698A Process Book by Whitley Kemble

698A Process Book

Whitley Kem ble â&#x20AC;˘ Spring 2013

Table of Contents

1. Wicked Little Problems, p

g. 5

d 2. Flui

7 g. 8 p , s Fact

3. Dynamic Web,

pg. 117

pg. 14 4. Stop, Look, Listen,

5. Recipes for Success pg. 173

6. Plats & Privateers, pg. 199 7. The E

lementary Le 2 11 arning Experience, pg.

PROJECT 1:

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley Kemble January 28, 2013

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

Forethought I would consider myself first and foremost a writer, which is perhaps why I’ve chosen to focus on Steven Heller and Rick Poynor for this essay. One of the most neglected areas of graphic design is its archival—there simply isn’t a strong record of its history, the methodology, etc. I would agree with Buchanan’s assessment of the “wicked problem” in design—“we have the odd, recurring situation in which design is alternately regarded as ‘applied’ natural science, ‘applied’ social science, or ‘applied’ fine art.”1. I would even take that a step further by pointing out that, beyond the confusion over its definition, mainstream society lacks a good supply of design ambassadors. Heller and Poynor address the above-mentioned problems, and have done much to educate the general public about the nature of our craft. Their work is dedicated to informing and engaging non-designers through written, as well as verbal communication. This, I believe, is a crucial part of showing design’s relevance in the world today.

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

What exactly is it you do? Surprisingly, this can be an incredibly difficult question for a graphic designer. Like much of what we do, the answer is…well, vague. It is somewhat ironic, then, that a field that relies on clear communication cannot effectively discern itself to an unacquainted public. The fact is, What don’t you do?, may be a shorter list. Graphic design encompasses so many disciplines—almost any project from street art to web programming can fall into our laps. Richard Buchanan touches on this in his essay, Wicked Problems in Design Thinking. According to Buchanan, the core of this problem is that “design has no special subject matter of its own apart from what a designer conceives it to be. The subject matter of design is potentially universal in scope, because design thinking may be applied to any area of human experience.”2 No wonder everyone’s so confused. Luckily for us, designers like Steven Heller and Rick Poynor have taken it upon themselves to bring design culture to the masses. As if responding to Buchanan’s “wicked problem”, these two have gone to great lengths to educate and evangelize design. Both have spent much of their professional lives acting as P.R. agents for the industry, preaching and critiquing graphic work in hundreds of publications and media outlets. This is an arduous task to be sure, so it comes as no surprise to me that both call for more designers to join their ranks. Heller actually co-founded the Design as Author program at New York’s School of Visual Arts3 (I jumped for joy at this discovery), while Poynor has provided critical material on graphic design in several major publications across the globe.4 Design Needs More Versatile Writers In an essay for AIGA, Heller notes that most design communication is a jumble of complexly coded jargon intended for other designers. He also feels, like Poynor, that too much of this writing is limited to highly specialized academic journals. “Most designers,” he writes, “learn—Lord knows from where—that to gain respect in the outside world it is imperative to use officious language they would never apply in everyday usage.”5 He goes on to point out these shortcomings also run rampant among practicing professionals: “(they) are fluid and literate when talking about their work. But put them in front of a keyboard and they choke up.” Instead they retreat to trade publications where they’re more accepted and better understood. Poynor seems to nod in agreement in his essay The Time to Be Against is Over. He points to this quandary as an irrational phobia of criticism. He then chastises them for retreating to publications filled with the “distorted, self-aggrandizing view so often seen in the design press, where design is the be-all-and-end-all—at least in its own eyes—and is often considered almost Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

independently from the project and purpose it serves.” Ouch. Harsh, Rick. But then the truth hurts, doesn’t it? I personally believe the lack of quality reading material for non-designers is due to society’s tendency to categorize design under the various other disciplines with which it coexists. It would be difficult for anyone to comprehend graphic design if it’s constantly being upstaged by a more familiar discipline in the mainstream media. And so it’s the blind leading the blind, as many writers of said media have no comprehension of design. How, then, do we solve this wicked little problem? On this much we can agree: there is a desperate shortage of design information written for the general public. It’s a vicious circle, really. But wait, Who’s that peculiar figure on the horizon? Enter Poynor’s maverick “public intellectual”. Demystifying Design & the Public Intellectual As critical as he is, Poynor acknowledges that the fault is not entirely that of the designer. Some of the problem is the inherent behind-the-scenes nature of our work. This is only complicated by the fact that much of society fails to understand “the cultural importance and meaning that we constantly tell ourselves (our work) has…any discussion of graphic design in the mainstream media must almost always start by zeroing the clock. It has to assume that the general reader has never heard of this arcane activity, pursued by a secret order of modest, selfeffacing hermits dedicated to a vow of silence, even if by now most worldly, educated, broadsheet-reading people will have noticed that the world is looking pretty slick these days and someone must be responsible.” 6 Most designers would probably agree with this angsty observation. Honestly, what do you suppose would happen if you walked up to a stranger on the street and tried to explain why Helvetica is or isn’t a superior typeface or how an interface is structured? You may as well be speaking in tongues. The poor soul is more likely to head for the hills than to engage in an intelligent conversation on the subject. Forget about sharing this with a readership of thousands—it simply isn’t relevant to their view of the world. What is relevant to a reader is something tangible. Poynor explains why reviewing for the masses becomes much easier with products and three-dimensional pieces: “Graphic design is not, in most cases, a thing-in-itself—it’s a formal property, a rhetorical dimension, a communicative tissue of something else. It may be an essential component, and the object may not properly exist without it, but its contribution is still usually just taken for granted, played down or overlooked…”7 Thus, the graphic virtues of a product make way for the object’s utilitarian or preferential Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

benefits. Design culture becomes consumer culture, design disappears, and once again the public is left without a clue of what we do. Of course we keep to ourselves. According to Poynor, the solution may be to encourage more ambassadors in the form of culturally-focused “public intellectuals”. The public intellectual, he explains, is a designer whose writing is “aimed outwards at any intelligent, literate, thinking individuals, from any background.” 8 He offers praise for the few design professionals who have managed to write pieces relevant for a general audience. These intellectuals are rare, he woefully admits, because it is difficult to identify opportunities and engage readers outside of the trade. Too often designerwriters are snuffed out. “In the early 1990s, most of the best writing on graphic design came from designers. A few emerging designer-critics were very productive and visible for a while, but I suspect that the point came when they had to choose: writing or design? Understandably, they chose design.”9 His solution is a new brand of “graphic authorship” 10, in which the designer personally invested in the project from start to finish. These projects, he says, are more likely to require exhibitions, which in turn warrant more traditional press coverage and a more personal dialogue with the public. Better, but still quite limited. Forget Formality, Embrace Ambiguity Oftentimes when someone shares a project on a more personal level, the coverage becomes more about the finished “piece”, and less about the design process. It becomes more about art, which is a problem for individuals who insist that graphic design is not fine art. I beg to differ. Why can’t design, at its basest defined as visual communication, also be considered artwork? As advertisements are a form of commercialized design, I would certainly consider some of the more social, cultural, and political design pieces to be both. This provides ample opportunities for designers to write, to criticize, and to set design apart as something that has a direct impact on the world at large, while making the information more inclusive and providing a forum for public discussion via mainstream media. Design’s role in the media itself opens up even more opportunities. Like Poynor, I believe design is ubiquitous. With the boom of mobile media and demand for applications, I predict a merger of visual and written communication. This brings us fullcircle to that “wicked problem”—What exactly is graphic design, and What is its role in the world today? Poynor describes design as “shadowy and mysterious, a shaping force in the contemporary world without any apparent cause.” 11 While I empathize with this concern, I think perhaps we ought to embrace this ambiguity. Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

Consider Buchanan’s observation about the ever-changing nature of a designer’s work. Design as a concept is complicated, but it’s also adaptable. There are so many tools available to us, and with the ever-growing list of roles designers fill comes an even greater opportunity to connect directly with people. Just stop for a moment and think about it. We have the ability to engage 35% of the world via web.12 As programmers of websites, keepers of blogs, and purveyors of all things graphic, designers have managed to create a niche for themselves as master communicators. Ready or not, we’re key players in this game. I agree with Heller and Poynor that the ability to write well is absolutely essential, and will continue to be so as the web causes the world to shrink. People are naturally curious, so why not give a behind-the-scenes look at what we do? As Poynor points out with the First Things First Manifesto (2000), being more active not only increases the public’s understanding of graphic design, but also demonstrates our relevance outside of commercialism. Design does the planet good, and as professionals it is absolutely our responsibility to share that. “This,” Poynor says, “is something that should in theory concern everyone, but for the discussion to be meaningful, we have to find ways to talk about design outside the self-interested enclave of the design business itself.”13 This demands leadership. While Heller mystifies the masses with beautifully rendered books and pointed prose, Poynor urges us to step up to the pen. I will close by echoing their pleas: Designers need to reserve discussions of theory for those who really want to dig in deep. I say save it for the trade publications. Only by focusing on the work we’re truly passionate about, and on the purpose behind it, can we enable readers—and everyone else, for that matter—to discover design and appreciate it independently.

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

Works Cited 1

Clark, H. and Brody, D. (2009) Design Studies: A Reader. Page 100, “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking” by Richard Buchanan. Oxford, Great Britain: MPG Books Group.

Clark, H. and Brody, D. (2009) Design Studies: A Reader. Page 98, “Wicked Problems in Design Thinking” by Richard Buchanan. Oxford, Great Britain: MPG Books Group.

Anonymous. About Steven Heller. Retrieved January 25, 2013 from http://www.hellerbooks.com/docs/about.html.

Anonymous. Rick Poynor. Retrieved January 25, 2013 from http://www.typotheque.com/authors/rick_poynor.

Heller, Steven. (2008). Design Patois. Retrieved January 25, 2014 from http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/.

Poynor, Rick. (2004). The Time for Being Against. Retrieved January 25, 2013 from http://www.typotheque.com/articles/the_time_for_being_against.

Heller, Steven. (2008). Design Patois. Retrieved January 25, 2014 from http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/.

International Telecommunication Union (ITU). (2011). The World in 2011: ICT Facts and Figures. Page 1. Retrieved January 26, 2013 from http://www.itu.int/ict.

Poynor, Rick. (2004). The Time for Being Against. Retrieved January 25, 2013 from http://www.typotheque.com/articles/the_time_for_being_against.

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley Kemble January 28, 2013

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

Forethought I would consider myself first and foremost a writer, which is perhaps why I’ve chosen to focus on Steven Heller and Rick Poynor for this essay. One of the most overlooked areas of graphic design is its archival (archival design? Add some description)—the history, the methodology, etc. I would agree with Buchanan’s assessment of the “wicked problem” in design—“we have the odd, recurring situation in which design is alternately regarded as ‘applied’ natural science, ‘applied’ social science, or ‘applied’ fine art.”1. I would even take that a step further by pointing out that, beyond the confusion over its definition, mainstream society lacks a good supply of design ambassadors. Heller and Poynor address the above-mentioned problems, and have done much to educate the general public about the nature of our craft. Their work is dedicated to informing and engaging non-designers through written, as well as verbal communication. This, I believe, is a crucial part of showing design’s relevance in the world today.

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

What exactly is it you do? Surprisingly, this can be an incredibly difficult question for a graphic designer. Like much of what we do, the answer is…well, vague. It is somewhat ironic, then, that a field that relies on clear communication cannot effectively discern itself to an unacquainted public. The fact is, What don’t you do?, may be a shorter list. Graphic design encompasses so many disciplines—almost any project from product design (development, way finding, video graphics, street art (use a better example) to web programming can fall into our laps. Richard Buchanan touches on this in his essay, Wicked Problems in Design Thinking. According to Buchanan, the core of this problem is that “design has no special subject matter of its own apart from what a designer conceives it to be. The subject matter of design is potentially universal in scope, because design thinking may be applied to any area of human experience.”2 No wonder everyone’s so confused. Luckily for us, designers like Steven Heller and Rick Poynor have taken it upon themselves to bring design culture to the masses. As if to answer Buchanan’s “wicked problem”, these two have gone to great lengths to educate and evangelize design. Both have spent much of their professional lives acting as P.R. agents for the industry, preaching and critiquing graphic work in hundreds of publications and media outlets. This is an arduous task to be sure, so it comes as no surprise to me that both call for more designers to join their ranks. Heller actually co-founded the Design as Author program at New York’s School of Visual Arts3 (I jumped for joy at this discovery), while Poynor has provided critical material on graphic design in several major publications across the globe.4 (Design Needs More Writers) In an essay for AIGA, Heller notes that most design communication is a jumble of complexly coded jargon intended for other designers. He also feels, like Poynor, that too much of this writing is limited to highly specialized academic journals. “Most designers,” he writes, “learn—Lord knows from where—that to gain respect in the outside world it is imperative to use officious language they would never apply in everyday usage.”5 He goes on to point out these shortcomings also run rampant among practicing professionals: “(they) are fluid and literate when talking about their work. But put them in front of a keyboard and they choke up.” Instead they retreat to trade publications where they’re more accepted and better understood. Poynor seems to nod in agreement in his essay The Time to Be Against is Over. He points to this quandary as an irrational phobia of criticism. He then chastises them for retreating to publications filled with the “distorted, self-aggrandizing view so often seen in the design press, Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

where design is the be-all-and-end-all—at least in its own eyes—and is often considered almost independently from the project and purpose it serves.” Ouch. Harsh, Rick. But then the truth hurts, doesn’t it? I personally believe the lack of quality reading material for non-designers is due to society’s tendency to categorize design under the various other disciplines with which it coexists. It would be difficult for anyone to comprehend graphic design if it’s constantly being upstaged by a more familiar discipline in the mainstream media. And so it’s the blind leading the blind, as many writers of said media have no comprehension of design. How, then, do we solve this wicked little problem? On this much we can agree: there is a desperate shortage of design information written for the general public. It’s a vicious circle, really. But wait, who’s that peculiar figure on the horizon? Enter Poynor’s maverick “public intellectual”. ( example of how people currently engage with design or the design process? Not sure where your at on word count) SUBHEAD As critical as he is, Poynor acknowledges that the fault is not entirely that of the designer. Some of the problem is the inherent behind-the-scenes nature of our work. This is only complicated by the fact that much of society fails to understand “the cultural importance and meaning that we constantly tell ourselves (our work) has…any discussion of graphic design in the mainstream media must almost always start by zeroing the clock. It has to assume that the general reader has never heard of this arcane activity, pursued by a secret order of modest, selfeffacing hermits dedicated to a vow of silence, even if by now most worldly, educated, broadsheet-reading people will have noticed that the world is looking pretty slick these days and someone must be responsible.” 6 Most designers would probably agree with this angsty observation. Honestly, what do you suppose would happen if you walked up to a stranger on the street and tried to explain why Helvetica is or isn’t a superior typeface or how an interface is structured? You may as well be speaking in tongues. The poor soul is more likely to head for the hills than to engage in an intelligent conversation on the subject. Forget about sharing this with a readership of thousands—it simply isn’t relevant to their view of the world. What is relevant to a reader is something tangible. Poynor explains why reviewing for the masses becomes much easier with products and three-dimensional pieces: “Graphic design is not, in most cases, a thing-in-itself—it’s a formal property, a rhetorical dimension, a communicative tissue of something else. It may be an Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

essential component, and the object may not properly exist without it, but its contribution is still usually just taken for granted, played down or overlooked…”7 Thus, the graphic virtues of a product make way for the object’s utilitarian or preferential benefits. Design culture becomes consumer culture, design disappears, and once again the public is left without a clue of what we do. No wonder we keep to ourselves. (ok, here is the example of possible engagement) According to Poynor, the solution may be to encourage more ambassadors in the form of culturally-focused “public intellectuals”. The public intellectual, he explains, is a designer whose writing is “aimed outwards at any intelligent, literate, thinking individuals, from any background.” 8 He offers praise for the few design professionals who have managed to write pieces relevant for a general audience. These intellectuals are rare, he woefully admits, because it is difficult to identify opportunities and engage readers outside of the trade. Too often designerwriters are snuffed out. “In the early 1990s, most of the best writing on graphic design came from designers. A few emerging designer-critics were very productive and visible for a while, but I suspect that the point came when they had to choose: writing or design? Understandably, they chose design.”9 His solution is a new brand of “graphic authorship” 10, in which the designer personally invested in the project from start to finish. These projects, he says, are more likely to require exhibitions, which in turn warrant more traditional press coverage and a more personal dialogue with the public. Better, but still quite limited. EMBRACE AMBIGUITY Oftentimes when someone shares a project on a more personal level, the coverage becomes more about the finished “piece”, and less about the design process. It becomes more about art, which is a problem for individuals who insist that graphic design is not fine art. I beg to differ. Why can’t design, at its basest defined as visual communication, also be considered artwork? As advertisements are a form of commercialized design, I would certainly consider some of the more social, cultural, and political design pieces to be both. This provides ample opportunities for designers to write, to criticize, and to set design apart as something that has a direct impact on the world at large, while making the information more inclusive and providing a forum for public discussion via mainstream media. Design’s role in the media itself opens up even more opportunities. (YES!) Like Poynor, I believe design is ubiquitous. With the boom of mobile media and demand for applications, I predict a merger of visual and written communication. This brings us fullcircle to that “wicked problem”—What exactly is graphic design, and What is its role in the Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013

world today? Poynor describes design as “shadowy and mysterious, a shaping force in the contemporary world without any apparent cause.” 11 While I empathize with this concern, I think perhaps we ought to embrace this ambiguity. Consider Buchanan’s observation about the ever-changing nature of a designer’s work. Design as a concept is complicated, but it’s also be adaptable. There are so many tools available to us, and with the ever-growing list of roles designers fill comes an even greater opportunity to connect directly with people. Just stop for a moment and think about it. We have the ability to engage 30% of the world via web.12 As programmers of websites, keepers of blogs, and purveyors of all things graphic, designers have managed to create a niche for themselves as master communicators. Ready or not, we’re key players in this game. I agree with Heller and Poynor that the ability to write well is absolutely essential, and will continue to be so as the web causes the world to shrink. People are naturally curious, so why not give a behind-the-scenes look at what we do? As Poynor points out with the First Things First Manifesto (2000), being more active not only increases the public’s understanding of graphic design, but also demonstrates our relevance outside of commercialism. Design does the planet good, and as professionals it is absolutely our responsibility to share that. “This,” Poynor says, “is something that should in theory concern everyone, but for the discussion to be meaningful, we have to find ways to talk about design outside the self-interested enclave of the design business itself.” This demands leadership. While Heller mystifies the masses with beautifully rendered books and pointed prose, Poynor urges us to step up to the pen. I will close by echoing their pleas: Designers need to reserve discussions of theory for those who really want to dig in deep. I say save it for the trade publications. Only by focusing on the work we’re truly passionate about, and on the purpose behind it, can we enable readers—and everyone else, for that matter—to discover design and appreciate it independently.

