La influencia de la historiografía católica en el estudio del pasado medieval peninsular (siglos XIX-XXI)

Abstract Within the framework of the liberal State building process, nineteenth-century Spanish scholarship developed a historical narrative deeply reliant on the idea of Catholicism as the backbone of Spanish national identity. One of the major challenges faced by those promoting the exclusively Catholic identity of the nation was the eight-century-long Muslim presence in Iberia. Together with the breaking up of the liberal historiographical tradition, the Francoist period represents the peak moment of so-called National Catholicism. Counter-intuitively, the most vocal representative of this narrative was C. Sánchez-Albornoz, a committed republican and convinced anti-Francoist but, at the same time, a devout Catholic believer. Having lost the leading role it played before the 1978 arrival of democracy, the Catholic narrative, however, remained influential over the last 45 years, not only thanks to the work done by Catholic historians but also because many of the Catholic prejudices and stereotypes are consistently promoted by non-religious academic sectors. Keywords Spanish nationalism, national Catholicism, catholic scholarship, Reconquista, christian identity, far right.ResumenEn el marco de la construcción del Estado liberal, la historiografía decimonónica española, fuertemente influida por la tradición católica, elaboró un relato histórico que tuvo entre sus objetivos esenciales establecer la existencia de una unión inextricable entre la nación española y el catolicismo. Evidentemente, uno de los grandes retos a los que se enfrentaban quienes promovían la identidad exclusivamente católica de la nación española era la dilatada presencia musulmana en Iberia durante ocho siglos. El franquismo supone la quiebra de la tradición historiográfica liberal y, al mismo tiempo, el apogeo del nacionalcatolicismo, si bien, paradójicamente, el principal representante de la historiografía medieval fue un republicano antifranquista, aunque profundamente católico, como Claudio Sánchez-Albornoz. A partir del período democrático, la historiografía católica pierde parte de su influencia, pero mantiene una amplia presencia en el estudio del período medieval, tanto gracias a la actividad de autores e instituciones confesionales como a la asunción por parte de otros sectores académicos de los postulados que emanan de dichos sectores. Palabras clave Españolismo, historiografía católica, nacionalcatolicismo, Reconquista, identidad cristiana, ultraderecha

PRESENTACIÓN ‘DESESPAÑOLIZANDO’ LA HISTORIA MEDIEVAL DE ESPAÑA

PRESENTACIÓN  ‘DESESPAÑOLIZANDO’ LA HISTORIA MEDIEVAL DE ESPAÑ

Augmented Tangible Surfaces to Support Cognitive Games for Ageing People

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19695-4_27The continuous and rapidly increasing elderly population requires a revision of technology design in order to devise systems usable and meaningful for this social group. Most applications for ageing people are built to provide supporting services, taking into account the physical and cognitive abilities that decrease over time. However, this paper focuses on building technology to improve such capacities, or at least slow down their decline, through cognitive games. This is achieved by means of a digitally-augmented table-like surface that combines touch with tangible input for a more natural, intuitive, and appealing means of interaction. Its construction materials make it an affordable device likely to be used in retirement homes in the context of therapeutic activities, and its form factor enables a versatile, quick, and scalable configuration, as well as a socializing experience.This work received financial support from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the National Strategic Program of Research and Project TIN2010-20488, and from Universitat Politécnica de Valencia under Project UPV-FE-2014-24. It is also supported by fellowships APOST D/2013/013 and ACIF/2014/214 within the VALi+d program from Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Esport (GVA).García Sanjuan, F.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Catalá Bolós, A. (2015). Augmented Tangible Surfaces to Support Cognitive Games for Ageing People. En Ambient Intelligence - Software and Applications. Springer. 263-271. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-19695-4_27S26327

Multi-Display Environments to Foster Emotional Intelligence in Hospitalized Children

