Young children learning with mobile devices: Research on design and implementation

The increasing growth and usage of mobile devices, such as tablets and iPads, by young children has not yet been accompanied by systematic research about the effects they have on children's learning and the conditions that facilitate or hinder learning and engagement. As a result, only few empirically-based guidelines exist to guide parents, educators, and application (app) designers when choosing or designing apps for young children, often leading to non-evidence-based decisions, or the design of apps with little educational value. This symposium aims to bring together researchers from Australia, the UK and USA to discuss what evidence exist about the learning potential of mobile devices and apps for young children and how it could be used to inform relevant stakeholders

Supporting social pretend play with a virtual toy

This paper presents selected results from a study designed to explore children's social pretend play in a virtual setting. Fourteen children (aged 5 - 8) played in pairs with a mobile-based game implemented on an Apple iPad. Interviews and video transcriptions were used to assess three types of social pretend play, which included solitary, simple and associative. Our findings revealed the ways children engaged with the virtual toy and demonstrate social pretend play. We discuss the implications of these findings and provide a series of design implications for designers and researchers

Parents’ experiences in using mobile tablets with their child with autism to encourage the development of social communication skills: the development of a parents’ guide

Autism is a lifelong condition that affects how individuals interact with others and make sense of the world around them. The two core difficulties associated with autism are difficulties in social communication and interaction, and the manifestation of restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour. However, children with autism may also have many talents and special interests among which is their affinity with digital technologies. Despite the increasing use of mobile tablets in schools and homes, and the children’s motivation in using them, there is limited guidance on how to use the tablets to teach children with autism specific skills. This study aims to fill this gap in knowledge by providing guidelines about the ways in which iPads and other tablets can be used by parents/carers and their child at home to support the development of social communication skills. Semi-structured interviews with 10 parents of primary school aged children (4-11 years old) with autism were conducted with the aim to explore their experiences in using mobile devices, such as iPads and android tablets, and social activities with their children to create opportunities for social communication development. The interview involved questions about the parents’ knowledge and experience in autism, their understanding of social communication skills, the use of technology at home, and their links with the child’s school. Qualitative analysis of the interviews showed that parents used a variety of strategies to boost their child’s social communication skills. Among these strategies were: a) the use of communication symbols, b) the use of the child’s special interest as motivator to gain their attention, and c) allowing time to their child to respond. It was also found that parents engaged their child in joint activities such as cooking, role play and creating social stories together on the device. Seven out of ten parents mentioned that the tablet is a motivating tool that can be used to teach social communication skills, nonetheless all parents raised concerns over screen time and their child’s sharing difficulties. The need for training and advice as well as building stronger links with their child’s school was highlighted. In particular, it was mentioned that recommendations would be welcomed about how parents can address their child’s difficulties in initiating or sustaining a conversation, taking turns and sharing, understanding other people’s feelings and facial expressions, and showing interest to other people. This is the first study to date that resulted in the development of a parents’ guide informed by evidence-based practice and the participants’ experiences and concerns. The proposed guidelines aim to urge parents to feel more confident in using the tablet with their child in more collaborative ways. In particular, the guide offers recommendations about how to develop verbal and non-verbal communication, gives examples of tablet based activities to interact and create things together, as well as it offers suggestions on how to provide a worry free tablet experience and how to connect with the school

Managing children's postural risk when using mobile technology at home: Challenges and strategies

Maintaining the musculoskeletal health of children using mobile information and communication technologies (ICT) at home presents a challenge. The physical environment influences postures during ICT use and can contribute to musculoskeletal complaints. Few studies have assessed postures of children using ICT in home environments. The present study investigated the Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) scores determined by 16 novice and 16 experienced raters. Each rater viewed 11 videotaped scenarios of a child using two types of mobile ICT at home. The Grand Scores and Action Levels determined by study participants were compared to those of an ergonomist experienced in postural assessment. All postures assessed were rated with an Action Level of 2 or above; representing a postural risk that required further investigation and/or intervention. The sensitivity of RULA to assess some of the unconventional postures adopted by children in the home is questioned

Mobile internet experiences of the children in Turkey and European countries: a Comparative analysis of internet access, use, activities, Skills and risks

Purpose: This study aims to examine the current state of mobile Internet experience of the children in Turkey and to compare the Internet experiences of the children in Turkey to the children living in seven European countries included in the Net Children Go Mobile (NCGM) project. Research Methods: In this study, a descriptive research design was employed and the participants consisted of 784 children between the ages of 9 and 16 from 12 different regions. Findings: Results revealed that the ratio of Turkish children having Internet access in their own bedrooms and outside and also the ratio of them owning mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, is above the European average. It was seen that Turkish and European children used the Internet mostly for performing leisure and communicative activities. Although Turkish children's Internet use skills seemed to above the European average, it was seen that their skills towards safe Internet browsing like filtering unwanted content, blocking pop-up windows lacked behind their European counterparts. Thus, it was revealed that Turkish children were facing more Internet risks compared to the children in Europe. Implications for Research and Practice: Future studies can utilize more detailed evaluation methods, such as performance tasks to assess the children’s mobile device and Internet use. Researchers can also design applications and activities that aim to redirect the children’s attention from using the Internet for entertainment and communication purposes to using it for research and study and then evaluate the effectiveness of the designs

