Chapter

The Work of Children: Seeking Patterns in the Design of Educational Technology

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

Abstract

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 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.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... Learning activities, knowledge construction and skill training, will be within the scope of the students' role. Therefore, learning management may involve the students' roles as follows [34][35][36]: ...
Chapter
Full-text available
The chapter presents the impact of COVID-19 on Thai higher education the national, and university reactions and policies to cope with the situation. Parallel with the technology disruption, most universities have been attempting to promote online teaching due to the new learning environments and learning style of students, while faculty members are still reluctant. However, the COVID-19 has inevitably changed the ways the faculty members handle their classes. In this chapter, the findings on the components of online teaching and learning ecology (OTLE) in Thai higher education during the COVID-19 is summarized and proposed, covering the following topics: learning and teaching method, technology and learning resources, teacher roles, and student roles and responsibilities. Finally, the key success factors for the development of learning ecology at the higher education level are also covered.
Book
Why in some parts of the world do parents rarely play with their babies and never with toddlers? Why in some cultures are children not fully recognized as individuals until they are older? How are routine habits of etiquette and hygiene taught - or not - to children in other societies? Drawing on a lifetime's experience as an anthropologist, David F. Lancy takes us on a journey across the globe to show how children are raised differently in different cultures. Intriguing, and sometimes shocking, his discoveries demonstrate that our ideas about children are recent, untested, and often contrast starkly with those in other parts of the world. Lancy argues that we are, by historical standards, guilty of over-parenting, of micro-managing our children's lives. Challenging many of our accepted truths, his book will encourage parents to think differently about children, and by doing so to feel more relaxed about their own parenting skills.
Conference Paper
The meaning of "children's technology" is poised for imminent and radical change, as a variety of technologies are developed whose goal is to expand or augment the biological limitations of human functioning. These transhumanist technologies (including sensory augmentation, robotic bodily extensions, brain-machine interfaces, and genetic alteration) pose urgent questions for the community of designers of children's artifacts. This paper discusses the questions that transhumanist technologies raise for children's design specifically; we then present suggested heuristics for design in this new space, and outline plausible research projects consistent with those heuristics.
Book
Textile Messages focuses on the emerging field of electronic textiles, or e-textiles - computers that can be soft, colorful, approachable, and beautiful. E-textiles are articles of clothing, home furnishings, or architectures that include embedded computational and electronic elements. This book introduces a collection of tools that enable novices - including educators, hobbyists, and youth designers - to create and learn with e-textiles. It then examines how these tools are reshaping technology education - and DIY practices - across the K-16 spectrum, presenting examples of the ways educators, researchers, designers, and young people are employing them to build new technology, new curricula, and new creative communities.
Strange biology inspires the best new materials
  • N Drake
  • D Lancy
Description at: igem.org
  • Igem Competition
The voxel printer: steps toward a 3D pick-and-place printer for children
  • Z Jacobson-Weaver
  • M Eisenberg
A description of “Squirt”, and links to advertisements
  • Hp Computer Museum