DESIGNING EDUCATIONAL COMPUTER ENVIRONMENTS FOR CHILDREN

This full-day, introductory tutorial will contain lectures and a hands-on design session, for educators and other professionals who are, or would like to be, actively engaged in designing multimedia environments for children. Participants will explore the special challenges and global implications of designing educational computer environments for children. Participants will begin this full-day tutorial with an introduction to past, present, and emerging technologies for children. This will be followed by a hands-on design session where elementary school children will join participants in designing and prototyping a new educational computer environment. Participants will leave this tutorial with a historical perspective on what has been done in this field, as well as actual design experience.

Keywords:

children, educational theories, design process, prototyping, historical perspective, interactive textbook

Introduction

Beginning in the 1960s, research laboratories in universities and industry offered models of how computers might contribute to children's learning. These computer environments ranged from systems that guided children every step of the way, to systems which encouraged children to develop their own paths of learning. The user interfaces of these systems were strongly influenced by the kinds of technology that were available at the time. This influence continues to be seen today. As more powerful computer technology becomes available, user interface design possibilities increase as do the underlying tools and feedback mechanisms within the system.

The research activities of the past have been foundational to current trends in the development of educational computer environments for children today. Surveying the exemplary computer environments for children that have been developed in the past will provide a better perspective for future possibilities.

THE TUTORIAL

This tutorial will be structured in three parts. The first part will be an overview covering the historical development of computer environments for children, starting in the 1960's. In this part of the lecture several examples will be examined in depth to illustrate distinct stylistic and philosophical differences in design and educational approaches.

The second part of will cover recent developments in multimedia environments for children. Present and emerging technologies will be discussed, as well as commercial and experimental approaches. The various multimedia environments will be examined and compared with historical counterparts.

The last half of the day will be devoted to applying the design principles that have been presented. The goal of the hands-on design session will be to theoretically design a multimedia environment for children, which will teach them something about a part or parts of their body.

Tutorial participants will break up into design groups each of which will include one or two children. The materials that will be used for prototyping with be "low-tech" (eg., clay, string,, cardboard, markers, etc...) This way the participants will not be constrained or influenced by today's technology.

Tutorial participants will be asked to consider such questions as they design their environments: Where will the computer environment be located? What is it you want to teach? What is the scope of information you want to share? What grade level are you aiming for and why? How is your approach the same or different as compared to past examples of multimedia environments? At the end of the day each group will give a five minute presentation on the environment they have designed.