Design Studies: A Reader, p. 100 (p. 98, paragraph 2 of Design Studies: A Reader) 3 (ABOUT STEVEN HELLER) 4 (Poynor’s bio; double-check the source!) 5 AIGA article by Heller…. 6 AIGA article by Heller…. 7 AIGA article by Heller…. 8 POYNOR 2

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Whitley R. Kemble ART GR 698 - Spring 2013 9 10

AIGA article by Heller…. AIGA article by Heller…. 12 World ICT Facts study 11

Wicked Little Problems: A Criticism of Graphic Design as it Relates to Culture & Communication

Observer: Critical Omissions

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

Resources

Inspiration

Competitions

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—would never make this mistake. Critical design can only gain from an

Print's Power 2012 Issue

explicit acceptance and conscious interrogation of its own evolving history.

Print's December 2011 Issue 25 Best iPhone Apps on Color

There are, nevertheless, some differences of emphasis. While the new critical designers take their own agency for granted, just as

Print's October 2011 Issue: Table of Contents

post-feminists took the feminists’ hard-won gains for granted, they are less concerned with what Owens, writing in Dot Dot Dot, calls the

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

1/25/13 9:01 AM

Observer: Critical Omissions

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

1/25/13 9:01 AM

Observer: Critical Omissions

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

Minneapolis Mobile Apps

kind of graphic design think tank that uses models, proposals, essays,

devbridge.com/m…

Dunne and Raby’s precepts. Metahaven, headed by Daniel van der

DevBridge helps you define a mobile strategy that will achieve results

Update #1: Mark Owens and Zak Kyes, the organizers of Forms of Inquiry, sent us this response: Rickrolled!

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

1/25/13 9:01 AM

Observer: Critical Omissions

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

1/25/13 9:01 AM

Observer: Critical Omissions

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

1/25/13 9:01 AM

Observer: Critical Omissions

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

Update #3: We got this in our e-mail inbox Wednesday, October 1:

http://www.printmag.com/Article/Observer_Critical_Omissions

1/25/13 9:01 AM

AIGA | Design Patois

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

DESIGN PATOIS Article by Steven Heller May 6, 2008. Filed Under: Inspiration, advertising, critique, Voice

It's sometimes embarrassing the way that designers prostrate themselves—and the English language—in their promotional material describing in words what they do, as though their designs alone aren't enough to tell the story. It may be true that some clients (or prospective clients) don't have a good grasp of what design is, but most have eyes and can intuit. During the nascent period of graphic design (somewhere around the mid-1920s) all that a commercial artist advertising in one of the many promotional annuals had to say was "Jeanne Doe, calligraphy, layout, illustration," and the point was made (in part because the services were being bought by agencies or art directors, not directly by clients). Today, with non-design clients being more active in the hiring process, something called design philosophy has become the basis of a new patois. Philosophy is not pejorative, but when it turns to sophistry—beware!

When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like cuttlefish squirting out ink. —George Orwell.

For at least the past decade designers have tried to position themselves as legitimate professionals. Inherent in this quest is an attempt to squelch the myth that visual people are ostensibly illiterate. Where the myth started is anyone's guess. After all, the first, what one might call, literate people—those who developed the earliest codified languages—were image makers. The first alphabets were comprised of images. Early scripture was illuminated by scribes who made pictures as well as words. The first typefaces were designed by artists. The first books were designed by artist/writers. So, traditionally, designers have been a very literate people. Then, where and when did the distinction begin? Maybe it came with the onset of commercial printing, when publicity was churned out, not designed—when its makers began providing service, not art. Not all commercial printers or commercial artists were enemies of the word, yet the impact of those who were has had a detrimental effect, ultimately leading in the early 20th century to the schism between copywriters and designers. During the 1950s these distinctions in the advertising world started to blur, but graphic designers were still suffering from the effects of negative stereotypes. Ever since graphic designers began adding terms like "marketing" and "communications" to their billheads, the accepted notion that having a codified philosophy

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

1/25/13 9:02 AM

AIGA | Design Patois

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

would undo those negative stereotypes has resulted in design firms issuing promotional materials replete with weighty (and sometimes dramatic) mission statements that read either like legal briefs or epic poems, like this one: Communications: Visual plays leading to emotional involvement. Communications: Creativity at levels that make the experience. Communications: Materials that desire to be collected for keeps. Communications: Turn the target. Flip the crowd. Communications: Translate the message into action to your advantage. Communications: Manage the trains of thought and the rest will come to you for yours. Without any disrespect intended, is what you just read substance or hype? Did it describe or confuse? Think about the selling (flap or ad) copy on a book or the liner notes on a record. In both cases the best of these titillate, if not illuminate. What does this copy tell us? Visual plays? A rather strained metaphor. Emotional involvement? A lot to hope for from a piece of paper. Collected for keeps? Hold on! Even the best publicity has a limited shelf life. Manage the trains of thought? Hey, did anyone copy-read this?

If language be not in accordance with the truth of things, affairs cannot be carried on to success. —Confucius

As hyperbolic as it is, the "visual plays" copy is at least somewhat creative compared to the conventional fare. Indeed, with few welcome exceptions when designers, especially firms, extol their own virtues, the results are dry, platitudinous and repetitive, with buzzwords reminiscent of police accounts like the ones one hears uttered on the TV news by rookie cops: "The perp, a Caucasian, white female, was apprehended and subdued by two pursuing, uniformed officers, while proceeding to gain unlawful access to the abode of the victim…"

To a teacher of languages there comes a time when the world is but a place of many words and man appears a mere talking animal not more wonderful than a parrot. —Joseph Conrad

Like cadets parroting the phrases in Jargon 101 at any police academy, most designers learn—Lord knows from where—that to gain respect in the outside world it is imperative to use officious language they would never apply in everyday usage. No school, however, exists to teach this stuff—yet, take virtually any promotional brochure for a design firm, scratch the surface, and you will find variations of the following

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

1/25/13 9:02 AM

AIGA | Design Patois

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

platitudes: Design is a tool for achieving specific results. Being responsive, we begin each project by learning exactly what results our client expects. This then becomes our communications goal. Establishing an appropriate, positive emphasis is the key. This, in conjunction with good graphic design, is our special skill. Our work exhibits a great diversity of styles and imagery. In an era of design specialists, we invariably believe that as varied as the messages are, so should the means of conveying them. These statements by three very different design firms are not inherently disingenuous, but when viewed as representative of most promo copy they are formulaic. Should all selling copy sound alike? Imagine what the prospective client who gets pitched by many designers must think after reading the same phrases and sentiments over and over. Probably he or she must think that they've all read the same copy of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying, or at least have hired the same PR firm. To further the point that despite the remarkable diversity among design firms today, their hype comes from the same copy of Bartlett's Familiar Design Firm Promotions. The following phrases have been culled from a variety of sources. In fact, virtually no two of the design firms represented by these unattributed statements do the same kind of work. For purposes of clarity they are categorized according to the six major thematic categories.

1. Happiness Is a Warm Client The process begins with analysis, immersion into the client's situation in order to define the true problem. Our primary concern is with our client's success in their business. The basic need of most clients who come to us is to fulfill a business function. Our primary concern is to solve the client's communications objective. Our goal is to meet our clients' visual communications needs by applying an approach based on discipline, appropriateness and ambiguity. [huh?] We carefully analyze our client's needs, and if necessary, reinterpret them in a more profound way than the client can do. A key element to our approach is that we uniquely tailor each project to a particular client's needs. We will not begin a project without a clear understanding of the spoken and unspoken client needs. Today, we bring to our clients a rich, ever-expanding base of knowledge and experience. Our main concern is understanding and working closely with our clients to carefully think through and define the problem at hand. No matter how well we prepare ourselves with information, the client's knowledge far exceeds ours.

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

1/25/13 9:02 AM

AIGA | Design Patois

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

2. Style? We Don't Have No Stinkin' Style Our approach to design has always been concept-oriented. We feel that a good concept is the single most important aspect of any project. Along with effective design and attention to detail, a strong concept has always made the difference between a good solution and a great one. The diversity of our work provides us with the experience and ability to approach a range of design problems in a fresh way. Design is the solution of problems, incorporating ideas in relation to the given problem, rather than the arbitrary application of fashionable styles. We produce design that goes against the jarring nature of our times. We're interested in producing contemporary design, design that's straightforward looking and appropriate for each client. Our belief is that any one visual problem has an infinite number of solutions. We don't have a style or philosophical framework. We simply want to understand, then solve the problem. We do not have a house style, but favor designs which are crisp and simple enough to stand out among today's cluttered communications.

3. Meaningful Relationships Our professional ability has been developed and tested for 20 years in a highly competitive environment and has been the basis of many enduring relationships. We pay special attention to creating strong working relationships among members of the project team. That our approach works has been proven by the unusual amount of repeat business our clients have offered us. Recognizing that team effort is required to create successful design, we define our role as a collaborative one. We thrive on long-term client relationships, having many major corporate clients for years. We nurture the client from beginning to end.

Diversified Meaningful Relationships We've maintained variety in the types of projects and clients that we handle, this has given us the opportunity to develop a diversified portfolio of work. Because of our diversity we've attracted a wonderful group of multi-talented designers, and we are very proud of them.

4. Touchy-Feely-Squeezy

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

1/25/13 9:02 AM

AIGA | Design Patois

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

Graphic design should touch the viewer as well as inform. Imagination and sensibility create the most potent visual communication. It's not that we don't believe in a structure or grid; we just believe they should be felt instead of seen. We try to balance our own personal insight with the client's particular needsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;design is a magical balance.

5. Today Is the First Day of the Rest of Our Lives Every client, project and problem is unpredictable. Each is unique. Our mission as a group is to solve the unique problem, manage the unusual project, and serve our wary client the best quality design available. We welcome the challenge of different business involvements. Our experience allows us to approach a range of design problems in a fresh way.

6. How Do I Love Me? We take great pride in a body of work that has received national recognition for excellence, and in the roster of prestigious clients who hired us to create it. One has to wonder whether these designers and firms read each other's promotion or whether these pearls just develop over time in their own hermetically sealed environments. Design firms tend to stink of their own perfume. In fact, virtually all of the designers represented by the statements above are fluid and literate when talking about their work. But put them in front of a keyboard and they choke up. Of course, there are those who eschew the conventions of promo writing. Some designers have gone overboard in the other direction emphasizing human, rather than business, values like this one: During our day, we encourage pride but not possessiveness. Rarely, in an open-office environment can an idea emerge and evolve without being "touched" by more than one person. And this interaction is what tests the idea to make sure of its rightfulness. Others prefer wit and humor, like this send-up of a famous quote: When I hear the words "design philosophy" I reach for my X-Acto. (The reference being to Hermann Goring, who said, "When I hear the word culture, I reach for my revolver.") But the most understated and curiously poetic piece that this writer ever read can be attributed to Henry Wolf in the book New York Design: "My firm is not unique but it combines the facilities of photography and design under one roof. I photograph for my own concepts." Though a masterpiece of clarity and concision, one might nevertheless wonder, does he get much work? About the Author: Steven Heller, co-chair of the Designer as Author MFA and co-founder of the MFA in Design Criticism at School of Visual Arts, is the author of Merz to Emigre and Beyond: Avant Garde Magazine Design of the Twentieth Century

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

1/25/13 9:02 AM

AIGA | Design Patois

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

(Phaidon Press), Iron Fists: Branding the Totalitarian State (Phaidon Press) and most recently Design Disasters: Great Designers, Fabulous Failure, and Lessons Learned (Allworth Press). He is also the co-author of New Vintage Type (Thames & Hudson), Becoming a Digital Designer (John Wiley & Co.), Teaching Motion Design (Allworth Press) and more. www.hellerbooks.com

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Valerie Ostenak What has been spoken of is the exact same thing that artists have been forced to do when entering shows, submitting works for galleries, and when speaking at events about their work. Except for them it's called The Artist's Statement. A glorified set of words that defines and explains everything about their artpiece, their "creative inspiration", their reason for taking paint or metal and creating what is before the audience. It is incredibly difficult, and usually totally ridiculous to have to explain the WHY of an art piece. First of all, it was MADE instead of WRITTEN for a reason. . . Design is like Art. So we, as designers, have to explain our reasons and wax poetically. The ordinary person just doesn't "get" it unless it is quantified verbally or numerically. It's a shame the visual can't just be accepted.

Devin Gonzales Hold it, you mean I don't have to be a marketing expert/writer/business stategist/consultant/developer

http://www.aiga.org/design-patois/

1/25/13 9:02 AM

ICT

The World in

2011

Facts and Figures

One third of the world’s population is online 45% of Internet users below the age of 25 Users, developed

Share of Internet users in the total population

2006

Using Internet: 18%

2011*

Not using Internet: 82%

Using Internet: 35%

Developed

China:28%

Developed

Users

China: 37%

India: 6%

Developing

Other developing countries: 66%

Total population: 6.5 billion

Developing Not using Internet: 65%

India: 10% Other developing countries: 53%

Total population: 7 billion

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

• The world is home to 7 billion people, one third of which are using the Internet. 45% of the world’s Internet users are below the age of 25. • Over the last five years, developing countries have increased their share of the world’s total number of Internet users from 44% in 2006, to 62% in 2011. Today, Internet users in China represent almost 25% of the world’s total Internet users and 37% of the developing countries’ Internet users. 4.5

Internet users by age and by development level, 2011* 4.0 • Younger people tend to be more online than older people, in both developed and developing countries.

3.5

Billions of people

3.0

2.5

Not using Internet Using Internet

66 %

64%

2.0 70%

77%

1.5

1.0 29% 0.5

0.0

23%

71%

34%

36%

30%

23%

Under 25

Over 25

77% Under 25

Over 25

Developed

Under 25

Developing

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

Over 25

World

• In developing countries, 30% of those under the age of 25 use the Internet, compared to 23% of those 25 years and older. • At the same time, 70% of the under 25-yearolds — a total of 1.9 billion — are not online yet: a huge potential if developing countries can connect schools and increase school enrolment rates.

The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures

Almost

6 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions 7

Active mobile -broadband subscriptions

• With 5.9 billion mobile-cellular subscriptions, global penetration reaches 87%, and 79% in the developing world.

Fixed(wired) - broadband subscriptions Fixed -telephone lines Internet users

Billions

Mobile-cellular telephone subscriptions

• Mobile-broadband subscriptions have grown 45% annually over the last four years and today there are twice as many mobile-broadband as fixedbroadband subscriptions.

0 2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011*

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

Home ICT access, 2011*

Penetration developed countries Penetration developing countries

74 71

1.8 billion households

0.7 billion households with a PC

0.6 billion households with Internet

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

• Of 1.8 billion households worldwide, one third have Internet access, compared to only one fifth five years ago. • In developing countries, 25% of homes have a computer and 20% have Internet access, compared to 20% and 13%, respectively, 3 years ago.

The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures

Growth in bandwidth facilitates broadband uptake International Internet International Internetbandwidth, bandwidth,GBit/s GBit/s

90’000 80’000

World

70’000

Developed

60’000

Developing Developing

50’000 40’000 30’000 20’000 10’000 0

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011*

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

• International Internet bandwidth, a key factor for providing high-speed Internet access to a growing number of Internet users has grown exponentially over the last five years, from 11’000 Gbit/s in 2006, to close to 80’000 Gbit/s in 2011. • Disparities between regions in terms of available Internet bandwidth per Internet user remain, with on average almost 90’000 bit/s of bandwidth per user in Europe, compared with 2’000 bit/s per user in Africa. 87’395

International Internet bandwidth (bit/s) per Internet user, 2011*

40’000

35’000 30’000 25’000 20’000 15’000 10’000 5’000 0

Africa

Arab States

Asia & Pacific

CIS

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

Americas

World

Europe

The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures

Active mobile-broadband

subscriptions reach almost 1.2 billion Availability of 3G Networks

Countries that offer 2G/3G services commercially, mid-2011*

2G2G only 3G

2G and 3G

90%

45%

2G population coverage 3G population coverage

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

• A total of 159 economies worldwide have launched 3G services commercially and the number of active mobile-broadband subscriptions has increased to almost 1.2 billion. • While people in developed countries usually use mobile-broadband networks in addition to a fixedbroadband connection, mobile-broadband is often the only access method available to people in developing countries. • The percentage of the population covered by a 2G mobile-cellular network is twice as high as the population covered by a 3G network. 3G population coverage reached 45% in 2011.

The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures

Europe leads the broadband race 60 Fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions, 2011*

Fixed (wired)-broadband

Per 100 inhabitants

Active mobile-broadband subscriptions, 2011* subscriptions, 2011*

Active mobile-broadband subscriptions, 2011*

40 30 20 10 0 Africa

Asia & Pacific Arab States

CIS

World

Note: * Estimate Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

Americas

Europe

Top broadband economies, early 2011 Fixed-broadband subscriptions per Economy 100 inhabitants

Economy

• Europe leads in broadband connectivity, with fixed- and mobile-broadband penetration reaching 26% and 54%, respectively.

Active mobilebroadband subscriptions per 100 inhabitants*

Netherlands

38.1

Korea (Rep.)

91.0

Switzerland

37.9

Japan

87.8

Denmark

37.7

Sweden

84.0

• A number of developing countries have been able to leverage mobile-broadband technologies to overcome infrastructure barriers and provide high-speed Internet services to previously unconnected areas. In Africa, mobile-broadband penetration has reached 4%, compared with less than 1% for fixed-broadband penetration.

Korea (Rep.)

35.7

Australia

82.7

Norway

35.3

Finland

78.1

Iceland

34.1

Hong Kong, China

74.5

France

33.9

Portugal

72.5

• The world’s top broadband economies are from Europe and Asia and the Pacific. In the Republic of Korea mobile-broadband penetration exceeds 90%.