© Owner/Author 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in Interacción '15 Proceedings of the XVI International Conference on Human Computer Interactionhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2829875.2829880Long-term and frequent hospitalized children are under high loads of emotional stress, which affects their well-being in addition to the illness they are suffering. This thesis proposes and will focus on an approach to use Multi-Display Environments (MDE) in pediatric hospitalization contexts to improve patients’ emotional intelligence so they can deal with the negative emotions produced by their situation.This work is supported by Spanish MINECO (TIN2010-20488 and TIN2014-60077-R), from Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV-FE-2014-24), and from GVA (APOSTD/2013/013 and ACIF/2014/214).García Sanjuan, F.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Catalá Bolós, A. (2015). Multi-Display Environments to Foster Emotional Intelligence in Hospitalized Children. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2829875.2829880SGal, E., Bauminger, N., Goren-Bar, D., et al. Enhancing Social Communication of Children with High-functioning Autism Through a Co-located Interface. AI & Society 24, 1 (2009), 75--84.Hornecker, E., Marshall, P., Dalton, N.S., and Rogers, Y. Collaboration and Interference: Awareness with Mice or Touch Input. CSCW '08, ACM (2008), 167--176.Kaminski, M., Pellino, T., and Wish, J. Play and Pets: The Physical and Emotional Impact of Child-Life and Pet Therapy on Hospitalized Children. Children's Health Care 31, 4 (2002), 321--335.Mandryk, R.L., Inkpen, K.M., Bilezikjian, M., Klemmer, S.R., and Landay, J.A. Supporting children's collaboration across handheld computers. CHI EA '01, ACM (2001), 255--256.Morris, M.E., Marshall, C.S., Calix, M., Al Haj, M., MacDougall, J.S., and Carmean, D.M. PIXEE: Pictures, Interaction and Emotional Expression. CHI EA '13, ACM (2013), 2277--2286.Ohta, T. and Tanaka, J. Pinch: an interface that relates applications on multiple touch-screen by `pinching' gesture. ACE '12, Springer-Verlag (2012), 320--335.Ohta, T. Dynamically reconfigurable multi-display environment for CG contents. ACE '08, ACM (2008), 416.Rick, J., Marshall, P., and Yuill, N. Beyond One-size-fits-all: How Interactive Tabletops Support Collaborative Learning. IDC '11, ACM (2011), 109--117

Airsteroids: Re-designing the Arcade Game Using MarkAirs

© Authors 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in ACM, In Proceedings of the 2015 International Conference on Interactive Tabletops & Surfaces (pp. 413-416). http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2817721.2823480This paper presents Airsteroids, a multi-player redesign of the classic arcade game Asteroids. The redesign makes use of handheld devices such as tablets and Smartphones and of MarkAirs, an around-device interaction (ADI) with fiducial markers that reduces occlusion on the screens and interference between users’ interactions.This work received financial support from Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the National Strategic Program of Research with Projects TIN2010-20488 and TIN2014-60077-R, and from Universitat Politècnica de València under Project UPV-FE-2014-24. It is also supported by fellowship ACIF/2014/214 within the VALi+d program from Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Esport (Generalitat Valenciana).García Sanjuan, F.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Catalá Bolós, A.; Fitzpatrick, G. (2015). Airsteroids: Re-designing the Arcade Game Using MarkAirs. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2817721.2823480SAmartya Banerjee, Jesse Burstyn, Audrey Girouard, and Roel Vertegaal. 2011. Pointable: An in-air pointing technique to manipulate out-of-reach targets on tabletops. Proc. of ITS'11, 11--20. http://doi.org/10.1145/2076354.2076357Daniel Gallardo and Sergi Jordà. 2013. SLFiducials: 6DoF markers for tabletop interaction. Proc. of ITS'13, 401--404. http://doi.org/10.1145/2512349.2514914Otmar Hilliges, Shahram Izadi, Andrew D. Wilson, Steve Hodges, Armando Garcia-Mendoza, and Andreas Butz. 2009. Interactions in the air: adding further depth to interactive tabletops. Proc. of UIST'09, 139--148. http://doi.org/10.1145/1622176.1622203Brett Jones, Rajinder Sodhi, David Forsyth, Brian Bailey, and Giuliano Maciocci. 2012. Around device interaction for multiscale navigation. Proc. of MobileHCI'12, 83--92. http://doi.org/10.1145/2371574.2371589Hamed Ketabdar, Kamer Ali Yüksel, and Mehran Roshandel. 2010. MagiTact: Interaction with mobile devices based on compass (magnetic) sensor. Proc. of IUI'10, 413--414. http://doi.org/10.1145/1719970.1720048Sven Kratz, Michael Rohs, Dennis Guse, Jörg Müller, Gilles Bailly, and Michael Nischt. 2012. PalmSpace: Continuous around-device gestures vs. multitouch for 3D rotation tasks on mobile devices. Proc. of AVI'12, 181--188. http://doi.org/10.1145/2254556.2254590Nicolai Marquardt, Ricardo Jota, Saul Greenberg, and Joaquim A. Jorge. 2011. The continuous interaction space: Interaction techniques unifying touch and gesture on and above a digital surface. Proc. of INTERACT'11, 461--476. http://doi.org/10.1007/978--3--642--23765--2_32Roman Rädle, Hans-Christian Jetter, Nicolai Marquardt, Harald Reiterer, and Yvonne Rogers. 2014. HuddleLamp: Spatially-aware mobile displays for ad-hoc around-the-table collaboration. Proc. of ITS'14, 45--54. http://doi.org/10.1145/2669485.2669500Martin Spindler, Sophie Stellmach, and Raimund Dachselt. 2009. PaperLens: Advanced magic lens interaction above the tabletop. Proc. of ITS'09, 69--76. http://doi.org/10.1145/1731903.173192

