The role of CCI in supporting children’s engagement with environmental sustainability at a time of climate crisis

Today’s children will live life navigating the impacts of climate change triggering new questions about their environmental education and how we can prepare them to take active roles that shape our ecological futures. The aim of our paper is to reflect on the role that the Child-Computer Interaction (CCI) community can play to this end. We do this by analysing thirteen years of HCI research concerned with the application of children’s digital technology to environmental sustainability (ES). Content analysis of the 25 papers identified shows that climate change is not a motor theme, with half of the papers using ES as an application area that drives other aims. Our analysis contributes a novel research agenda proposing to expand the domains, theories and user groups researchers have thus far focused on. Examining the distinctive design properties of previous research, we advance new insights into the role technology can play for children’s ES

Wearable audio-video recorders as a tool for investigating child play experiences in nature

Designing digital technologies that support children in middle childhood (8-12 years) play in nature can instil environmental values that motivate pro-environmental behaviour. However, gathering real-time and situated insights into children's independent play experiences in nature is often challenging as children of this age group are often secretive about their play activities and 'special play places'. Wearable video recorders present an opportunity for overcoming many barriers to understanding children's play experiences. Here we present a study where we provided twelve children (8-11 years) with a wearable video recorder while they played in their special place in nature. We then analysed the data to determine how these devices uniquely contribute to our understanding of the children's play experience. Our analysis found that wearable audio-video recorders provide a unique and rich perspective on children's play from the point of view of the child. The data captured was situated, naturalistic, spatial-temporal, social and visceral

Soundscape in Urban Forests

This Special Issue of Forests explores the role of soundscapes in urban forested areas. It is comprised of 11 papers involving soundscape studies conducted in urban forests from Asia and Africa. This collection contains six research fields: (1) the ecological patterns and processes of forest soundscapes; (2) the boundary effects and perceptual topology; (3) natural soundscapes and human health; (4) the experience of multi-sensory interactions; (5) environmental behavior and cognitive disposition; and (6) soundscape resource management in forests