Luxembourg

33.2

Luxembourg

72.1

Sweden

31.8

Singapore

69.7

Germany

31.7

Austria

67.4

United Kingdom

31.6

New Zealand

66.2

Belgium

31.5

Kuwait

63.5

Hong Kong, China

29.9

Israel

62.2

Canada

29.8

Brunei Darussalam

61.4

Finland

28.6

Cyprus

61.3

United States

27.6

Italy

59.4

Malta

27.5

United Arab Emirates

58.4

Japan

26.9

Greece

58.3

Estonia

25.1

Saudi Arabia

57.8

Singapore

24.9

Macao, China

56.1

New Zealand

24.9

United Kingdom

56.0

Slovenia

24.2

Spain

55.7

Australia

24.2

Denmark

54.7

Macao, China

24.2

United States

54.0

Austria

23.9

Ireland

47.3

Note: Excludes economies with populations below 100’000 Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators databasee

* Data provided by Wireless Intelligence

The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures

Broadband – speed matters Fixed-broadband subscriptions, by speed, early 2011 • While almost all fixed-broadband connections in the Republic of Korea provide speeds equal to, or above 10 Mbit/s, broadband users in Ghana, Mongolia, Oman and Venezuela are limited to broadband speeds below 2 Mbit/s. • An Internet connection with a speed of 256 kbit/s limits the types of applications and services that Internet users can enjoy. Service providers for data-intensive services, such as Video-on-Demand, recommend a minimum speed of 2 Mbit/s. • Advertised and real speeds can differ substantially. In some countries, regulatory authorities monitor the speed and quality of broadband services and oblige operators to provide accurate quality-of-service information to end users. Korea (Rep.) Bulgaria Portugal United Kingdom France Sweden Denmark Singapore United States*†† Czech Republic Spain Finland Georgia Switzerland Germany Slovak Republic Hungary Slovenia Ireland Estonia Chile United Arab Emirates Turkey Azerbaijan Morocco Serbia† Oman Colombia* Tunisia Qatar Jordan Mongolia Venezuela Ghana

≥ 10 Mbit/s ≥10 Mbit/s ≥≥2 2 to 10 Mbit/s Mbits/s to <<10 kbit/s to ≥≥256 256 kbit/s to <2 < 2Mbit/s Mbit/s

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

Note: Refers to advertised speeds. * Data correspond to slightly different speed intervals. † Breakdown by speed available only for part of the total fixed (wired)-broadband subscriptions. †† June 2010 data. Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators database

100%

The World in 2011 — ICT Facts and Figures

Fixed broadband prices in developing countries drop by over 50% in just two years

150 130 110

Fixed-broadband sub-basket Fixed- telephone sub-basket

234.9 52.2%

2008

2008 2010

2010

112.2 -

• The steepest price drop occurred in developing countries, where fixedbroadband prices dropped by 52.2%.

Percentage change (drop) between 2008 and 2010

70 50

35.4%

30 10 0

16 14 12

2.4

1.5

Developed countries

Mobile-cellular sub-basket

20082008

14.7 22.0%

2010

11.4 Percentage change (drop) between 2008 and 2010

10 8 6 4

Developing countries

Mobile-cellular sub-basket

19.1% 2.4

2.0

0 Developed countries

9 8 7

Fixed-telephone sub-basket

2008 2008

6.7% 8.4

7.8

Fixed-telephone sub-basket 2010 2010

Percentage change (drop) between 2008 and 2010

5 4 3 2

Developing countries

Fixed-telephone sub-basket

9.8% 1.3

• The ITU ICT Price Basket 1 shows that between 2008 and 2010 ICT services have become more affordable and relative prices came down by an average of 18%, globally.

• In developing countries, mobilecellular prices, which have substantially dropped over the last decade, fell by a further 22%. The 2010 mobile-cellular sub-basket represented on average 11.4% of monthly GNI per capita, compared to 2% in developed countries. • ICT services continue to be more affordable in high-income economies and less affordable in low-income economies. By 2010, the cost of ICT services averaged 1.5% of GNI per capita in developed countries, compared with 17% of GNI per capita in developing countries. • In 31 countries — all of them highly industrialized economies — an entry-level broadband connection costs on average the equivalent of 1% or less of average monthly GNI per capita, while in 19 countries — most of them least developed countries — a broadband connection costs on average more than 100% of monthly GNI per capita.

1.1

1 0 Developed countries Source: ITU Measuring the Information Society (2011)

Developing countries

1. The ITU ICT Price Basket is a composite measure based on three tariff sets — fixed-telephone, mobile-cellular and fixed-broadband Internet services — and computed as a percentage of average GNI per capita.

The World in 2011 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; ICT Facts and Figures

For more information: ICT Data and Statistics Division Telecommunication Development Bureau International Telecommunication Union Place des Nations 1211 Geneva 20 - Switzerland indicators@itu.int www.itu.int/ict

Hosted by Organized by

ICT

9th World Tele

communicatio

In di ca to rs M ee

Mauritius, 7-9

ww w.itu.int/IC

ti ng

December 2011

T/W TIM11

ÂŠ 2011, International Telecommunication Union

PROJECT 2:

Fluid Facts: A Comparative Analysis of Web-Based Infographics

Fluid Facts: A Comparative Analysis of Web-Based Infographics Whitley Kemble | ArtGR 698a, Spring 2013

Fluid Facts: A Comparative Analysis of Web-Based Infographics

by Whitley Kemble Art GR 698A February 11, 2013

Fluid Facts: A Comparative Analysis of Web-Based Infographics Whitley Kemble | ArtGR 698a, Spring 2013

Information design plays a huge role in our day-to-day lives. It breaks down complex specialized data—usually in the form of patterns and statistics—into more manageable, accessible information. The advent of the infographic allowed this information to reach the masses in a much more concise manner. In his essay, Information Interaction Design: A Unified

Field Theory of Design, Vivid Studios CCO David Shedroff explains: “…too often we deluge our audience with data instead of information, leaving them to sort it out and make sense of it. Many providers even boast of the large amount of meaningless, contextless data they throw at their customers…Information Design doesn’t ignore aesthetic concerns but it doesn’t focus on them either. However, there is no reason why elegantly structured or well-architected data can’t also be beautiful…An understanding of Information Design starts with the essential view that the vast amount of things that bombard our senses everyday are not pieces of information but merely data.”i The interactive Your Daily Dose of Water infographic from Good is an excellent example. It conveys the comprehensive impact personal lifestyle and consumer choices have on water consumption, while the Not a Drop to Drink graphic from Visual News writer and illustrator Neil Spencer increases awareness of water quality and usage for the average American. These infographics deal with very similar content. The level of complexity is similar, too, but the message and goals of each are very different. ii Screen

one of “Your Daily Dose

of Wa ter”, Goo d .

Perhaps the most obvious difference between these two infographics is format. Your Daily Dose of Water, for example, is interactive. Shedroff states that information design tends to be more impactful when interactive, as it opens a door for the user to give feedback. Your

Fluid Facts: A Comparative Analysis of Web-Based Infographics Whitley Kemble | ArtGR 698a, Spring 2013

Daily Dose of Water is what he calls an adaptive experience, one that changes in response to the user. He argues that these types of experiences are more tailored, and thus more relevant to the reader.iii “Typically, experiences with high interactivity offer high levels of feedback and, at least, some control,” he explains. When the user gets a say in what happens, he has to pay attention. “Creative products and experiences require that others participate by creating or manipulating instead of merely watching and consuming.”iv Your Daily Dose of Water has a lot of information to keep track of, so presenting the individual parts independently helps ease the user through the experience. Ronnie Lipton reiterates this in The Practical Guide to Information Design, noting that people “keep four chunks of information in short-term memory at a time. Retention and accuracy decrease as the number of chunks increases…Content that’s grouped into logical subdivisions aids both perception and retention.” v Your Daily Dose of Water specifically makes the data more detailed by breaking down consumption for the individual based on his or her personal choices, as well as all the inputs for those variables. A shower uses 45 fewer gallons of water than a bath, but choosing tea over orange juice actually conserves more than 193 gallons of water. With transportation and processing factors taken into consideration, a tablespoon of butter uses a shocking 45.7 gallons to get to your table. The total bar on the side helps the user keep track and see how these factors play into the grander scheme of things. For this type of data, it’s a very smart system. According to Shedroff, this wisdom is the ultimate goal of information design. “Information forms the stimulus of an experience while wisdom can be the understanding of the message gained through the experience. Knowledge is a fundamentally participatory level of communication and we should always make it our goal because it allows the most valuable messages to be conveyed… Wisdom is the most vague and intimate level of understanding.”vi The information depicted in this infographic is very complex, so it’s broken down chronologically into more manageable chunks by screen. This forces the user to interact with and contemplate one piece of information at a time. Structuring data in this way gives the user

Fluid Facts: A Comparative Analysis of Web-Based Infographics Whitley Kemble | ArtGR 698a, Spring 2013

an entirely different perspective on all that water consumption entails, and it leaves the user to make his/her own conclusions. Not a Drop to Drink, in contrast, presents all of the information at once. This format is most suitable for print, but it also works well for web. There are several points Spencer wants the viewer to consider—consumption for the average American (including those for commercial use), conservation and eco-consciousness. This infographic is best analyzed using Richard Saul Wurman’s “LATCH Theory”.

v ii Snip pe t

o f “Not a Drop to Drink ”, Visual News .

According to this theory, there are five ways information can be categorized: location, alphabetically, time/chronologically, category, and hierarchy.viii Not a Drop to Drink seems takes advantage of several of these categorization methods, though much less rigidly Wurman would. In his book, Lipton explains why this works in a short list of rules and principles. “Basic principles translate into guidelines for designing content your audience members can perceive,” he writes, “which they must do before they can comprehend it.” ix In the text, he urges designers to limit the content to what is absolutely needed, to arrange by order of importance, and to use style and emphasis to set apart different types of information. Proximity, likewise, indicates bits of information that belong together. The system in Not a Drop to Drink has several tiers. The first tier is categorical— consumption, conservation, quality, and infrastructure. We know this because these topics are set apart as ribboned sub-heads. Under each of these are several bold captions with brief facts

Fluid Facts: A Comparative Analysis of Web-Based Infographics Whitley Kemble | ArtGR 698a, Spring 2013

(hierarchical organization), supported by similar supporting numerical and pictorial information (using the principle of proximity). Each subsection then concludes with transitory blue ribbons. The piece is essentially a graphic article. Although the graphicâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structure seems denser than Your Daily Dose of Water, the organization gives the reader direction. The captions are brief and interrelated within the subsections, and it has an obvious conclusion that leaves the viewer with a course of action following a thorough examination. It approaches the subject of water consumption in a broader sense, so it is fitting that Spencer presents all of the data in a single graphic. Both of these information sets contained incredibly detailed, complex data from multiple sources. Though different in almost every way, these infographics were able to quickly disseminate this information quickly and concisely. The designers were able to accomplish this by utilizing various aspects of the LATCH theory and sticking to Liptonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s simple rules. What existed before in pages upon pages of data is summarized in a few tidy screens. The result is clear, effective communication, and clean comprehensible design.

Fluid Facts: A Comparative Analysis of Web-Based Infographics Whitley Kemble | ArtGR 698a, Spring 2013

W or ks Ci ted i

Shedroff, Nathan. “Information Interaction Design: A Unified Theory of Design”, pp. 4-5. Downloaded from www.nathan.com/thoughts/unif ie d/unified .pdf on February 7, 2013.

Unknown. “Your Daily Dose of Water”. Accessed at http://awesome.good.is.s3.amazonaws.com/transparency/web/1204/your-daily-dose-ofwater/flash.html on January 29, 2013.

iii

Shedroff, Nathan. “Information Interaction Design: A Unified Theory of Design”, p. 11. Downloaded from www.nathan.com/thoughts/unif ie d/unified .pdf on February 7, 2013.

Lipton, Ronnie. The Practical Guide to Information Design, p. 29. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken: New Jersey. (2007)

Shedroff, Nathan. “Information Interaction Design: A Unified Theory of Design”, p. 5. Downloaded from www.nathan.com/thoughts/unified /unif ie d.pdf on February 7, 2013.

vii

Spencer, Neil. “Not a Drop to Drink”, Visual News. Accessed via http://www.visualnews.com/2012/04/05/not-a-drop-to-drink-americas-very-real-water-crisis/ on January 29, 2013.

viii

Lipton, Ronnie. The Practical Guide to Information Design, p. 27. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken: New Jersey. (2007)

Lipton, Ronnie. The Practical Guide to Information Design, p. 16. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Hoboken: New Jersey. (2007)

Information Interaction Design: A Unified Field Theory of Design by Nathan Shedroff, Chief Creative Officer, vivid studios

vivid

studios

510 Third Street Suite 200, Box 7 San Francisco, CA 94107-1814

One of the most important skills for almost everyone to have in the next decade and beyond will be those that allow us to create valuable, compelling, and empowering information and experiences for others. To do this, we must learn existing ways of organizing and presenting data and information and develop new ones. Whether our communication tools are traditional print products, electronic products, broadcast programming, interactive experiences, or live performances makes little difference. Nor does it matter if we are employing physical or electronic devices or our own bodies and voices. The process of creating is roughly the same in any medium. The processes involved in solving problems, responding to audiences, and communicating to others are similar enough to consider them identical for the purposes of this paper. These issues apply across all types of media and experiences, because they directly address the phenomena of information overload, information anxiety, media literacy, media immersion, and technological overload—all which need better solutions. The intersection of these issues can be addressed by the process of Information Interaction Design. In other circles, it is called simply Information Design, Information Architecture, or Interaction Design, Instructional Design, or just plain Common Sense. Many people create or engineer interactions, presentations, and experiences for others. Almost all interactions— whether part of a book, a directory, a catalog, a newspaper, or a television program—can be created or addressed by one process. This process can be used to produce every CD-ROM, kiosk, presentation, game, and online service. It can also be used for every dance, music, comedy, or theater performance. While the traditions and technologies may change with every discipline, the process does not.

USA

TEL 415 512 7200 FAX 415 512 7202 NET vivid@vivid.com WEB www.vivid.com

Information Interaction Design is the intersection of the disciplines of Information Design, Interaction Design, and Sensorial Design. Information Design’s roots are in publishing and graphic design, although few people in these industries intentionally practice them. Information Design addresses the organization and presentation of data: its transformation into valuable, meaningful information. While the creation of this information is something we all do to some extent, it has only recently been identified as a discipline with proven processes that can be employed or taught. Unfortunately, there are few resources for learning about the practices of Information or Interaction Design.

Interaction Design, which is essentially story-creating and telling, is at once both an ancient art and a new technology. Media have always effected the telling of stories and the creation of experiences, but currently new media offer capabilities and opportunities not yet addressed in the history of interaction and performance. In particular, the demands of interactivity are often misunderstood by all but the most experienced storytellers and performers. How these skills are expressed through interactive technologies and what demands and interests audiences will have for these remains to be understood. Consequently, there are also few sources of information about these issues and the techniques used to meet them. This is new territory that is desperate for some new ideas and cogent explanations. It is also the most critical component to the success of interactive products.

vivid

studios

510 Third Street Suite 200, Box 7 San Francisco, CA 94107-1814 USA

Sensorial Design is simply the employment of all techniques with which we communicate to others through our senses. After writing, visual design techniques in disciplines such as graphic design, videography, cinematography, typography, illustration, and photography are usually the first to be recognized and employed, but the disciplines that communicate through other senses are just as important. Sound design and engineering and musical and vocal performance are also useful in the appropriate circumstances. In fact, sometimes they are the only appropriate media for communicating a particular message. Tactile, olfactory, and kinesthetic senses are rarely employed (often due to technological or market constraints), but are just as valid and can add enriching detail to an experience. The disciplines of sensorial media are worlds unto themselves, with their own histories, traditions, and concerns. To learn each well takes time and skill. Therefore, it is crucial to learn at least an overview of the important issues and techniques of each discipline so that they can be employed properly when presenting ideas and communicating messages—especially within a team. In each of these areas, experts should participate in employing the various media in support of a project’s information and interaction goals and messages. These levels of understanding are significant because they define the boundaries with which we can create and communicate. While Information Design primarily focuses on the representation of data and its presentation, the emphasis in Interaction Design is on the creation of compelling experiences. When designing projects, I usually find it easier to start with the information design process if a substantial amount of data already exists and the interaction design process if it does not. The following sections describe the processes I have found useful for both.

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While few designers have been explicitly taught the issues paramount to clear communication (e.g., organization, presentation, goals and messages, clarity, and complexity), these functions at least have been addressed on a subconscious level by anyone who attempts to organize their thoughts and communicate them. Information Design doesn’t ignore aesthetic concerns but it doesn’t focus on them either. However, there is no reason why elegantly structured or well-architected data can’t also be beautiful. Information Design does not replace graphic design and other visual disciplines, but is the structure through which these capabilities are expressed. An understanding of Information Design starts with the essential view that the vast amount of things that bombard our senses everyday are not pieces of information but merely data. Richard Saul Wurman expresses this in his book, Information Anxiety1 .

1 Richard Saul Wurman is one of the most renowned information architects. His book Information Anxiety is one of the few sources of Information Design instruction. His issue of Design Quarterly , “Hats,” is a condensed version of his most important understandings. Information Anxiety, Richard Saul Wurman, New York, NY: Doubleday, 1989. “Hats,” Richard Saul Wurman, Design Quarterly #145, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1989.

Data is fairly worthless to most of us; it is the product of research or creation (such as writing), but it is not an adequate product for communicating. To have informational value, it must be organized, transformed, and presented in a way that gives it meaning.

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Stimulus

Understanding

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Information is also not the end of the continuum of understanding. Just as data can be transformed into meaningful information, so can information be transformed into knowledge and, further, into wisdom. Knowledge is a phenomenon that we can build for others just as we can build information for others from data. This is done through Interaction Design and the creation of experiences. Think for a moment how difficult it is to build a meaningful experience for others. It is first necessary to understand your audience; what their needs, abilities, interests, and expectations are; and how to reach them. Brenda Laurel2 often states that interactive media “is not about information, it is about experience.” She is absolutely correct but, in creating these experiences for others (and even for ourselves to some degree), we must understand and properly structure the information and data with which we use to build experiences.

The Continuum of Understanding A Bit About Data Data is the product of discovery, research, gathering, and creation. It is the raw material we find or create that we use to build our communications. Unfortunately, most of what we experience is merely data. It is fairly easy to distinguish as often it is boring, incomplete, or inconsequential. Data isn’t valuable as communication because it isn’t a complete message. Most of the technology we call “Information 2 Brenda Laurel is one of the most qualified interface designers in the industry and the biggest proponent of designing experiences. Her edited book, The Art of Human Computer Interface Design, is a great place to start and her book, Computers as Theater, is a good place to continue. The Art of Human Computer Interface Design, Brenda Laurel Ed., Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., 1990.

Technology” is, in fact, only data technology because understanding and communication of information is not addressed. These technologies are primarily concerned with storage, processing, and transmission. Data is useful only to producers or anyone playing a role in production. Data is not meant for “consumers” and too often we deluge our audience with data instead of information, leaving them to sort it out and make sense of it. Many providers even boast of the large amount of meaningless, contextless data they throw at their customers. CNN, for example, actually calls their data bits “factoids” and interjects them between otherwise meaningful presentations. Successful communications do not present data. If, for example, presenters haven’t bothered to provide context and build meaning, audiences have little patience for doing it themselves. As designers, we constantly must ask ourselves what service we provide. vivid

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More About Information Information makes data meaningful for audiences because it requires the creation of relationships and patterns between data. Transforming data into information is accomplished by organizing it into a meaningful form, presenting it in meaningful and appropriate ways, and communicating the context around it. These processes are described in more detail below.

