Development of a music organizer for children

Software development for children is challenging; children have their own needs, which often are not met by ‘grown up’ software. We focus on software for playing songs and managing a music collection—tasks that children take great interest in, but for which they have few or inappropriate tools. We address this situation with the design of a new music management system, created with children as design partners: the Kids Music Box

Comparison of Visual Features in Iranian and Non-Iranian Applications Based on Visual Perception of 6- and 7-Year-OldChildren

Problem Definition: Technology is fundamental in human life in various areas, especially education. In recent years, due to the growth of technology and capabilities in digital media, cyberspace has become the most widely used media among children. Therefore, the designers' attention to selecting visual elements appropriate to the physical and perceptual features of children and creating a distinction in the design for children and adults reduces the visual pressure of inappropriate design for children and strengthens children's perceptions as well as their level of interaction with the new media.Objective: The aim is to identify visual elements appropriate to children's perception in designing educational applications for 6- and 7-year-old children.Research Method: The dominant method in this research is synthetic-analytic. Visual elements tailored to the perceptions of 6- and 7-year-old children have been extracted through online search and library studies. These elements were discovered and extracted as leading indicators in 80 Iranian and non-Iranian applications. According to their implementation in the studied applications, those elements appropriate to children's visual perception have been introduced.Results: The investigation results showed that the applied visual elements are appropriate for children's visual perception. Visual qualities are used to create peace of mind and mental readiness to understand educational concepts. In organizing the applications, visual stress has been avoided, which is consistent with the perceptual characteristics of children. This article is extracted from the master's thesis entitled "Review of math education applications for children 6- to 8-year-old children.

Making masks for Maui: Keeping the macro task in mind

New Zealand primary school children in technology lessons often design and create an artifact in response to a scenario that relates to their interests and experiences. Usually the task is undertaken over several days. In this paper we draw on data generated within the INSiTE study, a three-year study exploring the nature of effective student-teacher interactions around science and technology ideas. The teacher in this paper planned for her children to create a mask for their forthcoming school production: 'How Maui found the secret of fire'. As the children worked on the macro task, that of designing and making a mask, meso and micro tasks emerged. The teacher assisted the children to identity and resolve these, hearing in mind that the ultimate aim was their successful participation in the school production. When teachers assist children to maintain a focus on the overall or macro task goals their artifact fulfils the specifications of the scenario and children's technology understandings and skills are fostered

Assessing fun: young children as evaluators of interactive systems.

In this paper, we describe an exploratory study on the challenges of conducting usability tests with very young children aged 3 to 4 years old (nursery age) and the differences when working with older children aged 5 to 6 years old (primary school). A pilot study was conducted at local nursery and primary schools to understand and experience the challenges working with young children interacting with computer products. We report on the studies and compare the experiences of working with children of different age groups in evaluation studies of interactive systems

Sometimes the Internet reads the question wrong: children’s search strategies & difficulties

When children search for information on a given topic, how do they go about searching for and retrieving information? What can their information seeking strategies tell us about the development of search interfaces for children's digital libraries, search engines and information repositories? We interviewed New Zealand (NZ) school children to seek insights into how they are conducting information searches during their education

Two computer-based learning environments for reading and writing narratives

In this brief paper, two computer-based educational tools are described. They are designed to support children learning the literacy skills of narrative comprehension and creation. We give an overview of these tools, and then discuss the educational hypotheses that we are planning to use them to test