This study aimed to establish an accurate baseline for Facebook usage and to investigate its learning potential via biometric perspective. This was explored by asking college students to browse their own Facebook page and peruse the content while wearing a high-fidelity EEG headset to record brainwave activity they experienced. Their actions were then coded using the empirically based Interactive-Constructive-Active-Passive (ICAP) engagement model to identify elements that could potentially be leveraged for learning. Based on these results, Facebook does not seem to make an ideal learning platform, due to higher frustration levels during higher cognitive tasks compared to passively consuming personally relevant non-instructional content. However, it may have more positive impacts on learning as long as initial frustration level is transformed smoothly to engagement and motivation for some learning opportunities and activities.

Many teens struggle with school writing and particularly in identifying personally relevant topics, which motivate writing improvement. However, a wealth of potential topics is available through their social media data. We explore the design of Sparkfolio, a prewriting support tool that aims to help students successfully prepare meaningful writing topics from their own social media content. This web-delivered tool was evaluated with 46 teen users in the context of their high school English class. Findings demonstrate that the use of social media can enhance the quality of written outcomes, as Sparkfolio users had significantly greater gains than a control group.

Children and young adults are immersed in digital culture, but most are not familiar with the computational thinking behind the latest tools and technologies. There are few opportunities in secondary school curricula for students to learn such practices, but we believe that skills such as computational thinking, creative coding, collaboration, innovation, and information literacy can be taught in a highly effective manner by using aesthetic challenges as a motivation. In other words, by engaging students in creative digital arts projects they are naturally driven to acquire the many new skills to effectively use and understand the computational tools and techniques involved in creating digital and interactive projects. In this paper, we outline a project-based digital arts curriculum through which novice middle/high school students are intrinsically motivated to learn and apply science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills and computational thinking.

Early literacy is a leading indicator of academic success. Recent findings describe the important role that embodied cognition can play in the promotion of early literacy. Libraries---children's libraries in particular---stand to benefit greatly from emerging forms of tangible and embodied interactive technology that can leverage these findings. As informal community-based learning institutions with a mandate to provide user-centered, personalized reading and learning experiences, children's libraries are uniquely positioned to empower young learners through the development of reading skills. Within these institutions, reading skills---particularly those representing embodied cognition---are supported by social interaction with peers, caregivers, and librarians. Through embodied cognition, children develop critical early literacy skills by linking concepts with corresponding physical actions, to establish the foundation of reading comprehension. When such activities are playful, fun, and interactive, learning to read becomes intrinsically motivating. While embodied technology is particularly conducive to creating such novel interactions, few libraries have adopted technology that deliberately channels these phenomena towards literacy development. Through qualitative ethnographic methods this investigation presents opportunities for embodied cognition and tangible embedded interactive play and learning systems within children's libraries.