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TEL 415 512 7200 FAX 415 512 7202 NET vivid@vivid.com WEB www.vivid.com The Experience of Knowledge With every experience, we acquire knowledge; it is the understanding gained through experiences—good or bad. Knowledge is communicated by building compelling interactions with others or with tools so that the patterns and meanings in their information can be learned by others. Page 4 of 15 http://www.vivid.com/form/unified/unified.html © 1994 Nathan Shedroff

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There are many types of experiences that confer different types of knowledge. Some knowledge is personal, having meaning unique to one person’s experiences, thoughts, or point of view. Local knowledge is knowledge shared by a few people because of their shared experiences. Global knowledge is more general, limited, and process-based, since it relies on such heavy levels of shared understandings and agreements about communication. Effective communication must take into account the audience’s level of knowledge. This makes it more difficult to communicate to larger audiences because the pool of shared knowledge is less detailed and more generalized. Knowledge is gained through a process of integration, both in the presentation and in the mind of the participant. Information forms the stimulus of an experience while wisdom can be the understanding of the message gained through the experience. Knowledge is a fundamentally participatory level of communication and we should always make it our goal because it allows the most valuable messages to be conveyed. It is also the last level that we can directly effect since it is either local or global. What is Wisdom? Wisdom is the most vague and intimate level of understanding. It is much more abstract and philosophical than other levels and less is known about how to create or effect it. Wisdom is a kind of “meta-knowledge” of processes and relationships gained through experiences. It is the result of contemplation, evaluation, retrospection, and interpretation—all of which are particularly personal processes. We cannot create wisdom like we can data and information, and we cannot share it with others like we can with knowledge. We can only create experiences that offer opportunities and describe processes. Ultimately, it is an understanding that must be gained by one’s self.

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Organizing Things

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The first step in transforming data into information is to explore its organization. This simple yet crucial process can appear futile, but often you can discover something through it that you had never seen before. It is important to realize that the very organization of things affects the way we interpret and understand their separate pieces. Take any set of things: students in a classroom, financials for a company, information about a city, or animals in a zoo. How would you organize these? Which is best? Richard Saul Wurman3 suggests five ways to organize everything, but seven seems clearer to me. Literally everything can be organized by alphabet, location, time, continuum, number, or category. Additionally, things often can be randomly organized (in other words, by not organizing them).

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Often, there are often better ways to organize data than the traditional ones that first occur to us. Each organization of the same set of data expresses different attributes and messages. It is important to experiment, reflect, and choose which organization best communicates our messages. It is also important to note that these seven ways of organizing make it easy to brainstorm, but it is up to us to choose the most appropriate way to present data to our audiences. Some of the more important ways of organizing are presented below. Alphabets Most books have alphabetical indexes because, while we may know exactly what we are looking for, we often do not know where to find it. Though the alphabet is an arbitrary sequence of symbols, indexes work well because we have been taught alphabetical sequence from an early age. It is not universally useful, as you will find if you ever try to use a phone directory in a language that uses a different alphabet than your own. Many indexes are organized alphabetically, but few products are

Richard Saul Wurman, Information Anxiety, 1989.

(primarily dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other reference works). This is because few data have any great meaning based on the first letter of their labels. The alphabet actually is a continuum (from A to Z) but it is a special one for the reasons stated above.

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Locations Locations are natural ways of organizing data with important relationships with or connections to other data. How easy would it be to find the exits to an airplane if they were listed and described in text with no diagram? Many projects can benefit by locational organizations but seldom are, simply because their designers never experimented with the idea. Producing maps and diagrams is not as easy as writing text, but if you have ever used an atlas or Access travel guide, you know how much better a sense of a place can be achieved when things are oriented by geographical relationships. Consider a subway map that simply lists all station stops in sequence versus one that arranges them in a representation of the city they serve. This may sound obvious (and it should be), but why do not car manuals organize parts by their location in the car, or medical books by location in the body (the one thing you are sure of when you know you aren’t feeling well)? Time Organizing things by time or sequence may sound obvious for bus and train schedules or historic timelines but it can be just as effective for instructions such as cooking, driving, or building. Time need not be addressed only in minutes and hours but also in days, months, years, centuries, processes, or milestones.

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Continuums Any qualitative comparison can be described with a continuum. All ratings systems, whether numbers of stars or the number of RBIs of a professional baseball player, indicate a value scale. Arranging items in a continuum indicates that this value scale is the most important aspect of the data. As with any organization of data, the primary organization expresses a different message and importance than other organizations. Numbers I categorize number systems as a separate way of arranging things. Much like alphabets, numbers are merely an arbitrary continuum (usually Base-10, since our species has ten fingers). But unlike alphabets, Base-10 numbers are much more universal because they combine in different forms due to mathematical relationships. It is common but not necessary for number organizations to be continuums. For example, the Dewey Decimal System, used for organizing books in many libraries, is not a continuum because it is a number system that does not represent any magnitude or attribute; it simply assigns numbers to categories and sub-categories.

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Categories Categories are a common organization and a reliable one, since they allow similar things to be grouped together by attributes that are considered important in some way. Defining the specific categories is crucial, as they will communicate the designer’s prejudices and understandings more easily than any other organization. As with all organizations, these control the perceptions of the information. Randomness While random or arbitrary organizations might not seem a useful way to organize things and “add value” to them, it is sometimes the best way if a challenge of some kind is involved. Consider a game where all of the pieces are arranged already or one where its sequence is already determined and carefully, logically laid out. Such a game would not be very fun to play. There may be other times where random organizations present a better experience than an orderly one and it is up to the designer to explore these possibilities and employ good judgment.

Advanced Organizations

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In case these descriptions seem too dry and utilitarian, let me describe an example where the organization of data can provide an intense emotional reaction. If you are familiar with the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, DC, you may already know how quiet yet moving this monument is. What you may not realize is the importance of the monument’s organization. The names of all of the US military personnel who died in the Vietnam war are inscribed on the surfaces of two long, black granite walls. The walls start out short (around twelve inches) and grow to more than nine feet in the center where the two meet. They are constructed this way for a special reason. All of the names are arranged by time (date of death), from the first who died during the “police action,” to the mounting death toll at the height of the war, trickling off as the US pulled out of the area. The names thus chart the pattern of US involvement in Vietnam and the personal stories of the real people involved and most affected. Imagine how different the monument would be without this organization. Suppose the names were organized by alphabet (which was actually proposed once the design was accepted). While it might be easier to find a particular person, the search and the names themselves would be reduced to a mechanical list, a granite White Pages. Lost would be the individuality of each name and life. In a list of seventeen John Smiths, which one is yours? An alphabetical organization would have completely depersonalized the monument and devastated its emotional power, so would most other organizations. Imagine if the names were organized by category (e.g., pilots listed here, infantry listed there) or on a continuum based on rank or, for that matter, height (e.g., the tallest men at one end, the shortest at another). What is key to this emotional experience is that those who died are found among those whom they died with. Without this organization, in fact, there is no longer meaning to the wall growing and tapering down in height. Any other organization would have created a different memorial entirely and, most likely, one without the power and emotion created in the existing one. All of this is somewhat subliminal. When you visit the monument, its information structure isn’t the first thing you perceive, but it works nonetheless. This is true of any project, whether it is a sensitive and emotional monument, a powerful and inspiring museum, a useful and concise catalog, or a thrilling and interesting performance.

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Multiple Organizations

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Almost all organizations are actually nested, multiple organizations. Most directories, for example, might list names by division or location, then by department or title, then by alphabet. Catalogs may break products into categories first, then arrange them in a continuum based on price (such as highest cost to lowest). Be aware that a primary organization is not necessarily the only organization and it allows for secondary or more sub-organizations when working with larger groups of things. Of course, each of these needs to be clear and meaningful as well.

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It is also useful to include indexes that organize the same items in different ways. This is important for enabling people to find things in ways that are most appropriate for the things they know or the ways they learn. All people learn differently and have varying skills. Some may be comfortable with maps while others prefer lists. Some may not understand an alphabetical listing while others can’t relate to a continuum. Multiple organizations help everyone find things easier. In addition, even

if people understand the organization, they may not have the correct information. For example, they may know the street they need to go to, but not where to find it on a map (this is where street indexes come in handy). They may know that they want a recipe for a low-calorie dessert, but don’t want to search through every recipe in their cookbooks to find one. It is precisely the ability to see the same set of things in different organizations that allows people to uncover the patterns in the relationships between these things. Ideally, people should be able to rearrange the organizations themselves or be provided with different arrangements so they can begin to understand these patterns for themselves.

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Much has been made of the ability of metaphors to help people quickly understand things. While metaphors are generally helpful, they are a false crutch to cling to. Metaphors are not required nor are they always the best approach. Too many interactive projects, for example, start with the question “what metaphor should the interface use?” Most often, the “interface” shouldn’t use any narrowly outlined metaphor. Metaphors are simply one way of setting context (i.e., transforming data into information). It is important that the context implied is the one intended and that it matches the desired understandings. Too often, metaphors set the wrong context and help create expectations that are not accurate and which cannot be met. Metaphors are especially useful when they relate well to a user’s or reader’s experience. However, to be used well they must be abandoned when they begin to fail or when they are asked to do more than the limits of their capabilities. A good example is the desktop metaphor used by many personal computers. The strength of this idea is that it uses familiar objects to indicate relationships by analogy (e.g., a trash can for discarding files or folders for keeping groups of files and other folders together). Fortunately the designers ignored the metaphor when it broke down (e.g., dialog boxes) and didn’t try to take it further than was appropriate. Recently, a colleague suggested that metaphors could be another way of organizing data. She may be correct, and more thought should be devoted to this question, but I believe it is more accurate to say that metaphors are a means of representing things than a way to organize or present them. For me, metaphors only achieve a cognitive orientation of meaning rather than one of structure.

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Goals and Messages All effective communications involve defining the goals of the experience and the messages to be communicated as early in the development process as possible. These definitions drive all decisions, from Information Design, through Interaction Design, and including all aspects of Sensorial Design. Every decision, no matter how simple or mundane, should support the defined goals and messages. This ensures that inappropriate data, techniques, technology, or styles are not used. For every decision, the solution should be one that best meets the goals and messages defined at the beginning of the project. While it sounds obvious, too often the ideas that drive the presentation are at odds with the messages presented. Many times, the goals and messages stipulated by a client will not be correct. Clients are usually too close to their problems to see solutions clearly enough. It is important to uncover one or two layers of goals behind those stated and agree to these if you want to be successful. Otherwise, you may find yourself unable to satisfy a client or communicate the correct messages to your audience.

Clarity The most important goal of effective communication is clarity. Clarity is not the same as simplicity. Richard Saul Wurman taught me this well. Simple things are clear if the message is intended to be brief and small, but often the message is about a complex relationship that can only be presented with a necessarily large amount of data. This complexity can be made clear through effective organization and presentation and need not be reduced to meaningless, “bite-sized” chunks of data. Clarity includes the focus on one particular message or goal at a time, rather than an attempt to accomplish too much at once. Simplicity is often responsible for the “dumbing” of information rather than the illumination of it.

Interaction Design vivid

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Think about what experiences are. How do you create them? How do you know when they are successful? What are the most satisfying experiences you can remember? Unfortunately, few people are ever taught how to create wonderful experiences for others. I believe that one of the nicest experiences you can have is to enjoy a stimulating conversation with another person over great meal. I would rather do this than watch television, read a book, or use any interactive product I have ever seen. But how do you set up and maintain such an experience? We are taught history, science, mathematics, language, and many valuable processes, but hardly anything about having a great conversation, though this is one of the most satisfying things you can enjoy. Why? While some people seem to have natural abilities for creating wonderful experiences for others (such as the “life of the party” or a great instructor), most of us must learn the hard way: through trial and error. Wouldn’t it be great if we could be taught explicitly how to create meaningful interactions for each other? This is what Interaction Design addresses and, unfortunately, it is a new field with few texts, few classes, and almost no curriculum (even less than Information Design). The best sources for learning these skills—and these are critical to the success of any interactive project or presentation—are the performing arts. Indeed, the most prominent new media Interaction Designers all seem to have backgrounds in some type of performance, whether it is dance, theater, singing, storytelling, or improvisation. Because of the history of interaction in performing arts, some of the only sources for guidance come from the fields of script-writing, storytelling, performance, and instructional design. Each of these disciplines is particularly concerned with the communication of varied stories and messages through the creation of interesting and wonderful experiences. We can look to these disciplines for knowledge about interactivity, but we must remember to pay attention to the limitations of the technologies and media through which our messages are conveyed.

Continuums of Interactivity One way to consider the meaning of interactivity is to envision all experiences (and products) as inhabiting a continuum of interactivity. On one side are passive experiences like reading a typical book or watching television. While some have argued that even in these events there is an interaction between the mind and the device or the imagination and the story, these are somewhat esoteric and philosophical notions. In comparison, these activities don’t exhibit the kinds of choice, control, productivity, or creativity of experiences like painting, conversing, or producing a television program. The difference that defines interactivity can include the amount of control the audience has over the tools, pace, or content; the amount of choice this control offers; and the ability to use the tool or content to be productive or to create.

Interactive

Passive

Feedback

Simple Navigation, Playback Only

Control

Sophisticated Navigation, High Audience Control

Creation Tools, Creation Help

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Creativity/ Co-Creativity Productivity

Prouctivity Tools, “Living Information”

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Adaptivity Pseudo-Intelligence, “Agents,” Modifiable Behavior, Personalization

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Therefore, all products and experiences can be placed along this continuum. It is important to note that there is no good or bad side of this continuum. The only judgment should be if the level of interactivity or place along the continuum is appropriate to the goals of the experience or the messages to be communicated. Interactivity is different from production value or “richness.” Typical television programs and films can have incredibly rich stories, techniques, and presentations, but offer almost no interaction except turning the channel or leaving the theater. Compare this with the experience of improvisational comedy in which a story is created as the audience watches, gets involved by offering suggestions, or even joins in the action. Control and Feedback The first two spectrums of interactivity focus on how much control the audience has over the outcome or the rate, sequence, or type of action, and how much feedback exists in the interface. Typically, experiences with high interactivity offer high levels of feedback and, at least, some control. Examples of these kinds of experiences are games in which the game play depends directly on the player’s involvement and choices, unlike television in which the experience continues whether anyone is viewing or not. Productivity and Creative Experiences Productivity is another spectrum that can coincide with other interactivity spectrums. Creative experiences allow a user, creator, or participant to make, do, or share something themselves. Some experiences can be used more productively than others (such as entertainment), and productivity is traditionally of more concern in business products than entertainment products—but being creative and producing something are typically more interesting, entertaining, and fulfilling activities. Creation tools are important components for creating meaningful, compelling, and useful experiences. Creative products and experiences require that others participate by creating or manipulating instead of merely watching and consuming.

Co-creative4 technologies are those that offer assistance in the creation process. People are naturally creative and are almost always more interested in experiences that allow them to create instead of merely participate. While many situations can create anxiety if people are not accustomed to performing with the tools or techniques, if this anxiety can be lessened (either through the careful design of the experience or offered assistance), people express their creativity. This can take the form of recommendations, guidelines, advice, or actually performing operations for users.

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Another attribute of these experiences is the capability of adding content or tools to a predefined set, resulting in a “living” product, toolset, or database. Few products are designed to grow or become more valuable over time with participation from the audience. Yet, products that help users structure their experiences and share their knowledge are inherently more valuable than those which do not. Adaptive Experiences Adaptive technologies are those that change the experience based on the behavior of the user, reader, consumer, or actor. These can include “agents,” modifying behaviors, and “pseudo-intelligence.” Agents are processes that can be set to run autonomously, performing specific, unsupervised (or lightly supervised) activities and reporting back when finished. Modifying behaviors are those that change the tools and/or content involved based on the actions of techniques of the user. Some games, for example, do this, becoming more difficult as the player becomes more proficient. Other possibilities include content changing to reflect point of view, level of proficiency required, or amount of detail desired. Both of these techniques might have the effect of making a device or person in an experience appear intelligent, as might other techniques. However, this calls into question a much larger discussion of intelligence, life, and how these are defined. Suffice it to say that certain kinds of choices in changing behavior based on the actions of others (whether random, instinctive, or algorithmic) can create the appearance of a more sophisticated system or process and imply a kind of intelligence. Communicative Experiences Like productive and creative experiences, opportunities to meet others, talk with them, and share their personal stories and opinions, are always viewed as valuable and interesting. Because these experiences involve two or more people, they also inherently involve high levels of control, feedback, and adaptivity. The telephone is an excellent example of a communicative experience, as are chat lines, discussion boards, and cocktail parties. Some of these are so valuable and enjoyable for some people, that they have become virtually indispensable.

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The Experience Cube Each of the six spectra in Figure 1 can be plotted on a diagram in order to place typical interfaces and products and reveal their relationships to each other by these attributes. Unfortunately, it is difficult to create a six-sided diagram that is clear. However, a close approximation can be created by combining the Feedback and Control attributes into one dimension; the Creative, Productive, and Communicative attributes into another; and the adaptive attributes into a third. This gives us a rough Experience Cube and shows us some general relationships between experiences that we can learn from.

4 A term coined by Abbe Don. Don is another prominent interface designer who specializes in interfaces for personal narratives. (http:// www.abbedon.com.)

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All experiences, whether mediated by technology or not, fit into this cube. This is important because it reminds us that the experiences we create in our products are viewed in a much wider context by our audiences. Unfortunately, most producers of interactive media or multimedia don’t realize this. It must be remembered that a reader, user, or consumer has access to many experiences and, most likely, is not as enamored with the technology of any one medium as the developer might be. This means that the competition for interactive media products is as big as all of human experience. In other words, competitors for a CD-ROM on tropical fish are not other tropical fish CD-ROMs or even laser discs, but television documentaries, narrative and reference books, aquariums, scuba diving, travel, etc. If the experience you create is not a compelling one (whether it is justified by the bounds of the technology or not), you will never find a large audience. This is probably why we have seen only a few categories of successful interactive media products: children’s books and lessons, games, reference works, and pornography. Both games and reference works use interactive media appropriately and create experiences that cannot be duplicated easily in other media. While some children’s books and products do this, even the ones that don’t have been successful, probably because the market (parents) can justify the expense on their children’s education. Curiously, pornography uses interactive technologies particularly poorly, but it seems there is an overlap of sexual curiosity with technology. So, we come back to the question: how does one create meaningful experiences and interactions? We must first revisit our goals and messages and reevaluate the kinds of experiences we want our audience to have. We must also ask them what their needs and wants are with regard to these experiences. This is what market research attempts to accomplish. It is not user testing (which needs to be done later once some possibilities have been developed), but a crucial inquiry. The process must involve brainstorming alternatives that meet these goals, messages, and audience interests and abilities until possible solutions emerge. These must then be given shape with the tools of Sensorial Design and tested before they are approved or labeled successful.

