Marina Umaschi Bers

Tangible interaction and learning: the case for a hybrid approach

Research involving tangible interaction and children has often focused on how tangibles might support or improve learning compared to more traditional methods. In this paper, we review three of our research studies involving tangible computer programming that have addressed this question in a variety of learning environments with a diverse population of children. Through these studies, we identify situations in which tangible interaction seems to offer advantages for learning; however, we have also identify situations in which tangible interaction proves less useful and an alternative interaction style provides a more appropriate medium for learning. Thus, we advocate for a hybrid approach—one that offers teachers and learners the flexibility to select the most appropriate interaction style to meet the needs of a specific situation.

Designing ScratchJr: support for early childhood learning through computer programming

ScratchJr is a graphical programming language based on Scratch and redesigned for the unique developmental and learning needs of children in kindergarten to second grade. The creation of ScratchJr addresses the relative lack of powerful technologies for digital creation and computer programming in early childhood education. ScratchJr will provide software for children to create interactive, animated stories as well as curricula and online resources to support adoption by educators. This paper describes the goals and challenges of creating a developmentally appropriate programming tool for children ages 5-7 and presents the path from guiding principles and studies with young children to current ScratchJr designs and plans for future work.

Interactive storytelling environments: coping with cardiac illness at Boston's Children's Hospital

This paper describes exploration of uses of a computational storytelling environment on the Car- diology Unit of the ChildrenHospital in Boston, during the summer of 1997. Young cardiac patients ranging from age 7 to 16 used the SAGE environment to tell personal stories and cre- ate interactive characters, as a way of coping with cardiac illness, hospitalizations, and invasive medical procedures. This pilot study is part of a larger collaborative effort between Children ´ Hospital and MERL - A Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratory, to develop a web-based appli- cation, the Experience Journal, to assist patients and their families in dealing with serious medical illness. The focus of the paper is on young patientsof SAGE, on SAGEaffordances in the context of the hospital, and on design recommendations for the development of future computa- tional play kits for expressing and exchanging feelings and ideas. Preliminary analysis of young patientsindicates that children used different modes of interaction-direct, mediated, and differed-, depending upon what personae the narrator chooses to take on. These modes seem to vary with the mindset and health condition of the child.

The Role of New Technologies to Foster Positive Youth Development.

This article describes a developmental systems approach to applied developmental science (ADS), which provides a framework to design and evaluate technology-rich programs that promote positive development by emphasizing the strengths and assets of young people instead of focusing on diminishing or preventing risk-taking behaviors. Until now, most of the psychoeducational programs conceived within the ADS model have not focused on the role of new technologies in young peoples lives. This absence is particularly striking given that, in todays world, new technologies play an important role in different areas of the lives of young people, such as education, entertainment, socialization, and communication. This article presents the concept of identity construction environments (ICE), an interdisciplinary model that proposes guidelines to design and study new technologies purposefully created to promote positive youth development (PYD). Two types of ICE have been developed: one focusing on stand-alone technologies for learning, such as the Zora virtual city; and the other focusing on an approach for developing technologically rich learning contexts, such as the Project Inter-Actions robotics workshops. This article presents both examples of ICE and describes how their design fosters the 6 components of PYD. Initial findings from pilot studies conducted with very different populations of youth engaged in both types of ICE—such as young children, adolescents, and chronically ill children—are presented.

Identity construction environments: supporting a virtual therapeutic community of pediatric patients undergoing dialysis

We describe a five-month pilot project conducted in the dialysis unit at Bostons Childrens Hospital. Pediatric patients with renal disease used the Zora graphical multi-user environment while facing hemodialysis. Zora is an identity construciton environment specifically designed to help young people explore issues of identity, while engaging in a participatory virtual community. This paper presents the experience and evaluates the feasibility and safety of using Zora in a hospital setting. It describes how Zora facilitated explorations of identity and mutual patient support and interaction. Finally it also presents design recommendations for future interventions of this kind. More generally, this paper explores the potential of technology specifically designed with therapeutic purposes to help patients cope with their illness.

Fostering Civic Engagement by Building a Virtual City

This article focuses on the design and use of networked technologies to create learning environments to foster the civic engagement of youth. First, we briefly describe the Zora three-dimensional multiuser environment that engages children in the design of a graphical virtual city and its social organization. Anecdotal data are then used to help define different aspects of civic engagement, namely civic actions and civic discourse. Finally, we present descriptive results from a pilot study of young people using Zora in the context of a multicultural summer camp for youth. During this experience, children developed a virtual community that became a safe space for experimenting with decisionmaking, self-organization, and civic conversations, as well as for testing democratic values, behaviors, and attitudes. Using Zora as a case study, this article shows the potential of networked technologies to facilitate different aspects of young people’s civic development.

Zora: a graphical multi-user environment to share stories about the self

Zora is a narrative-based graphical multi-user environment purposefully design to help people understand and affect the ways in which identity and values are actively constructed by both an individual and a community. Zora engages young people in building artifacts as representations of their complex self and creating communities in which values and attitudes are put to the test. It supports 1) creation of a virtual city with its different spaces, objects and interactive characters, 2) communication between the users, and 3) introspection about role models, personal and community values. This paper describes the theoretical framework that conceives identity as dynamically constructed by putting together diverse and conflicting elements and values. Based on this framework, Zoras design principles are presented, as well as preliminary results from a pilot experience in which young people used Zora to learn about identity and values in a hands-on, constructionist way.

Beyond Computer Literacy: Supporting Youth's Positive Development through Technology

In a digital era in which technology plays a role in most aspects of a childs life, having the competence and confidence to use computers might be a necessary step, but not a goal in itself. Developing character traits that will serve children to use technology in a safe way to communicate and connect with others, and providing opportunities for children to make a better world through the use of their computational skills, is just as important. The Positive Technological Development framework (PTD), a natural extension of the computer literacy and the technological fluency movements that have influenced the world of educational technology, adds psychosocial, civic, and ethical components to the cognitive ones. PTD examines the developmental tasks of a child growing up in our digital era and provides a model for developing and evaluating technology-rich youth programs. The explicit goal of PTD programs is to support children in the positive uses of technology to lead more fulfilling lives and make the world a better place. This article introduces the concept of PTD and presents examples of the Zora virtual world program for young people that the author developed following this framework.

Use of a virtual community as a psychosocial support system in pediatric transplantation

Bers MU, Beals LM, Chau C, Satoh K, Blume ED, DeMaso DR, Gonzalez‐Heydrich J. Use of a virtual community as a psychosocial support system in pediatric transplantation.
Pediatr Transplantation 2010:14: 261–267.

Use of a computer-based application in a pediatric hemodialysis unit: a pilot study.

This report describes preliminary efforts to implement a computer-based application, called Zora, in a pediatric hemodialysis unit. The feasibility and safety of establishing a virtual community in the hemodialysis unit are explored. Zora allows users to design and inhabit a graphical virtual city where they create characters, stories and spaces while communicating in real-time. Over a 5-month period, 7 hemodialysis patients and 4 unit staff found Zora enjoyable and safe. The results support the premise that computational environments may offer an opportunity for pediatric patients and their caregivers to participate in virtual communities that promote coping with chronic physical illnesses.