CHI ’95 MOSAIC OF CREATIVITY ■ May 7-11 1995 Tutorials Designing Educational Computer Environments for Children Allison Druin New York University 715 Broadway, 12th Floor New York, NY 10003 21~.998.3380 allison@play.cs. nyu.edu ABSTRACT This full-day, introductory tutorial will contain lectures and a hands-on design session, for educators and other professionals who are, or would like to be, actively engaged in designing multimedia environments for children. Participants will explore the special chal- lenges and global implications of designing educational computer environments for children. Participants will begin this full-day tutorial with an introduction to past, present, and emerging technologies for children. This will be followed by a hands-on design session where elementary school children will join participants in designing and prototyping a new educational computer environment. Participants will leave this tutorial with a historical perspective on what has been done in this field, as well as actual design experienw KEYWORDS: children, educational theories, design process, prototyping, historical perspective, interactive textbook, INTRODUCTION Begilu@ in the 1960S,research laboratories ill ul~\,er- sities and industry offered models of how computers might contribute to children’s learning. These comput- er environments ranged from systems that guided chil- dren every step of the way, to systems which encour- aged children to develop their own paths of learning. The user interfaces of these systems were strongly influenced by the kinds of technology that were avail- able at the time. This influence continues to be seen today. As more powerful computer technology becomes available, user interface design possibilities increase as do the underlying tools and feedback mech- anisms within the system. The research activities of the past have been founda- tional to current trends in the development of educa- tional computer environments for children today. Permission to copy without fee all or part of this material is granted provided that the copies are not made or distributed for direct commercial advantage, the ACM copyright notice and the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copying is by permission of ACM. To copy otherwise, or to republish, requires a fee and/or spacific permission. CHI’ Companion 95, Denver, Colorado, USA @ 1995 ACM 0-89791 -755-3 /95/0005 . ..$3.50 Dr. Cynthia Solomon Educational Multimedia Consultant 80 Ellery Street Cambridge, MA 02139 617-547-5297 cynthia@media -lab. media. mit.edu Surveying the exemplary computer environments for children that have been developed in the past will pro- vide a better perspective for future possibilities. THE TUTORIAL This tutorial will be structured in three parts. The first part will be an overview covering the historical devel- opment of computer environments for children, starting in the 1960’s. In this part of the lecture several exam- ples will be examined in depth to illustrate distinct styl- istic and philosophical differences in design and educa- tional approaches. The second part of will cover recent developments in multimedia environments for children. Present and emerging technologies will be discussed, as well as commercial and experimental approaches. The various multimedia environments will be examined and com- pared with historical counterparts. The last half of the day will be devoted to applying the design principles that have been presented. The goal of the hands-on design session will be to theoretically design a multimedia environment for children, which will teach them something about a part or parts of their body. Tutorial participants will break up into design groups each of which will include one or two children. The materials that will be used for prototyping with be “low-tech” (eg., clay, string,, cardboard, markers, etc...) This way the participants will not be constrained or influenced by today’s technology. Tutorial participants will be asked to consider such questions as they design their environments: Where will the computer environment be located? What is it you want to teach? What is the scope of information you want to share? What grade level are you aiming for and why? How is your approach the same or differ- ent as compared to past examples of multimedia envi- ronments? At the end of the day each group will give a five minute presentation on the environment they have designed. 379