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Sensorial design is simply an all-encompassing category over those disciplines involved with the creation and presentation of media. Among other disciplines, these include writing, graphic design, iconography, map making, calligraphy, typography, illustration, and color theory (graphics); photography, animation, and cinematography (images); and sound design, singing, and music (sound. Actually, perfumery and cooking should be considered in this category since these involve the purposeful stimulation of the sensesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;even if these senses arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as widely addressed. Each of these disciplines has deep traditions and detailed procedures. It is not appropriate to focus on them here, but while they are all different in many ways, they all share some common attributes and concerns. These include the appropriate use of media, style, technique, media literacy, and bandwidth applicable to the technology of the situation, as well as an understanding of the human senses.

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Media Differences San Francisco, CA 94107-1814 USA

Each medium has different strengths and weaknesses. Each excels in different capabilities and different types of communication. These are intricately woven into the way we perceive through our senses5 . Think about our senses and how we use them. We sorely need to develop a better understanding of our five senses, how they operate, how they relate to each other, and how to create for them. Diane Ackermanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s book, A Natural History of the Senses, offers an inspiring discussion on our sensorial experiences. This is but a beginning toward a better understanding that we may then use to create more compelling experiences.

Style and Meaning

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Using these media appropriately is not always easy. Many times, different parties involved demand the use of one component when another might be better. The same is true of style. All style has meaning, whether it is implied, accidental, or deliberate. Choosing the appropriate attributes and implementing them consistently is imperative to the development of a cohesive experience. For large projects, this cohesion can easily get lost as many people implement various parts to their own standards. There are few details that do not affect the presentation, legibility, and understanding of the meaning of a message. Even a detail like justified type (flush left, flush right, or centered) changes the legibility and perception of a paragraph and, therefore, the text itself. All sensorial details must coordinate not only with each other, but with the goals and messages of the project. A more integrated and careful synthesis of these processes will result in a more compelling, engaging, and appropriate experience, as well as a more successful the communication and interaction.

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A good source of information about human senses is the book, A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman.

Conclusion? An interface to any experience, whether technological, physical, or conceptual, must have a message and a reason for communicating it and begin with the creation of meaning and the development of appropriate types of interactivity. These decisions drive the use of sensorial media to present the experience to the audience in an appropriate and supportive way. Addressing one factor without the others can contribute to an experience that is incomplete or unbalanced. In many cases, simply understanding these concepts can lead to the development of better experiences, but it is usually necessary to address these attributes specifically in an explicit and procedural way.

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TEL 415 512 7200 FAX 415 512 7202 NET vivid@vivid.com WEB www.vivid.com

Page 15 of 15 http://www.vivid.com/form/unified/unified.html ÂŠ 1994 Nathan Shedroff

This is really not a conclusion as much as it is a beginning. There is still much for all of us to learn and share about these issues. Both Information Design and Interaction Design are extremely new disciplines and they will grow considerably as we experiment and create. They are, however, the keys to a better understanding about communication and will serve us well over the next phase of our development.

The subject matter for my paper was water and sustainability, especially as it relates to household use. I chose to analyze these using Wurman’s LATCH Theory, as well as a few information design rules from Ronnie Lipton. I also found an interesting essay by Nathan Shedroff, chair of California College of the Arts’ MBA in Design Strategy, and then-CCO of Vivid Studios. Shedroff made an interesting point in his essay, which is there’s a huge problem with oversharing—part of the problem with having all this data available is that it tends to be chucked at the people we’re trying to reach. I picked these because, while they had a LOT of things going on, the way they all of that data was presented made them very clear. All cheesy puns aside, they had a lot of really good information. The infographic on the left is actually interactive, so I’ll need a volunteer to go through that one with me in a moment.

Okay, so my first infographic is called “Your Daily Dose of Water”. It gives a comprehensive picture of water consumption for the individual. This infographic is actually interactive, so I’ll need a volunteer to go through that one with me in a moment. http://awesome.good.is.s3.amazonaws.com/transparency/web/1204/ your-daily-dose-of-water/flash.html

So, according to Shedroff, experiences are more memorable memorable because they require participation by the user. Your Daily Dose of Water is an example of an adaptive experience, which basically means that it changes in response to the user. *ask volunteer for one thing (s)he remembers from the infographic. Anybody else remember anything? Uses CHUNKING, which (if you’ve taken psychology) you know is a process of breaking presenting smaller bits of information so that it becomes easier to remember. Only one thing shows up at a time. (mention the 31.7 gallons of water for OJ, and the list above that gives a breakdown for that section). SO, not only does this infographic make the information specific to the user, it presents it slowly so the user doesn’t get overwhelmed. I don’t have a screen to show it, but the end of this is nice because it has an open invitation to learn more. The slide is very simple, so it’s not overwhelming, which I think is great because it gives the user a chance to process what (s)he’s just experienced. That’s how information gets converted to long-term memory and what Shedroff calls memory.

The Not a Drop to Drink infographic is a little different. It’s static, so obviously it shows all of the information at once. I’ll admit I had some trouble with this one because of the size—I thought it was a pain trying to scroll through it because it was extra work to compare data between some of the sections, and it wasn’t exactly a great fit for my tiny screen. As you can probably tell, I couldn’t even fit the thing on my slide. I think infographics like this are more suitable for print, BUT that said, the organization was very effective.

The designer of this infographic, Neil Spencer, organized this using Wurman’s “LATCH” Theory. I’m sure a lot of you referenced this in your papers, so I’m not going to waste time going over it. The important thing to note here is the different tiers of information. TIER 1: We’ve got the shell here, which contains the introduction and concluding paragraphs. This is like a little teaser that will immediately tell the reader if (s)he wants to sit through this. TIER 2: The second tier is a categorical tier. Here, “consumption” is a category set apart with a gray ribbon. The blue ribbons at the bottom of each section are similar, cueing us to move on to the next section. TIER 3: The supporting numerical data is next, organized by hierarchy. The sentence structure is in gray, while the pure data

PROJECT 3:

Dynamic Web: Building the Case for Liquid Layout

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Dynamic Web: Building the Case for Liquid Layout

Whitley R. Kemble March 11, 2013

Whitley R. Kemble Dynamic Web: Building the Case for Liquid Layout

When considering interactivity, one can only think of web design. Whether it’s for a web browser or a mobile device, you’re likely to experience high levels of interactivity across all platforms—you can attribute this to Haraway’s theories on the human cyborg.1 People simply gravitate toward the interactive. With all of this interactivity has come a smorgasbord of theory. The boom of mobile web only amplified what designers and programmers had to say on the subject.

You wouldn’t ignore your date, would you? Think of user experience as a relationship. The user would like to spend some time with the web, and their device (computer, smart phone, whatever) is the experience they share. When this experience is bad, when one doesn’t respond to the other effectively, the experience fails. Ethan Marcotte, a Boston-based web designer and author, makes a compelling case for interactivity in the form of responsive layout. According to Marcotte, a more fluid approach to web design is sorely needed, yet is highly underutilized by most designers. This problem is a matter of disconnect between the designer and the user. Fluid layouts, he explains in an article for A List Apart, “put control of our designs firmly in the hands of our users and their browsing habits. They’ve also utterly failed to seize the imagination of web designers.”2 I myself have a tendency to code in this way because it allows a certain sense of control over how the site is experienced. Let me rephrase that—it allows a certain sense of control over how I believe the site ought to be experienced. While perfectly lovely on certain browsers in certain environments, the lack of flexibility in the site’s structure has also been a major shortfall. From a user’s point of view the site, and by extension the designer/myself, lacks consideration and versatility. As with any piece of information, when it fails to meet the needs of the viewer, it fails as a whole. This is the ugly truth Marcotte was forced to accept when a client requested a fluid site. Prior to his “interactive enlightenment” Marcotte designed the way many of us do, using a fixed site design. “As almost all of the grid-based designs I could list off at that time were rigidly fixed-width, I was left with a prickly question: how do you create a fluid grid? As it turns out, it’s simply a matter of context. Faced with an insurmountable problem, I did what I do best: avoid it altogether. Temporarily putting aside the question of how to get a grid to behave in a non-fixed layout, I coded the stuff I knew.”3 As most designers would argue, good design comes primarily from a mastery of its principles. Marcotte began to apply what he knew about typography and the elements of a page in a way that was adaptable. The result was a multitude of sites driven by concept and

Whitley R. Kemble Dynamic Web: Building the Case for Liquid Layout

usability rather than style. His design successfully served the client and the user, while also challenging him to evolve and experiment as a designer. He’s since written several books on the subject, encouraging and instructing developers everywhere to take advantage of the dynamic grid for both web and mobile media.

Problems of Usability: It’s Not You, It’s Me In our relationship analogy, dysfunction between a design and a platform creates tension for the user. As designers it’s selfish to demand doing things our way all the time. We’ve got to meet the user at least half way, or they’re going to lose interest. So how does all of this relate back to interaction? It’s all about the user experience, baby. Jeff Johnson of UI Wizards, Inc. in San Francisco devotes a great deal of his research to examining responsiveness. Consider mobile apps, retina displays, social media, etc. As demonstrated in “A Cyborg Manifesto”, people continue to integrate technology into every aspect of their lives, making interaction design and the user experience ever more critical to a design’s process. In an essay published by The Journal of Usability Studies, Johnson argues that, despite the progress we’ve made, usability is getting worse: “Today, just about every product—e.g., watches, cameras, telephones,

microwave ovens, PDAs, GPS units, cars, music players, even toasters—has one or more computers inside it…While knowledge of good interaction design and usability engineering principles has definitely grown and spread over the past several decades, we daresay that the number of companies and organizations producing poor interactive products and services due to sheer ignorance is larger now than three decades ago… Few consider the interaction that people have with technology as a subject matter requiring experience and expertise in its own right. Fewer make interaction the focus of their design efforts. Therefore, no matter how advanced the fields of human-computer interaction, interaction design, and usability become, that knowledge does not get to those who need it to make their products useful and usable. Instead, many product developers today consider the work of using technology to be a problem for the users, not a problem for the designers or their companies.”4 He further explains that merging our technologies has only complicated the matter. Case in point: smart phones, tablets, televisions with web capabilities, and the like. If a user is to move smoothly from one medium to the next, fluid design is an absolute must. Foundations: M obile First

Whitley R. Kemble Dynamic Web: Building the Case for Liquid Layout

Luke Wroblewski, a colleague of Marcotte and author of Mobile First, reiterates the virtues of responsive website design. “As mobile devices have continued to evolve and spread,” he explains, “so has the process of designing and developing Web sites and services that work across a diverse range of devices.”5 His opinion is a little more realistic, however, as he points out its problems and limitations. While a responsive site design essentially eliminates the extra step of designing a mobile version of a site, he points out that there are several technical problems that can be a major setback in usability. “It can be difficult to

optimize source order, media, third-party widgets, URL structure, and application design within a RWD solution,” he admits. This can translate into a slower, more turbulent experience for the user as some elements of a page adapt to the user’s device. For this reason, Wroblewski suggests designing for mobile devices first. Given current statistics by Morgan Stanley, I think this is wise. Conclusion: Nobody’s Perfect According to Morgan Stanley’s 2009 Mobile Internet Report, the shift toward mobile web usage is stronger than ever. In 2009, they estimated 1.6 billion internet users compared to 4.1 billion of wireless users. Their research indicates that the ratio of primarily-mobile users to primarily-web users will be four to one by 2015. “The Smartphone is becoming the PC…People will still turn to their PCs for serious productivity work, managing their digital libraries, and the like—but mobile devices are on their way to becoming the world’s dominant computing platform.”6 Responsive web design has it’s flaws—everything does, right? Like anything else, it’s hit or miss. Today’s user demands interactivity across multiple media, requiring designers to develop more adaptable sites. We can’t please everybody. There are many fish in the sea, and while there are many approaches, responsive design is a "catch” for most users.

Whitley R. Kemble Dynamic Web: Building the Case for Liquid Layout

W orks Cited Clark, Hazel and Brody, David. “A Cyborg Manifesto” by Donna Haraway, Design Studies: A Reader. (2009) Oxford: Berg Publishing. 2 Marcotte, Ethan. “Fluid Grids”, A List Apart. http://alistapart.com/article/fluidgrids. 3 Marcotte, Ethan. “Fluid Grids”, A List Apart. http://alistapart.com/article/fluidgrids. 4 Johnson, Jeff; Henderson, Austin. Journal of Usability Studies, Volume 7, Issue 3, May 2012, pp. 88 – 93. 5 Wroblewski, Luke. “Multi-Device Web Design: An Evolution”, Luke W. Ideation & Design: Writings, http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?1436. 6 Meeker, Mary, et. al. “The Mobile Internet Report”, p. 83. (2009) Morgan Stanley Research. Accessed via http://www.slideshare.net/tcrock08/the-mobile-internet-report-2746871 on March 8, 2013. 1

JEFF JOHNSON AND AUSTIN HENDERSON

design

Conceptual Models: Begin by Designing What to Design Suppose you are designing a software product, electronic appliance, or Web service. You’ve gathered functional requirements from Marketing and from prospective customers and users. You’ve done a taskanalysis and created user profiles. What’s your next step? For many designers, especially those new to userinterface design, the next step is to sketch the control panels and dialog boxes of their product or the pages of their Web service. Such initial sketches are usually highlevel and low-fidelity—showing only gross layout and organization. If you begin your design phase by sketching, we believe you’ve missed a step. Sketching amounts to starting to design how the system presents itself to users. It is better to start by designing what the system is to them. That is, by designing a conceptual model. Let’s consider examples of conceptual models.

Assume you are designing: a Web site. Is the site a) a collection of linked pages, or b) a hierarchy of pages with some crosslinks? ✱ breadcrumbs for Web site navigation. Do they show a) the history of pages you have gone through to arrive here, or b) the place of this page in the hierarchy of pages? ✱ support for discussion grouped around topics. Is the structure ✱

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Jeff Johnson UI Wizards, Inc.

a) a set of threaded lists, one for each subject, or b) a set of postings each with poten tially related subjects? ✱ an application for creating newsletters. Is a newsletter a) a list of items, or b) a set of pages each with layout of items? ✱ A platform for creating questionnaires. Is the questionnaire a) a linear list of questions, or b) a branching tree of questions?

What a Conceptual Model Is

These decisions matter. Depending on how you choose, users will think of things differently, the objects will be different, the operations users can do on them will be different, and how users work will be different. If you try to avoid choosing, to have it both ways (and, of course, most designs have more than two ways of going), users will get a confused understanding of the system and confused direction on how to think about their work. Not choosing is tempting, because these decisions are almost always difficult to make: Usually they involve tradeoffs between simplicity and power (tough call!). In addition, they always depend on what the user is doing, which means being clear about the users tasks. But in the end some sort of decision on the conceptual model will be made, even if only as a side-effect (often bent and uncertain) out of the rest of the design process. Tough decisions, but essential, as we see it. And better done right up front when it is not made even more difficult by being encumbered with lots of dependent details. Our position: Get the bone structure right, then flesh it out. By carefully crafting an explicit conceptual model focused squarely on the target taskdomain, and then, and only then, designing a user interface from that, the resulting product or service will be simpler, more coherent, and easier to learn. In contrast, if you jump straight into designing the user interface, you are much more likely to develop a product or service that seems arbitrary, incoherent, and overly complex, not to mention heavily laden 26

with computer-isms. (For an example, see Sidebar 1: A Web App Without A Task-Based Conceptual Model.) Designers with strong backgrounds in human-computer interaction and user-interface design are probably well aware of the value of conceptual models. However, our experience with our clients indicates that conceptual models of this sort are almost completely unknown outside of the HCI community, especially among Web designers and software programmers.

A conceptual model is a high-level description of how a system is organized and operates. It specifies and describes: the major design metaphors and analogies employed in the design, if any. ✱ the concepts the system exposes to users, including the task-domain dataobjects users create and manipulate, their attributes, and the operations that can be performed on them. ✱ the relationships between these concepts. ✱ the mappings between the concepts and the task-domain the system is designed to support. ✱

In using an interactive system (electronic appliance, software program, or Web service), reading its documentation, and talking with other people who use it, users construct a model in their minds of the system and how it works. This allows them to predict its behavior and generalize what they learn to new situations. If the designers take the trouble to design and refine a conceptual model for the system before they design a user interface for it, users will be able to more quickly “figure it out.” Furthermore, the model they “figure out” will be more like the one the designers intended. A conceptual model of an interactive system is therefore: ✱

an idealized view of the how the system works—the model designers hope users will internalize;

interactions...january + february 2002

the ontological structure of the system: the objects, their relationships, and control structures; ✱ the mechanism by which users accomplish the tasks the system is intended to support. ✱

For example, suppose you are designing an online library catalog. The conceptual model might include: metaphors and analogies: e.g., the information is organized as in a physical card-catalogue. ✱ concepts: e.g., item (with attributes: title, ISBN, status; with actions: checkout, check-in, reserve), subtypes of item (e.g., book, periodical issue, LP, video), periodical volume, user account (with attributes: name, items checked out), librarian; ✱ relationships: e.g., a book is one type of item, periodical volumes contain issues; ✱ mappings: e.g., each item in the system corresponds to a physical item in the library;

which model will be simplest! Task-Focused: The more direct the mapping between the system’s operation and the task-domain it serves, the greater the chances that the designers’ target conceptual model will be correctly reproduced and adopted by the users (Norman, 1986). For example: You are designing a software product for creating and managing organization charts. Is an organization chart

✱

a) a collection of boxes, box labels, box layout, connector lines, and attributes thereof, or b) a collection of organizations, subA W e b A p p W i t h o u t A Ta s k - B a s e d Conceptual Model A large database company has a Web site that its external consultants use to log hours worked. Is its user interface based on a task-focused conceptual model? You be the judge: ✶ To log a week’s worth of hours, consultants click on “Create Record.” Why “Create Record,” rather than, say “Log Hours” or “Log New Week”? Because the information is being stored in a database, so a new database record must be created in which to store the new data.

