisanal fishers. On the Arabian Sea coast of southwestern India, for instance, they often fish in foul weather, and risk accidents during the monsoon season marked by high wind and waves. To make forecasts more easily accessible, we tested and deployed a low-cost, web-based, knowledge co-production system called Radio Monsoon. The website offers wind speed and wave height forecasts in graphics and local-language text with multiple interfaces - social media, WhatsApp, and a free phone service using voice over internet protocol. Focus groups and conversations connect the fishers with forecasters in a feedback loop. This paper examines how Radio Monsoon addresses challenges in knowledge co-production by looking at its technology deployment and societal impact.

There is considerable interest in using tangible user interfaces (TUIs) to support teaching children programming, but evidence for the benefits is mixed, and their deployment in school environments presents more challenges than graphical user interfaces (GUIs). This study investigates the effect of GUIs and TUIs on learning outcomes, attitudes toward computing, and reported enjoyment in a computer-programming activity with primary-school students aged 6-7 in Saudi Arabia. Forty-two students engaged in a 45-minute learning activity using either a TUI or GUI programming environment. The study used a between-groups design, and quantitative data were collected, including pre-test and post-test results, and ratings on attitudinal and enjoyment surveys. Learning gains were significantly higher for the GUI group than the TUI group. However, post-activity increases in reported attitude toward computing were significantly higher for the TUI group. There was no difference in activity enjoyment scores, which were high for both groups.

In primary education, concepts are commonly introduced through concrete instantiations, such as physical manipulatives and kinaesthetic activities, with an expectation that learners will gradually move towards working with abstract representations. There has been considerable research in subjects such as mathematics on how children can move from working with concrete to abstract materials, but relatively little research on how this can be achieved in computing, which has recently become a more prominent subject at primary level. This paper reports on the design and evaluation of a low-fidelity prototype learning environment that aims to teach children aged 9--10 about a key computing concept (internet routing), using a concreteness fading approach commonly applied in mathematics. An empirical study with 59 children showed that those following a concreteness fading progression scored significantly higher on a post-test than those using a concrete only prototype, and had an increase in positive attitude towards computing in line with alternative approaches. We highlight the potential for an augmented reality implementation of the prototype to support investigation of further key questions raised by this research.

While social isolation in an ageing population is a concern in many locations, it is greater in towns where divisive local geography and declining investment conspire against meeting places and mutual awareness. This research into the design of location-based tools to support sociality asks whether embedded digital tools that make neighbourhood activities and/or people's movements more visible have the potential to increase serendipitous encounters and deepen a sense of community cohesion. Taking to the streets of a small town to explore if digital tools might improve the situation, we used participatory and provocation methods to inspire engagement with the theme and compare design concepts for sociality. Participants showed great passion for the town and its people, but also caution about publicly revealing even basic information, because of anticipated local consequences. They preferred an indirect approach. We use these insights to analyze "place" and discuss the specifics of designing for sociality in challenging contexts.

Creating narrative-based computer games is a complex and challenging task. Narrative Threads is a suite of software tools designed to aid young people (aged 11-15) in creating their own narrative-based games as a writing development activity. A participatory design process highlighted the areas where additional support was required, and informed the iterative design of Narrative Threads. The tools are implemented as a plugin to a commercial game creation toolset, and constitute character and object design tools, a branching narrative diagramming tool and an augmented story map view. In this paper, we provide an overview of the design of the tools and describe an evaluation carried out with 14 children over a four-day workshop. The study examined tool usage patterns, and compared games created with Narrative Threads to those created using the standard toolset. The results suggest a number of ways in which dynamic external representations of story elements can support writing activities in narrative-based game creation. Young designers using Narrative Threads wrote more character dialogue, made stronger links between the conversations they wrote and wider game events, and designed more complex characters, compared to those using the standard toolset. In addition to showing how Narrative Threads can support young games designers, the results have broader implications for anyone looking to support storytelling and writing through game creation activities and tools.

The current drive in many countries to teach computing, particularly programming, to all from an early age, has potential to empower and support children in creative and problem-solving tasks. However, there are a number of challenges in ensuring that computing curricula, tools and environments embody appropriate progression and engender motivation for the topic across the school years. This workshop will consider the key research challenges in learning coding throughout childhood, with contributions from developmental psychologists, educators, researchers of children's programming, and designers of developmentally appropriate technologies for children.