Personalization in cultural heritage: the road travelled and the one ahead

Over the last 20 years, cultural heritage has been a favored domain for personalization research. For years, researchers have experimented with the cutting edge technology of the day; now, with the convergence of internet and wireless technology, and the increasing adoption of the Web as a platform for the publication of information, the visitor is able to exploit cultural heritage material before, during and after the visit, having different goals and requirements in each phase. However, cultural heritage sites have a huge amount of information to present, which must be filtered and personalized in order to enable the individual user to easily access it. Personalization of cultural heritage information requires a system that is able to model the user (e.g., interest, knowledge and other personal characteristics), as well as contextual aspects, select the most appropriate content, and deliver it in the most suitable way. It should be noted that achieving this result is extremely challenging in the case of first-time users, such as tourists who visit a cultural heritage site for the first time (and maybe the only time in their life). In addition, as tourism is a social activity, adapting to the individual is not enough because groups and communities have to be modeled and supported as well, taking into account their mutual interests, previous mutual experience, and requirements. How to model and represent the user(s) and the context of the visit and how to reason with regard to the information that is available are the challenges faced by researchers in personalization of cultural heritage. Notwithstanding the effort invested so far, a definite solution is far from being reached, mainly because new technology and new aspects of personalization are constantly being introduced. This article surveys the research in this area. Starting from the earlier systems, which presented cultural heritage information in kiosks, it summarizes the evolution of personalization techniques in museum web sites, virtual collections and mobile guides, until recent extension of cultural heritage toward the semantic and social web. The paper concludes with current challenges and points out areas where future research is needed

A Cognitive Theory-based Approach for the Evaluation and Enhancement of Internet Security Awareness among Children Aged 3-12 Years

In the age of technology, the Internet has spread widely and used for multiple purposes by users of all ages, especially children who start using it frequently to play in their spare time. With the use of the Internet, children must have a sufficient security awareness to avoid security risks found online. This study takes us through the journey of evaluating and enhancing the level of the Internet security awareness among a group of Saudi children aged 3-12 years. The developed evaluation survey shows that there is some awareness among the Saudi Children; however, they still need more concrete ways of ensuring secure practices as they showed a poor knowledge of proper Internet security practices in areas such as interacting with anonymous advertisements as well as understanding some of the Internet Security symbols. The study also presents a suggested Awareness Enhancement solution to raise the security awareness among children. The solution’s design takes into consideration the Piaget’s theory of children’s cognitive development, which states that children in different age groups have different perceptual and learning abilities. The test of the suggested solution shows a significant increase in the sample’s Internet security level. The work of this study emphasizes on the importance of targeting the Saudi children with interactive training sessions to raise their Internet security awareness level

TOWARDS A MODEL OF TECHNOLOGY USAGE AND DIGITAL MATURITY IN CHILDREN: A GROUNDED-THEORY APPROACH

Increased use of digital technologies by children has raised some concerns about how digital technologies may be influencing multiple aspects of children’ lives. The purpose of this study is to investigate on how children use digital technologies, aiming at identifying factors that indicate how mature children are in the use of digital technologies. We conducted a qualitative study by collecting data from five children focus groups in Spain, with a total of 20 participants. We generated 10 factors that indicate digital maturity, namely digital literacy and technology awareness, perceived benefits and risks, types and patters of technology usage, managing tensions, adult interaction and mediation, regulation of emotional responses, needs satisfaction, and digital civic behaviour. The article also develops a high-level model showing interrelations between socio-technical environment, technology usage and experiences, and reactions to technology usag

Multimodal annotation tool for challenging behaviors in people with Autism spectrum disorders

Individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often have challenging behaviors (CB's), such as self-injury or emotional outbursts, which can negatively impact the quality of life of themselves and those around them. Recent advances in mobile and ubiquitous technologies provide an opportunity to efficiently and accurately capture important information preceding and associated with these CB's. The ability to obtain this type of data will help with both intervention and behavioral phenotyping efforts. Through collaboration with behavioral scientists and therapists, we identified relevant design requirements and created an easy-to-use mobile application for collecting, labeling, and sharing in-situ behavior data in individuals diagnosed with ASD. Furthermore, we have released the application to the community as an open-source project so it can be validated and extended by other researchers.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant NSF CCF-1029585)MIT Media Lab ConsortiumAutism Speaks (Organization) (Innovative Technology for Autism Initiative Grant

Video Modeling to Increase Interaction for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder in a Museum Setting Using an Application on a Tablet

The purpose of this thesis was to perform an exploratory study to determine if the ScanDo! app intervention is an assistive technology that increases interaction for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in a museum setting. The ScanDo! app intervention presented a video demonstration that modeled the interaction for each learning station by scanning the QR code attached to the station. Using a naturally occurring baseline single-subject design with ABA and reversed ABA phases, two children with ASD and their parents visited the grocery store exhibit at a children’s museum. Observers of the trials and questionnaires completed by parents before and after each trial documented play behaviors and location. We hypothesized that the intervention would increase quality interactions and length of play. Dependent variables were the location of the child and the quality of play for each ten seconds during the trial. The results showed that during the ScanDo! app intervention, both participants had a more even distribution of time spent at each station, increased transitions between stations, and decreased amount of time at stations where participants demonstrated unproductive play. These findings suggest that the ScanDo! App intervention helps increase transitions for children with ASD to provide more learning environments and productive play opportunities