For an example of a conceptual model for a different task-domain, see Sidebar 2: Managing Checking Accounts: Objects, Attributes, Actions. Simple: A conceptual model should be as simple as possible while providing the required functionality. An important guideline for designing a conceptual model is: “Less is more.” If, for example, you’re designing a search facility for the Web, do your intended users really need full boolean search capability? If not—if a simpler search mechanism covers the user’s needs—don’t burden the design with the more complex capability. Similarly, if you’re designing a route-following application, is “turn NNE” needed, or only “turn right”1. And beware, simple ain’t simple: it often takes a lot of thinking (and testing) to deciding

✶ If a user succeeds in logging a week’s hours, the system displays the message: “Success: new row inserted.” Huh? Not only does this message seem unrelated to logging hours, it seems unrelated even to the software’s own term for the function: “Create Record.” ✶ If a consultant forgets that she already logged her hours for a particular week and tries to log the same week again, the system displays the error message: “ORA-00001: unique constraint (CLEATS.PA_REPORT_HEADERS_U!) violated,” informing the user that some internal software constraint has been violated rather than that, e.g., “Hours for that week have already been logged.” ✶ The function for changing one’s password accepts any character sequence as a new password, even though the Login function won’t accept non-numeric passwords. Thus, it’s possible to set your password to a string that the Login function flags as an entry error. You then cannot login.

1 If this example bothers you because it’s comparing apples and oranges—different ways of thinking about directions, then good! you are thinking about conceptual models.

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organizations, employees, and attributes thereof? Model “b” maps more directly to the users’ task-domain, and so will be easier for the users—who presumably already understand organizations—to master. In contrast, Model “a” focuses on the graphic appearance of an organization chart, rather than on its function. What a Conceptual Model Is Not

The conceptual model of an interactive system is not the user interface. It is not about how the software looks or how it feels. It does not mention keystrokes and mouse-actions, screen graphics and layout, commands, navigation schemes, dialog boxes, controls, data presentation, or error messages. It does not say whether the software is operated through a GUI on a personal computer or by voice-commands over a telephone. It describes only what people can do with the system and what concepts they need to understand to operate it. It refers only to task-domain objects, attributes, and actions. The conceptual model is not the users’ mental model of the system. Users’ mental models of systems are not accessible to designers in any objective sense. Designers should not waste time trying to determine what the users’ “mental models” of the system are (Nardi, 1993). Different users are likely to have different mental models of a given interactive system anyway. Conceptual models are more usefully thought of as a design-tool—a way for designers to straighten out their thinking before they start laying out widgets. It is the designers’ responsibility to devise a conceptual model that makes sense to users based on users’ understanding of the task domain. In other words, a conceptual model may be the basis for users’ mental models of the system, but that is not its primary purpose. The conceptual models are not use cases

(also known as task-level scenarios). Use cases are stories about the domain tasks that users will have to carry out in their work. They are supposed to be expressed in a system-neutral way, so as not to specify the design of the system. Use cases emerge from study and analysis of the task domain—through interviews, ethnographies, focus groups, contextual inquiry, and other methods. They can either be input to the design of the conceptual model or they can emerge from it; therefore, they are often included in documents about conceptual models. However, a set of use cases is not a conceptual model: use cases focus on tasks; the conceptual model focuses on the system. Finally, a conceptual model is not an implementation architecture. An implementation architecture contains concepts—objects, attributes, actions, and control structures— that are required to implement the system. Some of these concepts in the implementation architecture may correspond to concepts in the conceptual model (e.g., a BankAccount class vs. the concept of a bank account), but if so, one is a technical object while the other is an abstract construct. Of course, an implementation architecture will also include implementation objects that are of no concern to users (e.g., streams to the file system), which should have no place in the conceptual model2. Object/Actions Analysis

An important component of a conceptual model is an Objects/Actions analysis: an enumeration of all the concepts in the model—all the user-understood objects in the system, user-understood attributes of those objects, and the actions that users can perform on each of those objects (Johnson et. al., 1989; Card, 1996). The Objects/Actions analysis, therefore, is a declaration of the concepts that are exposed to users. Follow this rule: “If it isn’t in the conceptual model, the system should not require users to be aware of it.”

2 Sometimes this distinction is made by saying that only “user-visible” objects and relations should be in the concepts of the conceptual model. However, this can be confusing, because it tends to direct our thinking toward presentations—how things look—which as we have said is the subject matter of the interface, not the conceptual model. We find “user-understandable” to be a safer term as it directs attention to the users’ understanding independent of how things look.

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Because computer-based systems often provide new capabilities, concepts not found in the task domain—especially a pre-computerized one—often creep into the conceptual model. For example, hard-copy documents in a physical filing system can only be organized one way, but files in an electronic document system can easily be organized in multiple ways simultaneously. However, each new concept comes at a high cost, for two reasons: It adds a concept that users who knows the task domain will not recognize and therefore must learn. ✱ It potentially interacts with every other concept in the system. As concepts are added to a system, the complexity of the system rises not linearly, but exponentially! ✱

Therefore, additional concepts should be strongly resisted, and admitted into the conceptual design only when they provide high benefit and their cost can be minimized through good user-interface design (see the discussion of Quicken™ in Sidebar 2: Managing Checking Accounts: Objects, Attributes, Actions). Remember: Less is more! Relationships Between Concepts

Enumerating the objects and actions of the task-domain allows designers to notice actions that are shared among objects. Designers can then use the same user interface for actions across a variety of objects. For example, consider a drawing application that allows users to manipulate both rectangles and ellipses. If creation works the same way for both types of objects, when a user knows how to create a rectangle and wants to create an oval, they already know how to do it. Similarly, if users can constrain rectangles to be squares they should also be able to constrain ellipses to be circles. This makes for a conceptual model that has fewer distinct concepts, is simpler and more coherent, and is more easily mastered. If objects in a task-domain share actions, they can probably be organized in a specialization or type hierarchy, in which certain con-

ceptual objects are specializations of others. If so, making that hierarchy explicit in the conceptual model may help users comprehend it more easily. While only programmers understand object-oriented analysis, most users can understand the idea of specialization. For example, a checking account is a type of bank account, and a book is one type of product or item a store might sell. Depending on the application, objects may also be related by a containment hierarchy, in which some objects can contain other objects. For example, an email folder contains email messages, and an organization can contain employees. Finally, concepts in a task-domain are related to each other in importance. Some concepts are encountered by users more frequently than others. For example, closing a checking account is an infrequent operation compared to, say, entering a transaction into an account. The relative importance can be used to focus the design: It is more important to make frequent operations easy, even at the expense of less frequent ones. From Conceptual Model to Completed Project

Developing a conceptual model as the first design step provides several benefits in later steps: Lexicon. Once the development team assigns names to the objects, actions, and attributes enumerated in the conceptual model, they have a lexicon of terms to be used in the application and its documentation. As the interface is developed, the software coded, and the documentation written, the lexicon can be consulted to ensure that terms are used consistently throughout. Although the entire team develops the lexicon, it is best managed and enforced by the team’s technical writer. This lexicon-manager—whoever gets the job—should constantly be on the lookout for inconsistencies in what things are called. For example: “Yo, Bill. We called this thing a ‘cell’ in this dialog box, but we call it a ‘container’ in this other dialog box. Our official name for them is ‘cells,’ so we need to fix that inconsistency.”

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Software developed without a lexicon often suffers from two common user interface “bloopers”: 1) multiple terms for a given concept, and 2) the same term for multiple distinct concepts (Johnson, 2000). It is also the lexicon-manager’s role to be on the lookout for user-visible concepts in the interface, software or documentation that aren’t in the lexicon, and to resist them. For example: “Hey Sue, I see that this window refers to a ‘hyper-connector.’ That isn’t in our conceptual model or lexicon. Is it just the wrong name for something we already have in our conceptual model, or is it something new? If it’s something new, can we get rid of it, or do we really, really need it?” Task scenarios or use-cases. A conceptual model allows the development team to write scenarios of the product in use, at a level of description that matches the target taskdomain. Such scenarios are often called usecases. They are useful in checking the soundness of the design. They can be used in

product documentation, in product functional reviews, and as scripts for usability tests. They also provide the basis for more detailed scenarios written at the level-of-detail of the eventual interface design. Once a conceptual model has been crafted, one can write use-cases or task-scenarios depicting people using the application, using only terminology from the conceptual model. In the case of the checkbook application, for example, it should be possible to write scenarios such as: John uses the program to check his checking account balance. He then deposits a check in his account and transfers funds into the account from his savings account.

Note that this scenario refers to taskdomain objects and actions only, not to specifics of any user interface. The scenario does not say whether John is interacting with

Managing Checking Accounts: Objects, Attributes, Actions If we were designing software for the task-domain of managing checking accounts, the object/actions analysis would, if properly task-based, include objects like transaction, check, and account. It would exclude non-taskrelated objects like buffer, dialog box, mode, database, table, and string. Regarding attributes, it would make sense in a task-based conceptual model for checks to have a name, a number, and a date; for accounts to have an owner and a balance; and for transactions to have an amount and a date. However, a conceptual model in which transactions had a byte-size or an export encoding as user-visible attributes would not be task-focused and would detract from the learnability and usability of the software, no matter how much effort went into designing the user interface. Finally, a task-based conceptual model would include actions like writing and voiding checks, depositing and withdrawing funds, and balancing accounts, while excluding non-task-related actions like clicking buttons, loading databases, editing table rows, flushing buffers, and switching modes. A checking account management application probably has to support recurring transactions, such as paying the electric bill each month. Therefore, it may seem necessary to include objects like transaction templates and actions for defining and managing templates. But consider how repeating transactions are handled in Quicken™, a checkbook management product from Intuit. Quicken’s designers recognized that entering recurring transactions should be very easy. The designers could have fulfilled this need by including an explicit template-management facility, with commands like “Define Template” and “Use Template.” Wisely, they didn’t do that. It would have added greatly to Quicken’s overall complexity. Instead, they allowed users to simply record a transaction as if it were a one-time event, then tell Quicken they want to reuse it. Quicken creates a template from the transaction (based on domain-specific rules) and puts it into a list. Users simply click on a listed transaction to reuse it. In this way, the designers of Quicken added the functionality of transaction templates without the excess conceptual baggage that many software applications that offer templates have.

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a GUI on a personal computer or a voice-controlled interface over a telephone. User-interface. A conceptual model gives the designer a clear target for what the interface has to deliver to the user: The look and feel of the objects and actions have to be created, the relationships embodied in the design. The conceptual model then offers the basis for tests of how well the user interface works: Can the users manipulate the objects through their representations as the designer intended. (Note: It is tempting to think that the user can tell you about the conceptual model of the system that they have formed in these tests. Resist it! That is setting the bar way too high, and for no reason. It is not at all necessary for the successful use of most systems for users either to have the conceptual model “right,” or to be able to talk clearly about it. Doing does not require talking!) The user interface design translates the abstract concepts of the conceptual model into concrete presentations, controls, and user-actions. The user interface should be designed after the conceptual model has been designed. Task-scenarios can then be rewritten at the level of the user-interface design, for example: John double-clicks on the icon for his account to open it. A separate window opens showing the current balance. He then clicks in the blank entry field below the last recorded entry and enters the name and amount of a check he recently received.

Implementation. Readers who are programmers will have noticed the similarity between the object/action analysis described here and the object-oriented analysis that is a common early step in software engineering. Although object/action analysis is restricted to user-understood concepts while object-oriented analysis is not, having done an object/actions analysis provides a first cut at the object-oriented analysis. Therefore, developing a conceptual model is not a simple added cost for a project; it produces outputs that save costs in the software development stage.

Documentation. A conceptual model provides the documentation team with the material that they will have to provide to the user to help with learning the system (help material, documentation). A clearly defined conceptual model is a good place to start, and should be coupled at all points with the descriptions of tasks and interface actions. Design process. Because almost everyone on the development team is orienting to the conceptual model, the conceptual model can also be a central coordination point for members of the team as they design and develop the system. The centrality of the conceptual model and its potential role in orchestrating the design process has one very strong implication for design activities and their relationship with the conceptual model: Unilateral additions of concepts to the conceptual model by any team member is not allowed. For example, if a programmer thinks a new concept needs to be added to the software, she must first persuade the team to add the concept to the conceptual model; only then should it appear in the software. Or again, if a documenter finds that they have to introduce an additional concept to explain the system, that change must be reflected first in the conceptual model (with the whole team’s agreement), and then it will appear in the documentation. The process will usually not be linear. As design proceeds from conceptual model to user interface to implementation, it is most likely that these downstream designs will reveal problems in the conceptual model. (It is tough to get it right the first, or even the fifth time!) Early usability testing can, and should, be designed to accelerate this process. Low fidelity, quick prototypes can be focused on the important parts of, and questions in, the conceptual model. Lightweight usability testing can thus evaluate the conceptual model as well as the UI design. If testing exposes problems in the conceptual model, go back and change it. Resist the temptation to treat the conceptual model as “dead” after an initial UI has been designed from it. If you don’t keep the conceptual

interactions...january + february 2002

DESIGN COLUMN EDITORS Kate Ehrlich Viant 89 South St, 2nd Floor Boston MA 02111 (617) 531-3700 kehrlich@viant.com Austin Henderson Rivendel Consulting & Design, Inc. P.O. Box 334 8115 La Honda Rd. (for courier services) La Honda, CA 94020 USA +1-650-747-9201 fax: +1-650-747-0467 henderson@rivcons.com www.rivcons.com

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model current as you improve the design, you will regret it in the end, when you have no single coherent high-level description on which to base user documentation, training, or later system enhancements. Of course, changing the conceptual model is painful: it affects the user interface, the documentation, and the implementation. The entire team is affected. But the conceptual model is the single most important part of your design. Therefore, it pays to make it as simple and task-oriented as you can, then do whatever you need to do to reconcile the rest of the design with it. Otherwise, your poor users will have little chance of understanding the user interface, because it will be based on a muddled conceptual model.

References 1. Card, S. “Pioneers and Settlers: Methods Used in Successful User Interface Design”, in M. Rudisill, C. Lewis, P. Polson, T. McKay (eds.), Human-Computer Interface Design: Success Cases, Emerging Methods, Real-

it further (task scenarios, evaluation), building on it (user interface, lexicon, implementation, documentation, evaluation). Because the conceptual model is so central, it is important to ensure that everyone agrees on it. In addition, because changes that affect the conceptual model affect everyone, all changes must be made jointly. The conceptual model is the central point of discussion and site of debate. So at the outset, and throughout, let the sketching follow the modeling. Before you design, design what you are designing: Design a conceptual model.

Conclusion

World Context, Morgan Kaufmann, 1996.

Good user interfaces start with clean, simple, task-oriented conceptual models. The conceptual model is the bones of the design. One nice thing about this is that the conceptual model is much smaller than the whole design. It is something that can be held in mind and worked on. Get the conceptual model in hand before adding all the complexity of everything else. Once you have the conceptual design, all the other design and implementation activities can and should be grounded in it, feeding

2. Johnson, J., Roberts, T., et. al. “The Xerox Star: A Retrospective”, IEEE Computer, September. Johnson, J. (2000). GUI Bloopers: Don’ts and Dos for Software Developers and Web Designers, Morgan Kaufmann, 1989. 3. Nardi, B. and Zarmer, C. Beyond models and metaphors: Visual formalisms in user interface design. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing 4, 5-33. (1993) 4. Norman, D.A. “Cognitive Engineering,” in D. Norman and S.W. Draper (eds.), User-Centered System Design, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1986.

interactions...january + february 2002

IMAGERY: Include image of Marco7e, as well as The Golden Grid (created by sean goresht or ﬁnnish joni korpi, inspired by marco7e’s work)

Downing, John. The SAGE Handbook of Media Studies, p. 147-‐48. (2004) London: Sage PublicaUons, Ltd.

My paper focuses on dynamic or responsive web layout, which basically means the layout adapts to the device it’s being viewed on. Ethan Marco7e wrote a book on Responsive Web Design. According to Marco7e, responsive web layouts are avoided by most designers because they require a different perspecUve on what makes a grid a grid, as well as forcing them to relinquish some of the control. He doesn’t come out and say it, but he hints at narcissism. *a more fluid approach to web design is sorely needed, yet is highly underuUlized by most designers. This problem is a ma7er of disconnect between the designer and the user *responsive layouts “put control of our designs firmly in the hands of our users and their browsing habits. They’ve also u7erly failed to seize the imaginaUon of web designers.” Marco7e, Ethan. “Fluid Grids”, A List Apart.

You can kind of see here how a responsive layout might appear across diﬀerent media—the iPad and the cell phone show the same screen, but the text and the graphic have responded to the devices so the text doesn’t become ridiculously small. PHOTO: h7p://www.abookapart.com/products/responsive-‐web-‐design

SO, As you can imagine, this type of design really started to gain favor with designers as the web “got smarter”. I just wanted to share this really quickly. The Golden Grid System is a resource available to help designers think “responsively”. For some it’s kind of a Holy Grail showing them how to think outside the browser. Golden Grid: h7p://v5.staUc.jasonsantamaria.com/i/post/golden-‐grid-‐system/ golden-‐grid-‐system-‐1.png

Luke Wroblewski, another designer, designs responsively, but he actually urges designers to develop for mobile first. That’s actually the Utle of his book, so there you go. He’s done work for Twi7er, Yahoo, and eBay. You can see Luke here, meditaUng amongst his gadgets. His main argument for designing for mobile media first is that big design creates big problems in a small frame—think about a photo-‐heavy site with lots of detailed graphics. This can translate into a slower, more turbulent experience for the user as some elements of a page adapt to the user’s device. Morgan Stanley Research esUmates that in the next year or two mobile devices will overtake computers as the primary tools for internet access. So, while I think tradiUonal web is definitely important, this guy has a point. PHOTO: h7p://bradfrostweb.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2012/03/luke1-‐650x487.jpg

Basically there isn’t a right or wrong answer to layout. The main thing to remember is that your design/layout aﬀects how your user interacts with your site. If children are your primary users, you probably won’t have to worry about designing for an i7y bi7y phone. If you’re working on a news site, you’ll probably need to plan for everything. Maybe that means a responsive layout that works everywhere, or maybe it’s going to call for a separate concept for mobile. Don’t be a jerk, and deﬁnitely don’t do this to your user. If they don’t have a good experience with your design, they’re likely to go elsewhere.

PROJECT 4:

Stop, Look, Listen: Navigating with Acoustic Wayfinding

141

I know the assignment was to analyze the role of visual cues in wayfinding, but I thought it was important to take a look at other ways of wayfinding and wayshowing, specifically using acous<cs.

We all know what wayfinding and wayshowing are, so the concept of acous<c wayfinding shouldn’t be too difficult. Acous<c way-‐finding u<lizes auditory cues to help a person navigate a space. This can be used in conjunc<on with visual way-‐finding methods, or it can be used on its own. The important thing is, it’s all based on sound. (Na<onal Federa<on of the Blind, hIps://nL.org/factsaboutblindnessintheus) I pulled this quote from an ar<cle about San Francisco-‐based architect Chris Downey. Downey lost his vision a few years ago, so he’s had to adapt in order to keep working. He s<ll designs the actual layouts of the building, but rather than focusing on the visual aspects he’s designing the experience of a space. He uses things like textures and sounds to help develop a sense of naviga<on. These features of a space are important to everyone, but they’re especially important if you consider more than 25 million Americans are blind or visually impaired. *Quote from The Atlan<c’s “Design Within Reach”, hIp:// www.theatlan<c.com/magazine/archive/2010/10/design-‐within-‐reach/ 308220/.