Design and Evaluation of a Tangible-Mediated Robot for Kindergarten Instruction

© ACM 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in ACE '15 Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology. http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2832932.2832952Entertainment technology increases children’s engagement in educational activities designed to develop abilities ranging from collaborative problem-solving and cognitive attention to self-esteem. However, little research has been done on designing educational and entertaining interactive technology for kindergarten children (up to 5 years old). Furthermore, most of the work in this area has considered traditional input devices such as the mouse and keyboard, which are not suitable for these very young children. More recently, other more intuitive means of interaction (touch and tangible interfaces) and advanced educational artifacts such as robots have emerged. In this work we therefore present a joint collaboration between technologists and kindergarten instructors to design and evaluate a technological platform using a mobile robot for kindergarten instruction, as well as an intuitive and user-friendly tangible user interface. The results obtained suggest the platform is not only usable by kindergarten children, but it also allows them to be fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In addition, the instructors reported that the system was well accepted and praised its versatility in use as a supporting tool for their everyday classroom activities.This work is funded by the European Development Regional Fund (EDRF-FEDER) and supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness with Project TIN2014-60077-R, and from Universitat Politècnica de València under Project UPV-FE-2014-24. It is also supported by fellowship ACIF/2014/214within the VALi+d program from Conselleria d’Educació, Cultura i Esport (Generalitat Valenciana), and by fellowship FPU14/00136 within the FPU program from Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport.García Sanjuan, F.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Nácher-Soler, VE.; Catalá Bolós, A. (2015). Design and Evaluation of a Tangible-Mediated Robot for Kindergarten Instruction. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2832932.2832952SDiana Africano, Sara Berg, Kent Lindbergh, Peter Lundholm, Fredrik Nilbrink, and Anna Persson. 2004. Designing Tangible Interfaces for Children's Collaboration.CHI '04 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, 853--868. http://doi.org/10.1145/985921.985945Alissa N. Antle. 2013. Exploring how children use their hands to think: an embodied interactional analysis.Behaviour & Information Technology32, 9, 938--954. http://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2011.630415Jennifer Connolly, Anna Beth Doyle, and Flavia Ceschin. 1983. Forms and Functions of Social Fantasy Play in Preschoolers in M. B. InSocial and Cognitive Skills: Sex Roles and Children's Play. Academic Press, New York, 71--92.Amnon Dekel, Galit Yavne, Ela Ben-Tov, and Yulia Roschak. 2007. The spelling bee.Proceedings of the International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, ACM, 212--215. http://doi.org/10.1145/1255047.1255092Janet A. DiPietro. 1981. Rough and tumble play: A function of gender.Developmental Psychology 17, 50--58. http://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.17.1.50Allison Druin. 2002. The role of children in the design of new technology.Behaviour & Information Technology21, 1, 1--25. http://doi.org/10.1080/01449290110108659Madhumita Ghosh and Fumihide Tanaka. 2011. The impact of different competence levels of care-receiving robot on children.IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, IEEE, 2409--2415. http://doi.org/10.1109/IROS.2011.6048743Juan Pablo Hourcade, Michael Crowther, and Lisa Hunt. 2007. Does mouse size affect study and evaluation results?: a study comparing preschool children's performance with small and regular-sized mice.Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, ACM, 109--116. http://doi.org/10.1145/1297277.1297300Juan Pablo Hourcade. 2007. Interaction Design and Children.Foundations and Trends in Human--Computer Interaction1, 4, 277--392. http://doi.org/10.1561/1100000006C. Lorelle Lentz, Kay Kyeong-Ju Seo, and Bridget Gruner. 2014. Revisiting the Early Use of Technology: A Critical Shift from "How Young is Too Young?" to "How Much is 'Just Right'?"Dimensions of Early Childhood42, 1, 15--23.Janet Lever. 1976. Sex Differences in the Games Children Play.Social Problems23, 4, pp. 478--487.Janet Lever. 1978. Sex Differences in the Complexity of Children's Play and Games.American Sociological Review43, 4, pp. 471--483.Susan C. Levine, Janellen Huttenlocher, Amy Taylor, and Adela Langrock. 1999. Early sex differences in spatial skill.Developmental Psychology35, 4, 940--949. http://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.35.4.940Liang-Yi Li, Chih-Wei Chang, and Gwo-Dong Chen. 2009. Researches on using robots in education.Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on E-Learning and Games, Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 479--482. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-03364-3_57Min Liu. 1996. An exploratory study of how pre-kindergarten children use the interactive multimedia technology: implications for multimedia software design.Journal of Computing in Childhood Education7, 1--2, 71--92.Javier Marco, Eva Cerezo, and Sandra Baldassarri. 2013. Bringing tabletop technology to all: Evaluating a tangible farm game with kindergarten and special needs children.Personal and Ubiquitous Computing17, 8, 1577--1591. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00779-012-0522-5Vicente Nacher, Fernando Garcia-Sanjuan, and Javier Jaen. 2015. Game Technologies for Kindergarten Instruction: Experiences and Future Challenges.Proceedings of the 2nd Congreso de la Sociedad Española para las Ciencias del Videojuego, 58--67.Vicente Nacher, Javier Jaen, and Alejandro Catala. 2014. Exploring Visual Cues for Intuitive Communicability of Touch Gestures to Pre-kindergarten Children.Proceedings of the Ninth ACM International Conference on Interactive Tabletops and Surfaces, ACM, 159--162. http://doi.org/10.1145/2669485.2669523Vicente Nacher, Javier Jaen, Elena Navarro, Alejandro Catala, and Pascual González. 2015. Multi-touch gestures for pre-kindergarten children.International Journal of Human-Computer Studies73, 37--51. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2014.08.004Jeanne Nakamura and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. 2008. Flow Theory and Research. InHandbook of Positive Psychology. 195--206. http://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195187243.013.0018Junichi Osada, Shinichi Ohnaka, and Miki Sato. 2006. The scenario and design process of childcare robot, PaPeRo.Proceedings of the 2006 ACM SIGCHI International Conference on Advances in Computer Entertainment Technology, ACM. http://doi.org/10.1145/1178823.1178917Mildred B. Parten. 1932. Social participation among pre-school children.Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology27, 3, 243--269. http://doi.org/10.1037/h0074524Kimberly K. Powlishta, Maya G. Sen, Lisa A. Serbin, Diane Poulin-Dubois, and Julie A. Eichstedt. 2001. From infancy through middle childhood: The role of cognitive and social factors in becoming gendered. InHandbook of the psychology of women and gender, Rhoda K. Unger (ed.). John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, NJ, USA, 116--132.Kenneth H Rubin, Terrence L Maioni, and Margaret Hornung. 1976. Free play behaviors in middle- and lower-class preschoolers: Parten and Piaget Revisited.Child Development47, 2, 414--419. http://doi.org/10.2307/1128796Kenneth H. Rubin. 1977. Play Behaviors of Young Children.Young children32, 6, 16--24.Anne B. Smith and Patricia M. Inder. 1993. Social Interaction in Same and Cross Gender Preschool Peer Groups: a participant observation study.Educational Psychology 13, 29--42. http://doi.org/10.1080/0144341930130104Iris Soute and Henk Nijmeijer. 2014. An Owl in the Classroom: Development of an Interactive Storytelling Application for Preschoolers.Proceedings of the 2014 Conference on Interaction Design and Children, ACM, 261--264. http://doi.org/10.1145/2593968.2610467Amanda Strawhacker and Marina Umaschi Bers. 2014. "I want my robot to look for food": Comparing Kindergartner's programming comprehension using tangible, graphic, and hybrid user interfaces.International Journal of Technology and Design Education. http://doi.org/10.1007/s10798-014-9287-7Toshimitsu Takahashi, Masahiko Morita, and Fumihide Tanaka. 2012. Evaluation of a tricycle-style teleoperational interface for children: A comparative experiment with a video game controller.Proceedings of the 21st IEEE International Symposium on Robot and Human Interactive Communication, IEEE, 334--338. http://doi.org/10.1109/ROMAN.2012.6343775Fumihide Tanaka, Bret Fortenberry, Kazuki Aisaka, and Javier R. Movellan. 2005. Plans for Developing Real-time Dance Interaction between QRIO and Toddlers in a Classroom Environment.Procceedings on the 4th International Conference on Development and Learning, IEEE, 142--147. http://doi.org/10.1109/DEVLRN.2005.1490963Fumihide Tanaka and Shizuko Matsuzoe. 2012. Learning Verbs by Teaching a Care-Receiving Robot by Children: An Experimental Report.Proceedings of the 7th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, ACM, 253--254. http://doi.org/10.1145/2157689.2157781Fumihide Tanaka and Toshimitsu Takahashi. 2012. A tricycle-style teleoperational interface that remotely controls a robot for classroom children.Proceedings of the 7th Annual ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, 255--256. http://doi.org/10.1145/2157689.2157782Barrie Thorne. 1993.Gender Play: Boys and Girls in School. Rutgers University Press.Chau Kien Tsong, Toh Seong Chong, and Zarina Samsudin. 2012. Tangible multimedia: A case study for bringing tangibility into multimedia learning.Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences64, 382--391. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.045Jie Chi Yang and Sherry Y. Chen. 2010. 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Estudio de la validez de la versión española del Cuestionario de Estilo Atribucional ante Situaciones Negativas

