Child-Computer Interaction Field Research Articles

An Investigation of the Relationship Between Parents’ Socioeconomic Standards and their Children’s Online Safety; Perspective: Bangladesh

"The field of child-computer interaction has garnered significant interest from researchers worldwide. Nevertheless, the discourse around the protection of children’s digital safe, that includes privacy and security remains significantly underrepresented in both Bangladesh and the broader global south. In situations where a significant portion of senior and adult persons lack awareness regarding optimal strategies for effectively utilizing digital gadgets and tools, it is difficult to anticipate a higher level of proficiency among younger individuals. Privacy generally encompasses the capacity of individuals to exercise control over, get access to, and govern their personal data. In contrast, the security system serves to mitigate the risk of unauthorized access, data leakage, or cyber intrusions, therefore safeguarding the data from potential compromise. Previous studies have indicated that the responsibility for safeguarding the digital privacy and security of children lies with both parents and children themselves. Regrettably, a dearth of scholarly investigations exists within the domain, hindering the ability to systematically monitor and analyze the potential relationship between parental socioeconomic status and the privacy and safety of their offspring. This research aims to discover the correlation. This study employed semi-structured interviews with a sample of 48 parents and 42 children from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, including high income, middle income, and low-income groups. The collected data were subjected to statistical analysis. The findings of this study indicate that children from high income families are more susceptible to online safety issues compared to their counterparts from low-income households. This vulnerability is attributed to factors such as the widespread availability of internet access and personal digital devices, greater purchasing power on online platforms, and a lack of parental monitoring. This study presents a limited number of recommendations for parents and children across various socioeconomic backgrounds in order to enhance the state of internet safety for children."

Embedded figures in stories (EFiS): A method to observe preschoolers’ interactions with spatial manipulatives

Technologies that aim to support preschool children’s learning are emerging rapidly in the industry. However, the developmental needs and abilities of children under 4 years old have been insufficiently taken into account in the early stages of technology design. This paper addresses this gap in the child–computer interaction field by exploring how children between the ages of 2 and 4 years old interact with spatial manipulatives that facilitate their early spatial learning. To this end, we developed Embedded Figures in Stories (EFiS) method to elicit age specific knowledge about preschoolers’ spatial skills (i.e., mental rotation) and inform child-tangible interaction (CTI) design. To develop EFiS method, we modified intervention techniques for early spatial learning found in cognitive developmental studies and incorporated these into design methods used in CTI. In this paper, we first present an argument for why CTI design with and for preschoolers is important for early spatial learning. Second, we describe our method and how we applied it in a case study. Then, we discuss the potential opportunities and limitations of using the EFiS method, along with design guidelines for future use of the method. This study mainly contributes to design methods to extract age specific knowledge about very young children’s spatial thinking skills, which lay a basis for further STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) achievements.

Thinking with your fingers and touching with your mind: the cognitive dance of Edith Ackermann / Pensando con los dedos y tocando con la mente: la danza cognitiva de Edith Ackermann

Edith Ackermann was one of the most important scholars in the interdisciplinary field of Child-Computer Interaction. Trained as a developmental psychologist and having worked with Jean Piaget in Switzerland, Ackermann went to MIT in 1985 to join an intrepid group of researchers led by Seymour Papert who were trying to understand how extant theories of development and learning would fare in a world in which children would be surrounded by computational artefacts. For the ensuing three decades, Ackermann would use her unique interdisciplinary expertise in the service of creating new theories of development for this new world, generating cutting-edge research, inspiring a generation of students, and producing seminal papers. This article, making use of literature as well as interviews with colleagues of Edith, discusses Ackermann’s contribution to the field, her life trajectory, impact, and ideas. Edith passed away on 24 December 2016.