Soundwalking is one way acous<c wayfinding is used. Although the idea is a liIle abstract, it usually involves one or mul<ple people exploring a space with no visual input whatsoever. They o_en make nota<ons or symbols based on the type of sounds, the volume, the intensity, etc. This informa<on is then used to create a sound map which can then be used by someone else to interpret and experience the space. This has been used in urban development and transporta<on spaces. My first example here uses pure quan<ta<ve data to show different sound inputs in a space. This is a sound map of San Francisco’s Tenderloin district. The second is a sound map of Jerusalem. You can see areas of high traffic or ac<vity in the darker areas of both, as well as overlapping sounds indica<ng the different types of ac<vity happening in these spaces. Quan<ta<ve Sound Map of San Francisco’s “Tenderloin”: hIp:// blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/06/ welcome_to_the_data_decade_its.php

Sound designer Franck Poisson from IRCAM worked with several colleagues to test acous<c wayfinding in Montparnasse Sta<on in Paris. A lot of passengers were having trouble naviga<ng the sta<on due to a lack of division and clarity in some of the visual elements. As a result, they were missing entrances to some of the moving walkways and having difficulty confirming they were following the correct pathways to their terminals. Many also expressed difficulty with the <meline—not knowing the distance or how long they had to travel to their terminal. PHOTO: Montparnasse Train Sta<on, hIp://www.pe<teceinture.org/IMG/jpg/ aIente_gare_du_nord_1.jpg

The group installed several mo<on-‐ac<vated speakers and developed several sound cues, which they referred to as “earcons” /sound icons, to help clarify the route. This is similar to the symbols we see in tradi<onal wayﬁnding. The ﬁrst space they had to guide passengers through was Vaugirard Hall (pictured). They used a call-‐response sound pair to help orient passengers to the entrances of the walkways. They call this sound a beacon.

They also u<lized conﬁrma<on sounds to give the passengers feedback along the progression of their journey. These sounds consisted of four tones that would respond to the diﬀerent beacon sounds on the route. So here we get a sense of heirarchy and repe<<on.

Finally, they sought to use sounds to indicate the <meline. These sounds consisted of several tones that would ascend at the beginning of the walkways and descend at the ends. The number of tones would change in proximity to the terminal, which the designers intended to indicate how much of the trip was le_. This part of their wayﬁnding experiment was less successful in indica<ng a sense of <me, but ul<mately s<ll helped the passengers along the route. PHOTO: hIp://parisbytrain.com/tag/montparnasse-‐metro/

These are just a few of the sound sequences they plan to test out in the future. It should be noted that acous<c wayﬁnding very similar to the train sta<on in Paris is being u<lized in Tokyo, so it’s something that will likely grow more common in the future.

***All un-‐sourced images and informa<on about acous<c wayﬁnding at

Montparnasse Sta<on is from “The design and evalua<on of an auditory way-‐ﬁnding system in a train sta<on” by Julien Tardieu, Patrick Susini, Franck Poisson, Hiroshi Kawakami, and Stephen McAdams. This is in the 70th edi<on of Elsevier Journal, “Applied Acous<cs” (pp. 1183-‐1193), published in 2009.

Some examples of places you would use acous<c way-‐finding include haunted houses, hiking, pedestrian walkways, theme parks, even a simple hallway. If you’re trying to locate a new class, for example, you might rely on sound to find a room full of talka<ve students. PHOTO SOURCES: Haunted House: hIp://www.insideflorida.com/event/howl-‐o-‐scream-‐at-‐ busch-‐gardens/ Hiker: hIp://www.insideoutsidemag.com/issues/2007/July_August/ GALLERY_Escalante_River_Hike/images/GALLERY%20Escalante%20River %20Hike.jpg Times Square: hIp://shedexpedi<on.com/wp-‐content/uploads/2012/09/ <mes-‐square-‐day.jpg Disney Land: hIp://todaytravel.today.com/_news/2012/08/31/13282116-‐ worlds-‐most-‐visited-‐theme-‐parks?lite Hallway: hIp://images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/31800000/MacKenzie-‐ High-‐School-‐Hallway-‐amber-‐the-‐penguin-‐31817408-‐550-‐366.jpg

PLEA2006 - The 23 Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006

The "soundwalk" as an operational component for urban design Flora Venot and Catherine Sémidor GRECAU Bordeaux, Ecole nationale supérieure d’architecture et de Paysage de Bordeaux, Talence, France ABSTRACT: In a previous paper, based on the case study of Place Paul Doumer, the hypothesis that urban soundscape contributes to the environmental quality of urban areas in the same way as microclimatic data does, was proposed. This paper now deals with the way in which soundscape analysis data could be used in urban design strategy. The concept of soundscape was developed in order to study the acoustic dimension of a site. It supplements traditional acoustic measurements, which only give a quantitative point of view; qualitative data is extracted from binaural audio recordings. The recordings were carried out several times per day for one week and are representative of sound ambiences on urban routes. The data are presented here in the form of acoustic images which correspond to time, frequency and sound level representation of the soundscape. As part of Silence Search Project, we will highlight the relationship between a site’s soundscape, use and urban components. The aim of this study is to propose operational solutions to the urban designer so that he/she is able to carry out modifications in the city accordingly. Keywords: urban design, comfort, soundscape

1. INTRODUCTION In a previous study performed on Paul Doumer Square [1], the hypothesis that soundscape data are as important as microclimatic data [2] for public space users, was proposed. In this new study the relationship between the morphology of public spaces and the soundscape is made explicit. The aim is to improve the tools to be used by the urban-planners in charge of rehabilitating existing public spaces. These tools will enable them to take the acoustic dimension of the site into account and to anticipate modifications accordingly. The soundwalk method was chosen to provide soundscape data. It has to be performed before any rehabilitation, in order to be representative of the original environment of a site. On one hand, as he/she has access to data from the soundwalk binaural recordings, plus architectural information, in addition to the aforementioned tools , the urban-planner will be able to measure the impact of modifications and understand how his/her choices might alter the soundscape.

2. METHODOLOGY 2.1 The soundwalk The concept of soundscape, proposed by R.M. Schafer [3], enables us to describe acoustic ambience in an overall way, without any judgment on what is heard. Thanks to that, all urban noises contribute to the image of the city and to appropriation by its users. In fact, only noises which provoke some discomfort because of their intensity or because they blur the

perception of the most representative sounds of the city, have to be limited. Listening to a city is trying to seize a mental representation, which is essential for the comfort of citydwellers and inevitably, it has to be taken into account by decision-makers and urban planners alike. The chief difficulty on the evaluation and the analysis of the urban soundscape lies in the multiplicity of sources to be characterized and in the appreciation of their predominance. More especially, the nature of the urban fabric, the morphology of the public spaces, the texture of façade materials, for example, have great influence on the diffusion of sounds and thus on the auditory impression they produce. As it belongs to a school of architecture and landscape, the GRECAU research team is particularly interested in the relationship between urban space and generated ambiences. As a consequence, we have developed research methodology which can highlight them. The introductory observations were inspired by the approach proposed by K. Lynch [4]. The interest induced by phonography is that every sound event can be preserved in a way which enables us to identify it. This is in contrast with the classical measurement of the spectrum which only keeps track of the A Equivalent Sound Level or others metrics like L10, L50, L90,... The recordings are performed with a binaural microphone system (equivalent to a "dummy head") loaded by a walker and plugged to a DAT recorder. Thanks to the calibration of the tape it is possible to investigate each track in the laboratory afterwards. Sorting binaural digital audio recordings enables us to highlight well-differentiated urban forms: the simi-

PLEA2006 - The 23 Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006

larity of the 2 tracks means an almost closed space like a canyon street, for example. Great differences between the 2 tracks characterize an open space, like a big square, for instance.[5]. Finally, because these recordings are performed at the soundwalker´s height, and not at standard height (height of 5m and 2m away from the facade), the obtained signals are like the ones perceived by pedestrians. This fact gives us relevant, real and significant information which can be added to the data obtained from the acoustic measurements. The combination of the two can be used while performing the interviews during which people listen to recorded sounds in order to know the opinion they have about their sound environment. The resulting data can be analyzed either in the form of a 3D spectrum or in the form of an "acoustic image". This 2D representation corresponds to the evolution of the Equivalent Sound Level versus frequency during the soundwalk time, and gives, as such, a visual translation of the auditory impression. Every image, with key (Fig. 1), which attributes a colour (or a grey shade) to every range of Sound Pressure Level (SPL) according to a scale, which goes from 10 dB to 10 dB, is related to its evolution versus time.

Descending methodology: Series of complementary categories are defined. They are detailed using criteria and sub-criteria so as to obtain elements which can be assessed (Fig. 3).

Figure 3: Descending methodology In general, both methodologies are used in an iterative way. A list of everything that seems to be in relation can be highlighted: topics or categories and measurable or quantifiable parameters at the same time. So, the elements in topics or families are organised so that every identified parameter finds one position only. Now, certain parameters can be reorganised so that they relate to just one topic. Otherwise the topic series which seem to not be complementary can be taken into consideration (Fig. 4).

Figure 1: Key explaining the colours corresponding to SPL range in dB Thus, the soundwalk methodology is accessible to users, urban-planners, and city decision-makers. It also keeps track of the soundscapes in relation to the heritage of the city.. 2.2 Analysis grid The use of a grid in order to structure thinking methodology has already been tested in a former study [6]. It enables us to integrate varied and very different data (qualitative, quantitative, intuitive…) organising it without necessarily ranking it. A grid can be developed by using either ascending or descending methodology: Ascending methodology: The analysis grid is based upon the overall amount of measurable or quantifiable data which seems to have a relation with what we want to highlight. Afterwards, these data are grouped into categories or topics and subtopics (Fig. 2).

Figure 2: Ascending methodology

Figure 4: Ascending-descending combined methodology. We are interested in the data which highlights the relationship between a site's soundscape and its morphology. Morphology is regarded as the element the urban-planner will modify. The soundscape will be identified using soundwalk methodology and morphology, using traditional space representation techniques (plans, façades, elevations, side views). While modifying the site’s morphology, the urbanplanner will also change the locations of different activities, therefore the sound sources will also be changed. The elements related to these activities must also be integrated in the grid. Two categories have been defined so far, the site’s morphology and the site’s sound source layout. Actually, it is the combination of these two families which enables us to define the soundscape as such: - Morphology of the hollow volume constituting the site’s space. - Use of noise sources Secondly, we decided to add a topic which includes elements which do not involve ‘use’ but which

PLEA2006 - The 23 Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006

belong to the soundscape. Each topic is then detailed into criteria defined by measurable parameters. Morphology constituting the public space under study: Ground. Buildings. Plants and trees. Urban furniture.

3.1 Description of the site The Roi Baudouin Park stretches over a large area in the North West part of the city and is bordered by a railway-line. It is split into 3 sections by busy roads. The section chosen for the study is located close to a dual carriage-way/two-lane road (Fig.5).

Activities present (noise sources): Means of transport. Human activities. Mechanical activities. Other elements (noise sources): Water Air Animals Regarding the category :"Means of transport."; even though it could be a part of either "human activities" or "mechanical activities", we chose to create a separate classification as transport constitutes an essential element of the Silence Project. The two other classifications are "human activities" and "mechanical activities" and not "human sources" and "mechanical sources" because in this study, not only acoustic parameters, but also spatial and temporal parameters have been taken into account 2.3 Complementary use of the soundwalk and the grid. The soundwalk will be used as a part of the aural memory in the same way photographs will be used as a part of the visual memory. The data obtained after the soundwalk study will enrich the analysis of the site in the same way as architectural information will give elements about the siteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s morphology. The soundwalk will then enable us to have the quantitative and qualitative data concerning the site's acoustic aspects. It will also give us some information about some of the parameters included in the grid.

Figure 5: Map of the Roi Baudouin Park (Section II) and detailed site. In spite of a planted earth mound (berm), as a noise barrier, IBGE, Brussels-Capital, the institution which manages all the city parks in Brussels, has noted a bad frequenting this part of section II. That is why IBGE has requested solutions from the team in order to improve the soundscape within the context of global planning of new parks. One of the other interesting features of this part of section II is the presence of a fountain (X in Fig 6) which does not work all year around. Soundwalks were carried out in the whole area of section II but only data from one part's recordings are presented here. They were conducted 3 times per day (in the morning, around noon and at the end of the afternoon) on 3 specific days in the week: Thursday, Friday and Saturday. During the soundwalks, the fountain never worked, whichever day it was. Two soundwalks (route A and route B) were performed at the same time (Fig 6 and 7), one on each side of the earth berm enabling us to know the impact of the mound on the soundscape. A

3. CASE STUDIES For the Silence research project, four European cities are in partnership, urban sites were put forward according to to the following criteria: - The site should either have been studied already, or should be part of a rehabilitation project . - The site should suffer from acoustic pollution caused by transport. - The site should be used by pedestrians. - Pedestrians will be able to stay there for a substantial length of time. - Quality of outside space and comfort of pedestrians should be important. The protocol described in the second paragraph was applied on the following four sites: - Barcelona, a section of the Rambla - Brussels, section II of the Roi Baudouin Park - Genoa, the historical city centre - Bristol, Queen square to the Centre. The case study presented here deals with some results from the Brussels soundwalks.

B 3

Figure 6: Soundwalks A and B A

Figure 7: View at the start of each route (A and B))

PLEA2006 - The 23 Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006

Soundwalk A

a Left

2 mn

4mn

2 mn

4mn

c 1

2 mn

4mn

Right

Morning

Noon

Afternoon

Left

c b

Right

c b

Soundwalk B

Figure 8: Thursday soundwalks left and right acoustic images 3.2 Comparison between soundwalks A and B For each soundwalk, the binaural recordings enable us to underline the masking effect of the walker's head in a high frequency range when the site is an open space: for example, see the black rectangular frames on the left and the right ears in soundwalk A (Fig 8). Moreover, each part of the route is clearly identified on the acoustic images of both soundwalks: from

the first edge of the berm (point 1), in front of it on the road side (point 2), at the second edge of the berm (point 3) and behind the berm on the park side (point 4) (Fig 6 and 8). The comparison of the binaural recordings from soundwalks A and B enables us to highlight the impact of the earth berm on the sound level. The efficiency of the noise barrier in a large medium frequency range is effective. The decrease in SPL is due

PLEA2006 - The 23 Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006

to the masking effect in the wavelength range, corresponding to the height of the berm. Because this height is not regular over the whole length of the berm, the efficiency varies when the walker is moving. The fact that walker B is smaller than walker A increases this effect, particularly in the high medium frequency range. So, one can conclude that increasing the height of the berm engenders better efficiency as a noise barrier in this frequency range and for the area behind the mound. The acoustic images enabling us to highlight the spectral signatures of recorded sound sources [7]. This masking effect can be verified for a lot of activities, human, mechanical or natural. For example, on the noon soundwalks A and B (Fig 8) the "a" marks correspond to a gust of wind in the area in front of the berm (road side) so the SPL is higher for walker B than for A at that moment. A little bit later during the same soundwalk the "b" mark refers to a van's siren on the road side. During the afternoon soundwalks, the "c" mark corresponds to the passing-by of a train from section III to section II. The SPL is always higher on the road side (route B) because the train is in direct view. At this moment, route A is partly hidden by buildings located between the park and the railway-line.

The buildings along the railway-line close to the site have an impact on the soundscape (Fig 9). Plants and trees Deciduous vegetation is present on the bem. This is an important fact because during the period of the soundwalks (April) there were no leaves on the trees and almost no plants on the mound (Fig 7). In summertime, (Fig 10) thick vegetation increases the efficiency in high the medium frequency range by absorbing sound. Urban furniture No relevant parameter in this case study, because there is no urban furniture on the site which could have an impact. Activities present (noise sources): Means of transport. Several means of transport. are audible: cars, buses, trucks, motorbikes, airplanes, trains and cyclists. Human activities On the site there are two entrances to the park which are used by a lot of pedestrians (adults and children). Mechanical activities The maintenance of green spaces is the main activity which has real influence on the soundscape. Other elements (noise sources)

4. APPLICATION OF THE GRID Only general comments about each grid topic are presented here. In a comprehensive study, each topic is detailed through relevant criteria and presented in single graphic documents.

Figure 10 : The fountain in summertime

Figure 9 : Different elements of the site Morphology constituting the public space under study: Ground Here the soil plays an important role due to the presence of the planted earth berm. The foot paths are paved (Fig 6). Buildings

Water The fountain situated at the foot of the berm is a very interesting feature of the site (Fig 10). Unfortunately, it was not working during the soundwalks and for that reason its lack of presence is a negative feature in the soundscape. Indeed, a previous study showed how the spectral signature of the falling water is determining factor[8]. Air Some gusts of wind are audible but only slightly. The direction, the intensity and the frequency of wind is related to the seasons and climatic conditions, that is why there is a need to perform soundwalks during other periods of the year. Animals Birds, and more particularly ducks and geese, are representative of the natural aspect of the site. Once again bird song depends on seasons and may represent only a temporary feature of the soundscape

PLEA2006 - The 23 Conference on Passive and Low Energy Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland, 6-8 September 2006

5. SUGGESTIONS FOR MODIFICATIONS The analysis of acoustic images and the data in the grid for improvement of the soundscape of this part of the park, enables us to propose the following solutions: 1 – Increase the height of the berm either by bringing more earth and/or changing the type of vegetation: evergreen rather the deciduous. 2 – Re- design the entrances to the park in order to filter sound in the low frequency range. The size of the zigzag must allow council vehicles only to access other road noises would be reduced 3 – We recommend the use of the existing fountain with powerful water jets, all year round.

6. CONCLUSION The study and analysis of the data obtained from the different cities, can be used as a means of validation for the methodology . If too many adaptations were necessary for it to be operational in every context, we would understand that it is not appropriate. However, if it seems adequate for these four, very different cities, it shows that this methodology could be validated as it has a wide enough reach. Because the recordings are provided in movement in spaces in which sound sources are also in movement, the data are not to be used for the auralisation of streetscapes. Likewise these recordings carried out in situ are characterized by the site's morphology and are not suitable for supplying simulation software. However, part of the data can be used by the cities to propose virtual visits of typical urban sites with pictures and sound, in CD form or on the city website. Those data could also be a patrimonial testimony of the former urban landscape and soundscape, after some urban redevelopment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The authors want to thank Ivan Ricoy, sound engineer, for his help during his training course given at GRECAU.

