PLU-E: a proposed framework for planning and conducting evaluation studies with children.

While many models exist to support the design process of a software development project, the evaluation process is far less well defined and this lack of definition often leads to poorly designed evaluations, or the use of the wrong evaluation method. Evaluations of products for children can be especially complex as they need to consider the different requirements and aims that such a product may have, and often use new or developing evaluation methods. This paper takes the view that evaluations should be planned from the start of a project in order to yield the best results, and proposes a framework to facilitate this. This framework is particularly intended to support the varied and often conflicting requirements of a product designed for children, as defined by the PLU model, but could be adapted for other user groups

On the application of text input metrics to handwritten text input

This paper describes the current metrics used in text input research, considering those used for discrete text input as well as those used for spoken input. It examines how these metrics might be used for handwritten text input and provides some thoughts about different metrics that might allow for a more fine grained evaluation of recognition improvement or input accuracy

Poking fun at the surface: exploring touch-point overloading on the multi-touch tabletop with child users

In this paper a collaborative game for children is used to explore touch-point overloading on a multi-touch tabletop. Understanding the occurrence of new interactional limitations, such as the situation of touch-point overloading in a multi-touch interface, is highly relevant for interaction designers working with emerging technologies. The game was designed for the Microsoft Surface 1.0 and during gameplay the number of simultaneous touch-points required gradually increases to beyond the physical capacity of the users. Studies were carried out involving a total of 42 children (from 2 different age groups) playing in groups of between 5-7 and all interactions were logged. From quantitative analysis of the interactions occurring during the game and observations made we explore the impact of overloading and identify other salient findings. This paper also highlights the need for empirical evaluation of the physical and cognitive limitations of interaction with emerging technologies

Effective Learning and Teaching in Computing

Review of Effective Learning and Teaching in Computing\ud Alistair Irons & Sylvia Alexander (eds)\ud RoutledgeFalmer, 2004, 224pp. ISBN-13: 978-0415335010 (pbk

Turning Up the Heat on Energy Monitoring in the Home

The use of domestic electrical energy monitoring systems is becoming more common however gas usage has received comparatively little attention. This paper presents a new technique for monitoring gas-powered heating and hot water usage in the home integrated into a prototype energy monitoring platform. Compared to usual meter-based approaches this technique provides finer-grained usage data and uses simple temperature sensors. The main motivation for this work is to provide more meaningful energy information to users for inclusion in novel mobile and embedded applications. This is part of ongoing work which aims to reduce energy use among teenagers in the UK and make lasting attitude changes. The development and findings from a prototype deployed in a typical UK house over 7 days are presented. The findings highlight the utility of the technique and simplicity of the sensing approach. The novel requirements that inspired the development of this technique are also presented

Constructing the Cool Wall: A Tool to Explore Teen Meanings of Cool

This paper describes the development and exploration of a tool designed to assist in investigating ‘cool’ as it applies to the design of interactive products for teenagers. The method involved the derivation of theoretical understandings of cool from literature that resulted in identification of seven core categories for cool, which were mapped to a hierarchy. The hierarchy includes having of cool things, the doing of cool activities and the being of cool. This paper focuses on a tool, the Cool Wall, developed to explore one specific facet of the hierarchy; exploring shared understanding of having cool things. The paper describes the development and construction of the tool, using a heavily participatory approach, and the results and analysis of a study carried out over 2 days in a school in the UK. The results of the study both provide clear insights into cool things and enable a refined understanding of cool in this context. Two additional studies are then used to identify potential shortcomings in the Cool Wall methodology. In the first study participants were able to populate a paper cool wall with anything they chose, this revealed two potential new categories of images and that the current set of images covered the majority of key themes. In the second study teenagers interpretations of the meaning of the images included in the Cool Wall were explored, this showed that the majority of meanings were as expected and a small number of unexpected interpretations provided some valuable insights

A Study into the Adoption of, and Enthusiasm for Agile Development Methodologies Within Further Education

This paper describes a survey of UK Further Education professionals in order to determine the uptake and use of Agile Methodologies. Thirty individuals, including directors, managers and developers, completed the survey. The results indicate a low level (\u3c25%) of Agile adoption within the sector, and this mirrors findings in the wider public sector, despite there being a backdrop of reduced funding and government pressure towards carrying out Agile projects. Interestingly, where institutions have adopted Agile the level of impact measured shows little improvement over traditional processes. Despite the FE sector being a place where change and teamwork would find a natural home, the enthusiasm for Agile systems was also low in the respondents to this survey and given that these individuals were recruited from a mailing list for those interested in Agile, these results are particularly interesting

Bringing tabletop technologies to kindergarten children

Taking computer technology away from the desktop and into a more physical, manipulative space, is known that provide many benefits and is generally considered to result in a system that is easier to learn and more natural to use. This paper describes a design solution that allows kindergarten children to take the benefits of the new pedagogical possibilities that tangible interaction and tabletop technologies offer for manipulative learning. After analysis of children's cognitive and psychomotor skills, we have designed and tuned a prototype game that is suitable for children aged 3 to 4 years old. Our prototype uniquely combines low cost tangible interaction and tabletop technology with tutored learning. The design has been based on the observation of children using the technology, letting them freely play with the application during three play sessions. These observational sessions informed the design decisions for the game whilst also confirming the children's enjoyment of the prototype

Too Cool at School - Understanding Cool Teenagers

Cool can be thought about on three levels; the having of cool things, the doing of cool stuff and the being of cool. Whilst there is some understanding of cool products, the concept, of being cool is much more elusive to designers and developers of systems. This study examines this space by using a set of pre-prepared teenage personas as probes with a set of teenagers with the aim of better understanding what is, and isn’t cool about teenage behaviours. The study confirmed that teenagers are able to rank personas in order of cool and that the process of using personas can provide valuable insights around the phenomenon of cool. The findings confirm that cool is indeed about having cool things but in terms of behaviours cool can be a little bit, but not too, naughty

The serious game constructivist framework for children's learning

Recent studies have shown adoption of basic tenets of constructivism in the design of learning environments. Individual representation of knowledge; active learning through exploration; and learning through social interaction or collaboration make-up the basic tenets of constructivism that is addressed in turns in relation to serious games. In contrast to behaviourism which views learners as active recipients of information, in constructivism, the learner is an active processor of information. The constructivist view of learning has been embraced by the video game world. We are currently witnessing a dwindling interest in drill and practice educational games and an overwhelming acceptance of serious games believed to be consistent with the constructivist view of learning. The broadness of constructivism has made it difficult for serious games to completely adopt this principle. This paper aims at ascertaining the extent to which serious games have adopted this pedagogical principle in its approach to facilitating learning