The Children’s Machines: Handheld and Wearable Computers Too

Abstract

In this paper we describe the material of a construction kit designed to allow children to build their own handheld and wearable devices to meet their interests and passions. Children don’t work with these machines, they learn, play and grow with them. Informed by the types of projects that children have done with this material in the context of educational research in science and engineering, we present a few scenarios for why children would build their own handheld or wearable computational devices. We believe that these application scenarios and their appeal to children are strong evidence for why we should rethink the design of computational devices, particularly for children.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express our appreciation to all of the teachers who have participated in this work, including most especially Martha Greenawalt, Mike Petrich, Karen Wilkinson, Rami Alwan, and Phil Firsenbaum. We would like to recognize the contributions of other members of our research group, including Claudia Urrea, Vanessa Stevens Colella, and Genee Lyn Colobong.

Finally we would like to thank all of the children who have participated in this work. We hope that they got as much out of the experience as did we.