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Vol.28 No.4, October 1996
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Vol.28 No.4, October 1996 |
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It is quiet now. Fifty children are back in the United States, France, New Zealand, and various parts of Canada. Four CHIkids Leaders, 12 Student Volunteers, and 6 KiddieCorp childcare providers left as quickly as they came. All 10 Macintoshes, 5 PCs, a CDi machine, 2 laserprinters, a scanner and digital camera have been boxed up, and back at Rent-a-Computer and Philips Electronics. And all 52 pieces of software (ranging from Living Books to Microsoft Creative Writer) have been packed up to be saved for next year's CHIkids program. All that's left from this year's CHIkids experience are a box of CHIkids Newsletters, some Web pages, and some very strong impressions of what happened during our 5 days at CHIkids.
Let me start at the beginning... Two years ago I had this idea that kids should be an important part of the CHI conference. I explained my ideas to the Co-Chairs of the CHI 96 conference (Kevin Schofield and Michael Tauber), and they agreed to let me give it a try. I then recruited four extremely talented, patient, and crazy CHIkids Leaders. Each would be responsible for a different set of technology activities during the CHIkids program: Vera Kark -- The CHIkids Newsroom, Michael Chanover -- Multimedia Storytelling, Barbara C. Jones -- CD-ROM Fieldtrips, and Vineel Shah -- Technology Workouts. Five months before CHI 96 began, we met and planned CHIkids. What we planned had the feeling of a computer camp, with activities that ranged from producing a conference newsletter and WWW pages, to designing multimedia software, to testing experimental software from CHI researchers. What CHIkids became was much more than we ever planned.
Ten hours a day, for 5 days of the CHI conference, children ages 3-13 shared a common ground with the HCI community. They collaborated, offered different viewpoints, and created very special projects with technology. Children formed "companies" called "Whippersnappers" and "0 and a Half Star Productions", to create interactive multimedia games and stories. Children interviewed CHI researchers and practitioners, and wrote about these people's work and interests. The youngest children went on "field trips" to the hotel lobby and came back to write and draw about it on computers and paper. Older children took trips to the CHI conference so they could report for the CHIkids Newsroom on the CHI Press Conference, Tutorials, Poster Sessions and more. And children of all ages tested CHI researchers' experimental software.
What I didn't anticipate was how much CHIkids could teach me as an educational researcher. I realized I had never seen this many children 10 hours a day, for 5 long days with a room full of technology. I had worked in schools, in afterschool programs, or in short experimental studies, but never like this. Usually technology experiences are offered to our children like a piece of candy: something short and sweet that children have to wait longingly to have. The average classroom has 3 computers for 20-25 children to share in short doses throughout the day. The average school has a computer lab with 20-25 computers for children to use an hour a week, or (if they're lucky, an hour a day). And if the children have a computer at home (as many of the CHIkids children do) then for a few hours after school, or on weekends they can have access to computers.
On the other hand, at CHIkids we saw what children do when they have the opportunity to use a room full of computers, printers and more for 5 very long days. We also saw what exciting things children can do when asked not to focus on the technology, but on the tasks they can do with the technology. We asked them to be reporters, designers, and software testers. We did not ask them to use the computer for the sake of using a computer. We asked them to use the best tools they needed to get the job done. So for example, children carried simple yellow pads and pencils to take notes. After which, the children would write or draw their stories on the computer with such programs as Microsoft's Creative Writer or Brøderbund's Kid Pix. During those long days of projects we saw a number of different patterns of technology usage occur. On the pages that follow I will share 4 of the most obvious trends:
"The reason I can write so well here at the CHIkids Newsroom is because we have so much time. At school they let us write, but I never get to finish things."
--a 7 year old CHIkid's thoughts reported April 17, 1996 in the CHIkids Newsletter, "Common Ground"
When this CHIkid shared her thoughts, it suddenly dawned on me that time could be a very important ingredient in any technology experience. For the most part I had always focused on how many and what type of technology resources a child had, but thought little about how much time they had with those resources. During CHIkids, we gave children the opportunity to use the technology when and how they wanted to. In this child's case, she liked to write a sentence or two on the computer, then wander off to talk with others. She would always come back to the computer 5 to 10 minutes later to continue her story. I watched this child do this 7-10 times before she finished her first story. And each story she wrote this way was extremely creative. She made up her own fairy tales about foxes and pumpkins and mother goose. And as I read her stories all I kept thinking was how she could have written these in school had she been given the time.
I think one of the things we forget about kids is that every child has their own way of being creative in their own timeframe. At CHIkids we saw some children never want to leave what they were working on using the computers (talking them into lunch was difficult), and some children needed time away from the computers every hour or so (and we would see them happily building with Legos and Lincoln Logs). But because the computers weren't being taken away after an hour, the children could start to take them for granted, as they would a piece of furniture. They could use them in a way they felt most comfortable (not when an adult said it was time to use them). What we began to see were trends. Most of the children were quite focused on their computer activities in the morning. Lunch came almost too quickly for many. In the afternoon, we saw less focused activities on technology. Many would dabble with this or that, but few would be as productive as they were in the morning. By 4 p.m., many would be ready to take a break and watch a movie, or throw a ball around. And they would. Thanks to our partnership with KiddieCorp (a paid childcare facilitator) we came equipped with traditional games and activities for any age group of children.