Given the current drive to teach computational concepts to all from an early age, we consider whether traditional programming languages are truly necessary, or whether natural language might be a suitable medium for program generation and comprehension, given its familiarity and ubiquity. We conducted an empirical study on the use of natural language for computation, and found that, although it provides support for understanding computational concepts, it introduces additional difficulties when used for coding. Following a design study with target users, we distilled our findings into a series of design guidelines for novice programming environments that incorporate natural language. These guidelines drove the design of Flip, a bimodal programming language for young people's game creation activities. Two empirical studies examined the extent to which these embodied design guidelines support ease of use and an understanding of computation. The guidelines have potential both for analysing the usability of existing novice programming environments, and for designing new ones.

This paper focuses on the importance of evaluating educational technology for young people aged 10-18 in naturalistic classroom contexts. We present the Train the Teacher Model (TTM) which formalizes a model for IDC researchers to use when deploying and validating an educational system. Our key findings indicate the need to work in partnership with classroom teachers, providing both initial training and continued support. This will both result in more valuable research data, and address a gap in teachers' continued professional development. The TTM aims to ensure that teachers, students and researchers can benefit from innovative educational systems deployed m real classroom contexts.

A study was carried out which examined the extent to which young people aged 11-12, with no prior instruction in programming, are able to write computational rules which govern play in a 3D computer role-playing game. Expressing these rules required the use of common computational structures such as conditionals, sets and loops. We analysed the rules written for their structure and style, and recorded the types of errors made. It was found that although young people were able to abstract away from the game play experience, very few of the rules were error-free. The most common errors were errors of omission (leaving elements out that should have been included) rather than errors of commission (including elements which should not be part of the rule). These findings have implications for the design of the Flip language, which aims to support young people as they begin to develop computational skills through game design.

We propose a design model for guiding learning in exploratory environments through representational choices. Selecting the appropriate representations at the correct granularity can foreground the salient activities and background the irrelevant.. We demonstrate how this model can be applied via learner-centred design to ensure that the engaging factors of an environment are preserved whilst the learner is guided towards the development of specific skills.

This abstract describes design-based research on building tools that support the development of skills which will allow learners to become producers rather than simply consumers of computational tools. Game creation is an activity which has good potential for learning skills such as multimodal writing and computational thinking skills. Existing tools make the creation of commercial quality games possible, but fall short of fulfilling the potential for skills development. Learner-centred design of a suite of tools which will guide learners towards activities with potential for the desired skills development is underway. Current progress on the design and development of tools is reported and future activities are outlined.

This paper explores the potential for simplified programming languages to support the development of computational thinking skills in nonprogrammers. We suggest that novice programming languages might offer a starting point for nonprogrammers to engage with a substantial subset of computational thinking concepts, and assess a number of languages from this perspective. We outline four key computational thinking skills and examine the support provided by existing languages. We then describe additional characteristics which would be important for a new language aimed specifically at developing computational thinking skills.

We describe an innovative educational system designed to, firstly, motivate young people to engage with computational concepts and secondly, provide them with tools to do so in an embodied manner. The interface is designed as a "magic mirror" in which users can, through augmented reality technology, take on the role of a character and control the character's movements via their own movements. They are able to record movements, and using a Wii Remote as a mouse and pointing device, organise these movements into sequences. We are now working on ways in which the recorded movements can be manipulated in ways that foster computational thinking.

Creating interactive stories in the form of narrative-based games can have motivational and educational benefits for children, but scripting languages can be a barrier to the activity. This paper describes a learner-centred design (LCD) approach to creating a visual programming language (VPL) for scripting plot events in game-based interactive stories. The LCD approach, unusual in the field of VPLs, was essential to ensure that the software effectively supported our child target users in the game creation process.

Located pervasive experiences are often constructed as one off deployments with domain experts acting in a consultancy role to technical specialists who construct the experience. In this paper we will look at how pervasive infrastructures might be constructed that can support domain experts as direct experience authors. We present a case study based around a locative pervasive system supporting school field trips, and describe how aspects of the construction and running of the experience were handed over to the domain experts. Based on our experiences we suggest a number of key principles that we believe make it possible for non-specialists to become pervasive authors: separation of the information layer, use of metaphor, in-situ authoring, robustness, varied location modelling and coarse orchestration

This paper describes Script Cards, a visual programming language which enables young people to script story events in a 3D role-playing game (Neverwinter Nights). Script Cards is designed to eliminate the need to learn a complex scripting language when creating interactive stories. An initial evaluation of Script Cards suggests that young people found it easy to use.