Negative explanatory style, defined as the tendency to explain negative events with internal, stable and global causes, has been associated with different negative emotions such as depression. For its assessment most studies employed the Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson et al, 1982). The objective of the current study was to analyze the construct and criterion validity of the Spanish version of the ASQ for negative situations. The results of a confirmatory factor analysis with data of 815 subjects showed that the questionnaire items fit a three-factor model, corresponding to three interrelated attributional dimensions. Moreover, both the attributional dimensions as well as a negative explanatory style correlated positively with depression and negative affect, and negatively with positive affect. According to these results, it is concluded that the questionnaire is valid and can be used with confidence.El estilo explicativo negativo, definido como la tendencia a explicar las situaciones negativas mediante causas internas, estables y globales, ha sido asociado con diferentes emociones negativas como depresión. La mayoría de los estudios han empleado el Attributional Style Questionnaire (ASQ; Peterson, et al.,1982) para evaluarlo. El objetivo del presente estudio fue analizar la validez de constructo y criterio de la versión española del ASQ para situaciones negativas. Los resultados del análisis factorial confirmatorio, realizado con los datos de 815 personas, mostraron que los ítems del cuestionario se ajustan a un modelo de tres factores, correspondientes a las tres dimensiones atribucionales, que están relacionados entre sí. Por otra parte, tanto las dimensiones atribucionales como el estilo explicativo negativo correlacionaron positivamente con depresión y afecto negativo y negativamente con afecto positivo. De acuerdo con estos resultados, se concluye que el cuestionario es válido y puede ser empleado con garantía.

