The vast majority of research in educational technology focuses, justifiably, on what might be described as “short-term” (or perhaps “medium-term”) questions: how to improve an existing software system, how to assess a particular classroom innovation, and how to teach some current subject matter in a more effective fashion. From time to time, however, it is worth stepping back from such questions
... [Show full abstract] and taking a longer view of children’s technology: what are the larger patterns by which certain technologies become associated with children’s work? In this chapter, we examine a broad thematic pattern through which “adult” (or “professional”) technologies become progressively associated with children’s activities. As an example of how this analysis can be put to use for future design, we describe early steps in an effort to adapt a particularly powerful manufacturing technology (“pick-and-place”) for children’s crafts.