Lydia Plowman

What are workplace studies for

We have considered the role of workplace studies from the CSCW literature which are intended to inform system design and implementation. We present a critique of these studies, categorised according to which phase of the design process they most inform, and discuss the tensions between providing explanatory accounts and usable design recommendations, the pressures on fieldworkers to provide both, the purposes different approaches serve, and the transition from fieldwork to system design.

Preschool children's learning with technology at home

We produced case studies of fourteen families based on nine rounds of data collection during the period from June 2008 to October 2009. We focused on fourteen children who were three years old when our visits started and used an ecocultural approach to examine their experiences of learning and playing with technologies at home. The study describes i) which technologies children encounter at home, ii) how family practices influence childrens encounters with technology, and iii) what children are learning through their interactions with technology. We present a framework of four areas of learning that could be supported by technology: acquiring operational skills, extending knowledge and understanding of the world, developing dispositions to learn, and understanding the role of technology in everyday life.

Seven Myths about Young Children and Technology.

Parents and educators tend to have many questions about young childrens play with computers and other technologies at home. They can find it difficult to know what is best for children because these toys and products were not around when they were young. Some will tell you that children have an affinity for technology that will be valuable in their future lives. Others think that children should not be playing with technology when they could be playing outside or reading a book.

Designing multimedia for learning: narrative guidance and narrative construction

Narrative is fundamental to the ways we make sense of texts ofall kinds because it provides structure and coherence, but it isdifficult to see how this works in the context of multimediainteractive learning environments (MILES). We tested our hypothesesabout the form and function of narrative in MILES by developingthree versions of material on CD-ROM which had different narrativestructures and analysed the impact of the different versions onlearner behaviour. We present a theoretical framework in which weexplain the concepts of narrative guidance and narrativeconstruction and their application to the design of MILES.

Growing Up With Technology : Young Children Learning in a Digital World

First paragraph: The children in our studies were three or four years old. Like Andy and Evie they used technologies in different ways. They went to nursery, enjoyed active lives, and engaged in a diverse range of pursuits with friends and family. Whilst all the children had exposure to technologies at home their experiences varied: some children lived in homes with high levels of technology but preferred to read books, draw pictures or play with toys. Other children lived in homes where parents lacked confidence or interest in how to use technology and yet the children were able to find creative ways of integrating technology into their play. Andy was a keen Game Boy player, enjoyed surfing the web with his Dad but also liked dressing up, football and swimming. Evies favourite toy was the LeapPad but, apart from that, she did not show much interest in technology, preferring to look after her guinea pigs, play hopscotch or draw pictures.

Learning from the children: exploring preschool children's encounters with ICT at home

This article is an account of our attempts to understand preschool childrens experiences with information and communication technologies (ICT) at home. Using case study data, we focus on what we can learn from talking directly to the children that might otherwise have been overlooked and on describing and evaluating the methods we adopted to ensure that we maximized the childrens contributions to the research. By paying attention to the childrens perspectives we have learned that they are discriminating users of ICT who evaluate their own performances, know what gives them pleasure and who differentiate between operational competence and the substantive activities made possible by ICT.

Enhancing Learning with Information and Communication Technologies in Pre-School.

Earlier observations suggested that young children’s engagement with information and communication technologies (ICT) could be unproductive. Interplay: Play, Learning and ICT in Pre‐school Settings set out to explore how practitioners can enhance three‐year‐olds’ to four‐year‐olds’ encounters with new technologies in the playroom. The study took place in pre‐school settings where practice was characterised by free‐play and child‐initiated activity. Practitioners and researchers worked together in a process of guided enquiry with staff planning and implementing technology‐based interventions in their playrooms. The concept of guided interaction is used to describe the kind of adult support necessary to enhance young children’s learning with a range of ICT. In this paper we present an elaborated understanding of guided interaction (considering both distal and proximal interactions) and our findings about children’s and practitioners’ learning when adults proactively support learning with ICT in the playroom.

Supporting young children's learning with technology at home and in preschool

We describe two empirical investigations of three‐ and four‐year‐old childrens uses of technology, one conducted in family homes and the other in preschool settings, with the aim of comparing the ways in which childrens learning with technology is supported in these different settings. The studies conceptualise learning within a sociocultural framework and use the concept of guided interaction to focus the discussion. Three areas of learning that can be supported by the use of technologies are outlined (extending knowledge of the world, acquiring operational skills and developing dispositions to learn), with the addition of learning about the cultural roles of technology in the home context. Both studies took place in Scotland and families were selected according to socioeconomic factors. The first study, of eight preschool settings, involved practitioners in implementing two interventions involving learning with technology. Findings were based on video analysis, interviews with practitioners and a process of guided enquiry. The second study, of childrens homes, involved survey responses from 346 parents and five visits over about 15 months to an initial 24 case‐study families. The paper also draws on a discussion with educational experts to discuss the policy and practice implications for transition to school. There were differences in terms of the human and technological resources available, the motivation and opportunities for providing guided interaction and the types of learning that were supported. Children encountered a more diverse range of technologies at home, were more likely to request help and could benefit from observing family practices. The limitations on the technologies available in most preschool settings and their lack of use for authentic activities meant that there were fewer opportunities to develop childrens awareness of the different cultural and work‐related uses of technology. Preschool and primary school staff have limited knowledge of childrens home experiences with technology.

The big picture? Video and the representation of interaction

Researchers who use video to record interactions usually need to translate the video data into another medium at some stage in order to facilitate its analysis and dissemination. This article considers some methodological issues that arise in this process by examining transcripts, diagrams and pictures as examples of different techniques for representing interaction. These examples are used to identify some general principles for the representation of data where video is the source material. The article presents an outline of guided interaction and this is used as a case for illustrating these principles in the context of young children, technology and adults in pre‐school settings. Although the article focuses on a specific study and solution, the principles are applicable in all cases where video is used as a source of data for the representation of interaction, whether or not it is technologically mediated.

Narrative, linearity and interactivity: making sense of interactive multimedia

A novice to IMM is confronted by a new medium which transforms narrative structures which have evolved over thousands of years. This article focuses on educational interactive media for which the notion of multiple interpretations has different implications, particularly for comprehension and cognition. It reports on experiments with a number of multimedia packages to see how children make sense of interactive media.