Escala de Encuentro de Beneficio para pacientes cardiacos

Resumen:El encuentro de beneficio, que se define como la percepción de cambios positivos por parte del individuo como resultado de su enfrentamiento a un suceso vital adverso, ha sido asociado con bienestar emocional y mejor salud. El objetivo del presente estudio fue analizar las propiedades psicométricas de la Benefit Finding Scale (BFS; Antoni et al., 2001) en una muestra de pacientes que acababan de sufrir un primer episodio cardiaco (n=153). Los resultados mostraron que en la escala se pueden distinguir tres dimensiones que recogen aspectos relacionados con el crecimiento personal, la importancia de la familia y la aceptación de las situaciones, aunque también es posible emplearla como una escala unidimensional. Tanto la escala total como las tres subescalas mostraron alta consistencia interna y estabilidad temporal relativa, así como adecuada validez de criterio. Se concluye que puede ser empleada con total garantía y se discute la idoneidad de realizar análisis confirmatorios.Abstract: Benefit Finding Scale for cardiac patients. Benefit finding, which is defined as the perception of positive changes by the individual because of his confrontation with an adverse life event, has been associated with emotional well-being and better health. The main objective of this study was to analyze the psychometric properties of the Benefit Finding Scale (BFS; Antoni et al., 2001) in a sample of patients who had just suffered a fi rst cardiac event (n = 153). The results showed that in this scale three dimensions can be distinguished which collect aspects of personal growth, the importance of family and acceptance of situations, although it can also be used as a one-dimensional scale. Both the total scale and the three subscales showed high internal consistency and relative temporal stability, and adequate criterion validity. It is concluded that it can be used with full warranty and the suitability of confi rmatory analyses is discussed

Exploring Direct Communication and Manipulation on Interactive Surfaces to Foster Novelty in a Creative Learning Environment

[EN] Information technology has supported learning in many different ways as improvements in communication, virtual environment embodiment and even mobility has allowed remote discussion and collaboration in exploring topics and developing ideas. However, learning environments often lack validation studies related to the grounding technology being used and do not consider creativity as a factor despite being essential for ideas generation and innovation processes which push human development. Moreover, computer-mediated communication quite often limits the effective expression of ideas between peers because technology may be a barrier rather than an aid. Taking this into consideration, this paper proposes the use of interactive surfaces as a promising technology to develop future creative learning environments. An exploratory experiment with 22 teenagers has been conducted. The experiment consisted of reflection, discussion and creation processes in which participants created entities with basic building blocks. The environment based on the interactive surface was compared to a completely tangible approach based on a tabletop with wooden blocks. A creativity model is used in the evaluation in terms of novelty, flexibility and fluency of thinking and motivation. The results showed that creations' novelty is significantly higher in the digital environment and also higher collaboration degree was observed so that this technology should be considered in the development of future learning environments to support creativity.This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education under project TSI2010-20488. Our thanks to the Alaquas city council, the clubhouse’s managers, and also to Polimedia for the support in computer hardware. A. Catalá is supported by a FPU fellowship with reference AP2006-00181.Catalá Bolós, A.; García Sanjuan, F.; Azorín Vicente, JP.; Jaén Martínez, FJ.; Mocholi Agües, JA. (2012). Exploring Direct Communication and Manipulation on Interactive Surfaces to Foster Novelty in a Creative Learning Environment. International Journal of Computer Science Research and Application. 2(1):15-24. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/35236S15242