1. Jerry Alan Fails, Allison Druin, Mona Leigh Guha May 28, 2009 HCIL Symposium Mobile Collaboration for Young Children

2. Collaboration Young Children Mobile To work together, especially in a joint intellectual effort. (www.dictionary.com) Ages 6-10 Spatial Co-locatedDistributed Temporal Synchronous Same Place & Time Different Place, Same Time Asynchronous Same Place, Different Time Different Place & Time

3. Move Beyond … Summary of current status –Devices for consumption/entertainment/collection –Limited range of interactions –Mobile device limitations Need to make: –Mobility part of purpose, not just a feature –Mobile devices more:  Collaborative  Child-appropriate  Creative, generative, constructive

4. Children in the design process Kidsteam Cooperative Inquiry (Druin, CHI 1999; Guha et al., IDC 2004) Design Approach

5. Face-to-Face Collaboration

6. DisconnectedConnected (Two Devices) View IndependentContent SplittingSpace Sharing Story Previous/ Next Page Page Part Collaborative Configurations 123 456 78 1 1 1

7. DisconnectedConnected (Two Devices) View IndependentContent SplittingSpace Sharing Story Previous/ Next Page Page Part Collaborative Configurations 123 456 78 123 456 78 123 456 78 1 1 1 11

8. DisconnectedConnected (Two Devices) View IndependentContent SplittingSpace Sharing Story Previous/ Next Page Page Part Collaborative Configurations 123 456 78 123 456 78 123 456 78 1234 5678 12 1 1 1 1 1 11

9. Mobile Stories 3.0: Development Data Interactions Primary goals: –Story collaboration –Collocated collaboration Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Implementation –Mobile phone version (Windows Mobile 6.0) –Desktop versions for viewing stories and history –Program: C#, ~24K lines of code (some inherited)

10. Collaborative Story Study Collaborative reading –Within-subject –Alternating order  Content splitting  Space sharing Collaborative creation –Ability to change collaborative modes Collaborative sharing Users –26 children –Ages 8-9 Data –Interviews –Field notes –Collaborative stories –Technology logs –Video

11. Reading Trends DisconnectedConnected (Two Devices) View IndependentContent SplittingSpace Sharing Story Previous/ Next Page Page Part

12. Content splitting –“Easier” to use –Only picture or words Space sharing –Both pictures and words –“Harder” to use –Previous/next page –Thought sharing words/pictures cool, but hard to read story Boy/girl proximity Everyone had fun! Reading Trends

13. Reflecting on Differences When would you want to read with someone with the words and the picture split [splitting the content]? I’d prefer it that way if I was reading to my little brother, because he can’t read that well yet. And so, I could give him the picture phone and I could have the word phone. When would you want to read with someone [sharing the space]? Probably when I was reading, by myself … probably with someone who reads just as well as me or better. How would you prefer to read together with someone? I think it depends … on my audience … like if my audience was my little brother, then I’d want to read [using content splitting], but if it was [my friend who reads as well as I do], I’d want to read [sharing the space]. (9-year old girl)

14. Things to Consider Supporting collaboration is important –But also need independence Different collaborative configurations may be more appropriate for certain scenarios Gender makes a difference Hardware needs to support user needs

15. Summary Mobile devices need new interfaces and interactions to support collaboration Content splitting and space sharing are promising interfaces for different situations Need to make: –Mobility part of purpose, not just a feature –Mobile devices more:  Collaborative  Child-appropriate  Creative, generative, constructive Mobile Collaboration for Young Children Educational learning The way mobile devices are used

16. Questions fails@cs.umd.edu Acknowledgments Kidsteam, Dissertation Committee Gene Chipman, Kevin McGehee, Shaili Desai, Evan Golub, Bobby Owolabi, Juliette Taillandier National Park Service, Microsoft www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/mobilestories/

18. Other Trends Creation –All children used independent the entire time  X tried unsuccessfully to change  Cannot be editing to enter split or shared –Verbally coordinated splitting content Share –Most frequently split content (Split 20; Share 6) Summary –“Connected” collaborative configurations best when reading or sharing a story –Independent best for creating a story

19. Collaborative Stories DigitalPaper

20. Collaborative Stories DigitalPaper Day 1Day 2 Page #C1*C2* † C3C4C5C6C7C8 1212122 221121112 321213111 421122112 5213131 6211322 Day 1Day 2 Page #C5C6C7C8C1*C2*C3C4 122111111 212111111 311111 4111 5111 6111

21. Collocated Collaboration Concepts Space sharing Content splitting Ciconia Ciconia (White Stork) by Andrea Petrlik published 2003, Kašmir Promet – Croatia, Available in the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL)

22. DisconnectedConnected (Two Devices) View IndependentContent SplittingSpace Sharing Story Previous/ Next Page Page Part Collaborative Configurations

23. DisconnectedConnected (Two Devices) View IndependentContent SplittingSpace Sharing Story Previous/ Next Page Page Part Collaborative Configurations

24. DisconnectedConnected (Two Devices) View IndependentContent SplittingSpace Sharing Story Previous/ Next Page Page Part Collaborative Configurations