One of the things that occurred to me as I watched these group dynamics each day, was that this truly was a place to understand what our children did with technology. So often when we test software with children, it is in a quiet setting, with only a handful of children. But for the most part, that is not how many children spend the majority of their day. They spend it with lots of other children in loud noisy places. When we consider settings to "test technology", it may be places where soccer balls are being kicked around, and clay and pipecleaners are being used. Yes, it made me nervous when I saw my digital camera being tossed from one kid to another, but I survived and so did the camera!
"How old are you?" "I'm in 7th Grade." "Really? I've never played with someone in 7th grade! I'm only in Kindergarten."
-- a conversation overheard April 15, 1996 at CHIkids
Another common occurrence that we saw at CHIkids was children collaborating with other children of all ages. Younger children spent time with older children writing stories, playing "Clue", exploring "Living Books" and "The Magic School Bus". We didn't ask them to do this; they just did. When children less experienced on the computers couldn't remember what button to press on the CDi, or what paintbrush to use on the Mac, the more experienced children helped them. Many times, two to three children would use one computer, not because they had to (there was more than enough technology to go around), but because they wanted to. Children naturally worked together. For the most part, I had always thought this was a by-product of too few computers for too many children. On the contrary, children are naturally social and given the chance to use technology in a way they feel most comfortable, they used technology socially. This atmosphere of collaboration made me think of what it must have been like to be in a one-room school house. I have only read about such places, but I imagine that CHIkids may have been similar in many ways.
"What did you do today at CHIkids?"
"I played, Mommy!"
-- a conversation between a 4 year old and their parent at the end of the day, April 16th at CHIkids
Another trend we saw among the children at CHIkids was that children, especially younger ones are not extremely articulate about what they are thinking or doing. As researchers, we are generally used to being able to ask our users what they think of a new technology or experience they just had. But younger children are less able to put into words what they think or what they have just done. This is not to say that children are not honest about what they are thinking, in fact they are extremely so. However, we as adults must translate their honesty into terms we can understand.
This occurrence made some of our CHIkids parents a bit nervous. What they mostly heard from their children was: "I played." "I won." "I had fun." To some parents that is what they were hoping for. But to others, they wanted to know that their children actually "learned" something. I won't begin a discussion of how important playing is to children's intellectual and emotional growth, but I will simply point out that much of what our CHIkids did by "playing" was extremely educational. But parents couldn't know that unless they were there with us to see their children "playing" by drawing with "Kid Pix" on the computer; or by reading "A Tortoise and the Hare" with Living Books; or by adding numbers with the software "Playroom". It seemed that when a child said that they were "playing", it may have meant that the child learned something and had fun too. For those of us that are researchers looking for answers from children about what they think about technology, perhaps the best way to know, is to watch and listen to them as they use the technology. Asking them questions later may not always be the best way to understand what they thought.
"Hi, my name is Brian, and I'm going to give you a tour of CHIkids."
"How old are you?"
"10, and I give a lot of tours here."
-- a conversation overheard between a CHIkid and a magazine reporter, April 18, 1996
By the end of the week, we found that there were many interested CHI conference attendees who wanted to visit us at CHIkids. (I can only equate it to my experience at the MIT Media Lab, where it was no surprise to give demos two to three times a day in a busy week.) Needless to say the CHIkids Leaders had a great deal to do to make newsletter deadlines, prepare presentations, and more. Therefore, as the week went by, we left it more and more to our children to give tours, talk to the press, and show demos. The kids enjoyed the opportunity to be a respected partner in showing off their work and environment. I've found that kids have a lot to say, and most of the time they're not afraid to say it. (This can also be seen by the 10 CHIkids that spontaneously got up in front of 2-300 people at our final presentation as a part of the technical program. Someone from the audience asked if any of the kids wanted to say something about what they thought of CHIkids, and they did.)
CHIkids was exciting, exhausting, and much much more than I ever expected it could be. Thanks to the support of our sponsors, the volunteers, the CHI Conference Committee, the CHIkids parents and of course our CHIkids, it was an experience that many would like to see again. I am happy to say that there will be a CHIkids for CHI 97. But to do this we will need all the volunteers we can find (Needless to say we expect a lot more kids to join us next year). If you are interested in becoming a CHIkids Leader please contact me at: allisond@unm.edu . If you are interested in seeing first hand what the kids did at CHIkids you can check out the CHIkids Newsroom at: http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi96/CHI_WEB/web_fin/
My deepest thanks goes to all of you that took a chance on CHIkids this year:
Allison Druin, the Chair of CHIkids for CHI 96 and CHI 97, is a researcher at the University of New Mexico and the co-author of the book "Designing Multimedia Environments for Children: Computers, Creativity, and Kids".
University of New Mexico
413 Montclaire Drive, NE
Albuquerque, NM 87108, USA
Email:
druin.chi@xerox.com
Photograph of Allison by Ben Shneiderman.
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Vol.28 No.4, October 1996 |
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