REFERENCES [1] C. Semidor The soundscape as a component of urban comfort: the case of Place Paul Doumer, Proc. nd 22 PLEA, Beirut, (2005), 673. [2] S. Reiter Proc. 21st PLEA, Eindhoven, (2004), 611. [3] R.M. Schafer The tuning of the world, A. Knopf ed, NY, 1976 [4] K. Lynch The image of the city, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1960 th [5] C. Semidor Proc. 20 PLEA, Santiago de Chile, (2003), E8. [6] F. Venot Master of Advanced Studies (MAS), Architecture and Sustainable Development, EPFL 2005

[7] F. Venot et C. Semidor, In which way can skatepark activity change urban soundscape? Euronoise, Tampere, (2006). [8] C. Semidor, Proc. 7e Congrès Français d'Acoustique – 30. Deutsche Jahrestagung für Akustik, Strasbourg, (2004).

Applied Acoustics 70 (2009) 1183–1193

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Acoustics journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apacoust

The design and evaluation of an auditory way-ﬁnding system in a train station Julien Tardieu a,b,*, Patrick Susini a, Franck Poisson b, Hiroshi Kawakami c, Stephen McAdams d a

STMS-IRCAM-CNRS, 1 Place Igor Stravinsky 75004 Paris, France SNCF – Direction de l’Innovation et de la Recherche, 45 rue de Londres 75008 Paris, France College of Art, Nihon University, 2-42-1, Asahigaoka, Nerima, 176-8515 Tokyo, Japan d CIRMMT, Schulich School of Music, McGill University, 555 Sherbrooke St. W., Montreal, Québec, Canada H3A 1E3 b c

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 9 January 2009 Received in revised form 7 April 2009 Accepted 8 April 2009 Available online 21 May 2009 Keywords: Sound signals Public spaces Train stations Soundscape Earcons Sound design

a b s t r a c t Previous studies have shown that auditory cues contribute to the identification of several components of a public space such as the volume, but also the type of activity to which the space is dedicated. This paper demonstrates that solutions to improve way-finding in a public place can be based on providing additional auditory information. A methodical approach in three phases is proposed and applied in the case of a train station. First, problems encountered by travellers in a train station are identified by way of an ergonomic study under real conditions with recruited travellers. The results reveal three kinds of problems: orientation errors, lack of confirmation of direction, and lack of information about the remaining distance to be covered. In the second phase, functional and environmental specifications were developed in order to create sound signals for each identified problem. A sound designer proposed several nonspeech sound signals based on two schemas: a pair of sounds for the orientation and confirmation functions, and a timeline sequence for the remaining distance. Finally, in the third phase, the sound signals were installed in the train station using an experimental broadcasting system and were evaluated in a second ergonomic study using the same method. The results show that the number of orientation errors decreased and that participants felt more confident during their walk. Sound signals for the orientation and confirmation functions were understood and used by the participants. However, the timeline sequence signalling remaining distance was not understood. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Public spaces such as train stations are complex environments, not only in terms of architecture (different types of spaces make up a train station), but also in terms of types of use, such as buying tickets, waiting, watching arrival/departure panels, etc. This complexity can be the source of problems encountered by travellers, such as orientation (e.g. finding a place) or navigation (e.g. reaching one point from another), especially when they are unfamiliar with this environment. This issue is commonly addressed through ergonomic approaches, i.e., an analysis of situated human activity in order to identify the way-finding problems and propose a way to resolve them [1]. Among all the factors that are responsible for way-finding problems, the use of signs has a considerable influence. For example, the work presented in [2] has shown that both textual and graphic signs can reduce the number of way-finding errors in the buildings of a university campus. While visual signs are largely used in public spaces and train stations, the main issue of this paper is to show that way-finding problems encountered by * Corresponding author. Address: STMS-IRCAM-CNRS, 1 Place Igor Stravinsky 75004 Paris, France. Tel.: +33 1 44784843. E-mail address: j1tardieu@gmail.com (J. Tardieu). 0003-682X/$ - see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.apacoust.2009.04.004

travellers in a train station can also be solved through the auditory modality (e.g. with a sound signalling system). In the case of visually impaired people, auditory displays have been reported to be very effective, e.g., with the use of auditory beacons to specify route waypoints in a GPS based navigation system [3], or short melodic patterns to indicate different important locations (crossings, end of stairs, way out, etc.) in a train station [4]. This paper will concern travellers with normal vision only, but the results may also be relevant for visually impaired people. In a previous study on the perception of soundscapes in train stations [5–7], it was shown that people have an auditory representation of the different spaces that make up a train station. This representation is mainly built around three types of sound information: sound sources, room effects and human activity. In other words, it appears that we use three types of information to recognize a speciﬁc place based on its soundscape. This work shows that sound information contributes to the perception of a place in terms of activity and space. Based on this result, we hypothesized that an appropriate new sound signal added to the soundscape to help travellers in a speciﬁc situation would be perceived and would thus be useful to them during their displacements within the station. This does not mean that any kind of sound information is useful, nor that a sound signal can be created in an arbitrary fashion.

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recorded on video camera by the experimenter. There is no exchange between the participant and the experimenter along the way. 2. Once the participant has ﬁnished his/her walk, an individual interview is performed in order to allow the participant to explain and describe his/her actions during a replay of the video.

Fig. 1. Diagram presenting the three main phases of the method proposed in this paper.

The question posed here concerns whether it is possible to improve a pathway in a train station using sound signals. Of course, one could say that for a rather noisy place such as a train station, other channels, such as touch or improved visual indicators, would be more appropriate, but the visual modality in such a context is already oversaturated more than the auditory modality, and touch is not obvious for transmitting information as travellers move continuously. We do not intend to impose a particular solution, but our goal is to propose a method for creating sound signals that will help travellers in a train station, i.e., that will solve the problems they encounter using the auditory channel. The method we present in this paper is divided into three main phases that are presented in Fig. 1. Phase 1 is the identification of problems encountered by travellers in a train station. An experiment was performed under real conditions with recruited travellers, according to ergonomic methods presented in previous work [8–12]. This phase is presented in Section 2. The second phase (presented in Section 3) is the creation of sound signals in order to resolve the problems identified previously. This phase is composed of three steps: (1) definition of functional specifications for the sounds, (2) creation of several proposals by a sound designer on the basis of these specifications, and (3) selection of the best proposal with a panel of listeners in the laboratory. The last phase of our method is an ergonomic evaluation of the sound signals in the real context of the train station. A sound signalling system was installed in the station and an experiment was performed using the same procedure as in Phase 1. This last phase is presented in Section 4, and conclusions are drawn in Section 5. 2. Identification of actual problems in a specific train station The goal of this first phase is to identify one or more problems encountered by the travellers in a train station. Then if the identified problems can be solved using the auditory channel, a sounddesign solution will be proposed (Section 3). 2.1. Method The method is based on an ergonomic study carried out under real conditions (i.e., in a Parisian train station) with travellers recruited for individual sessions. The experiment is divided into two steps: 1. The participant is given specific instructions at the beginning of the session [see Appendix A.1]. Then, they have to follow the instructions alone, and their walk through the train station is

This method is based on ergonomic principles introduced by Theureau [8,10,11] for the analysis of practical activities (everyday life activities, as well as skilled activities). Theureau’s approach was chosen because it was developed and applied with success in the specific case of identifying problems with a visual signalling system in a Parisian train station [9]. According to this author, a practical activity can be divided into two parts: a part that can be observed and a part that can be commented on. Therefore, the analysis of a practical activity should focus on these two components. In other words, the analysis will focus on what is significant for the actor (the person who performs a practical activity), i.e., on what the actor can show, describe and comment upon. This implies the use of an experimental setup that does not alter the activity of the actor or his/her description of it. Theureau therefore suggests the use of video and interviews. 2.2. The station 2.2.1. Choosing the station The experiment must be carried out in a real situation (here, a train station). Thus, a preliminary step is necessary to choose an appropriate situation. Interviews were performed with the managerial staff of the six Parisian train stations, who were asked to report the known problems encountered by travellers. The problems reported during those interviews were mainly related to way-finding difficulties, such as problems finding a platform, a ticket office or services provided in the station. Most of the managers did not give a precise example of those problems, except for Montparnasse Station, where they reported that travellers encountered problems when they had to reach Vaugirard hall, a distant part of the station that corresponds to lines 25–28 (see photo 1 in Fig. 2). In addition, they expressed great interest in having a better characterization of this problem in order to find a solution. For these reasons, we decided to apply our method in this train station, addressing the problem identified by the managers. 2.2.2. Description of the situation The Vaugirard hall entrance (photo 5) is located 300 m from the main part of the station, comprising lines 1–24. To reach this hall, it is necessary to walk along platform 24. Three moving walkways (see photos 2, 3 and 4 in Fig. 2) are available to get there more quickly. According to the information collected in the interviews with the station managers, the cause of the problem could be that travellers don’t see the first sign that indicates the location of lines 25–28 (photo 1). This sign is located at the beginning of platform 24, which is situated on the right side of the main platform. However, at first sight, this sign seems well placed, large enough and thus clearly visible from the main platform. Therefore, the experiment described below was performed to identify clearly the problems encountered by travellers that try to reach this part of the station. 2.3. Experimental protocol 2.3.1. Instructions At the beginning, the experimenter presented the experimental goals to the participant, in order to make him/her understand that only the faults of the train station were being evaluated, not himself or herself. According to [9], this instruction leads the

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Fig. 2. Photos taken along the path to Vaugirard hall, from the beginning of platform 24.

participant to have a more critical eye, which is very important for the experiment. Then the participant was given the following instruction: ‘‘You have to take the next train for Granville.1 You have an open ticket, so you do not know the exact schedule”. Once the participant reports having clearly understood the instruction, he/she has to reach the goal without the help of the experimenter (for complete instructions, see Appendix A.1). 2.3.2. Meeting point The meeting point is given at the subway exit, 15 min before the next train for Granville, but the participant does not yet know that. This meeting point is very important because it places the participant in a real situation of quick departure, each participant having 15 min to reach the goal. According to the station manager, this condition is more likely to create problems. 2.3.3. Video The participant’s entire walk was recorded on video by the experimenter, without interfering with the course of the experiment. A light, hand-held digital camera (Sony DCR-DVD306) was used in order to remain as discreet as possible. 2.3.4. Interview Once the participant reached the goal, i.e., once he/she was ready to board the train for Granville, the video recording stopped, and the participant was taken to a meeting room for an individual interview. The goal of this interview was to have the participant explain the walk in detail during a replay of the video. The participant and the experimenter watched the video, and the participant described his/her actions, problems that had been encountered, information that had been looked for, etc. This interview was conducted according to interviewing techniques proposed by [12]. These techniques are used to help the interviewee describe explicitly the actions in which he/she was engaged. In our experiment, two aspects of this interview technique were particularly useful:

Trains for Granville leave from Vaugirard hall.

1. To open the dialogue between the participant and the experimenter, in order to make the participant feel free to talk. This was achieved with the following introductory sentence: ‘‘What I need to know is how you completed your walk. If you agree, I am going to ask you some questions, in order to understand together what you have done.” 2. To restart the dialogue when the participant encounters difﬁculties explaining an action. For example, if a participant’s description of an action is too sketchy, the experimenter can repeat his/her last sentence and try to make them start the description again.

2.3.5. Participants The participants were selected according to two criteria: having a good experience in travelling by train, having no experience with this part of Montparnasse station (i.e., having no experience in taking a train leaving from lines 25–28 in the Vaugirard hall). No musical background was required. Ten participants, four men and six women between 26 and 49 years of age, were then recruited and paid 15 euros for the experiment. 2.4. Results In a ﬁrst phase, the results of each participant were analyzed separately. Each video was analyzed by reporting all the actions that were visible on the video (e.g. turning left, taking a stair, looking at a sign, etc.). Then each interview was transcribed and analyzed in order to identify the problems encountered by the participant. In a second phase, a synthesis of all the participants’ actions and problems was performed. This synthesis is presented in the next sections. 2.4.1. The steps Given the actions taken by the participants and the problems reported in the interviews (for example, hesitation, unexpected direction), six main steps have been deduced according to the equipment (the ﬁrst sign that indicates the location of lines 25– 28, the three moving walkways) and to the architectural transitions (Vaugirard hall entrance). These steps are: the main platform,

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Table 1 Main steps of the walk for each participant. Each column corresponds to one step. A cross means that the step was completed by the participant without any difﬁculty. Subject

Main steps Main platform

lst sign

lst moving walkway

2nd moving walkway

3rd moving walkway

Vaugirard entrance

On time arrival

FM AB CLC LD KP CI CB JA MAT MPH

X – – X X X X X X –

X X X X X X X X X X

X X X X – X X X X –

X – – X – X – X – –

X – X X X X X X – –

X X X X X X X X – –

X X X X X X X X X –

Total

the three moving walkways, the Vaugirard hall entrance and the on-time arrival. According to the description of the situation in Section 2.2.2, a participant’s performance was considered good when all the steps were completed without any difficulty, i.e., when the participant did not get lost on the main platform, took all the moving walkways, entered Vaugirard hall and arrived on time to take the train. Table 1 presents the performance of each participant for these six steps. This table shows that out of 10 participants, one did not enter Vaugirard hall and arrived too late to take the train (MPH), and another one did not enter the Vaugirard hall (MAT). In the interviews, all the participants reported a similar strategy: once they knew the line number of their train, they started to look for this line, i.e., they followed the sign that indicated ‘‘lines 25–28”. The next paragraphs describe the problems encountered at each step of the walk. 2.4.1.1. Main platform and first sign. The first column shows that three participants encountered problems on the main platform (i.e., the one that is perpendicular to lines 1–24). These participants did not understand that they had to walk in the direction of the right end of the main platform. The interviews revealed that this difficulty was due to an ambiguity in the division of the lines into suburban and main lines. This is not a problem that directly concerns the access to the Vaugirard hall. Column 2 of Table 1 shows that none of the participants had difficulty seeing the first sign indicating lines 25–28, contrary to what was presumed by the managers of Montparnasse Station (see Section 2.2). 2.4.1.2. The moving walkways. Columns 3 to 5 show that the moving walkways were not always taken. The two participants (KP and MPH), who did not take the first walkway, reported that the sign indicating lines 25–28 was not clearly visible when they arrived on platform 24. The six participants that did not take the second walkway reported that there was an ambiguity between two signs that indicated the direction for lines 25–28. These two signs are situated at two different positions. This ambiguity made them hesitate and not take the second moving walkway. In addition, the arrow drawn on the sign is not strictly located above the entrance of the second moving walkway (see photo 3 in Fig. 2). Finally, the three participants who did not take the third walkway explained that there was no sign (photo 4 in Fig. 2), so that nothing directed them to take it. 2.4.1.3. Vaugirard entrance. Column 6 shows that two of the 10 participants did not enter Vaugirard hall. In the interview, they explained that when arriving in front of the hall, there was no indication for lines 25–28 (photo 5 in Fig. 2). Indeed, the sign indicates ‘‘Gare Vaugirard–Montparnasse 3”. In addition, the sign col-

our is white, which is different from the blue2 used for all the signs indicating the direction for lines 25–28. This difference in colour created another ambiguity. 2.4.2. Negative judgement All the participants reported a lack of information during the walk along the three moving walkways until they arrived at the target line in Vaugirard hall. They explained this lack of information in two ways. First, they talked about a lack of confirmation that they were walking in the right direction at each step of the walk. Second, because the walk is very long, they explained that information concerning the remaining distance to be covered was missing. The consequence of these two cases of lack of information was an increase in stress during the walk. More generally, all the participants explained that they found the walk unpleasant because the distance was too long and the environment not very friendly. 2.5. Conclusions This section presented the results of an ergonomic experiment on the analysis of the problems encountered by travellers in a train station. The results show that all these problems occurred between the beginning of platform 24 and the entrance of Vaugirard hall. Three kinds of problems were identified: (1) a problem of orientation was identified at the entrance of the three moving walkways and Vaugirard hall, i.e., participants did not understand that they had to go in that direction in order to reach the line more quickly, (2) the participants reported a lack of information confirming the direction taken, i.e., nothing confirmed that they were headed in the right direction, and (3) information concerning the remaining distance to be covered was also missing. It is important to emphasize that none of the problems reported here were related to the hypothetical problem of the sign that indicates the location of lines 25–28. The next phase of the study sought to find a sonic solution to the three identified problems. The next section presents the specification for the design of informative non-speech signals. 3. Sound design specifications and selection to improve wayfinding The goal of this phase was to propose sound signals that would resolve the way-finding problems identified previously. The sound design was based on functional specifications (Section 3.1) that

2 For interpretation of colour in Fig. 2, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.

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described the environmental characteristics of the places and the required functions of the sonic solution. These specifications were then given to a composer specializing in sound design whose task was to propose appropriate sound signals to ameliorate the problems (Section 3.2). Finally, a selection of the best sound signals was studied with a listening test in the laboratory (Section 3.3). 3.1. Functional specifications 3.1.1. Environmental descriptions Two environmental descriptions were given to the sound designer. First, an architectural description gave the main physical characteristics of the walk between the beginning of platform 24 and the Vaugirard entrance: main distances, maps and photos were provided. Second, an acoustical description was provided: sound level measures, spectra and Ambisonic soundscape recordings. These descriptions helped the sound designer to create sounds that were appropriate to the acoustical properties of the soundscape. 3.1.2. Three sound functions The functions of the sound signals must correspond to the problems identified in the experiment presented in Section 2. Thus, they must have three functions: 1. Orientation: The sound signals must direct the user to the entrance of the three moving walkways and Vaugirard hall. This function is called beacon sound according to previous studies in which this type of sound was used to indicate exits in an emergency situation [13] or to improve navigation in a virtual environment [14,15]. 2. Confirmation: The sound signals must confirm at each step of the walk that the direction taken is the right one. This signal, called feedback sound, must be heard just beyond the position of the beacon sound. 3. Timeline: The sound signals must inform the user, at each step, concerning the progression of the walk. In other words, hearing these sound signals, the travellers should understand that they are approaching the target. This function is called timeline.

3.2. Sound design 3.2.1. The sound designer The functional specifications presented in the previous paragraphs were given to the fourth author, a sound designer and researcher working at IRCAM (Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique/Musique, Paris) during the project. In a previous study, he had performed experiments on sound signals for helping blind people to orient themselves in a Japanese train station [4]. In order to choose between several proposals, the composer was free to create different types of solutions according to the specifications. The next section describes the sound signals he proposed (see also [16]). 3.2.2. Principles of design The composer designed sounds according the principle of ‘‘earcons”, i.e., non-speech sounds that are created to convey specific information by means of an arbitrary relationship between the sound and its meaning [17]. These sounds are generally used in human–machine interfaces (HMI) to help perform basic operations on files in a computer, for example [18,19]. Principles for their creation have been proposed in order to adapt the features of a sound (timbre, intensity, etc.) to its function [20]. The type of sounds (earcons) is part of the designer’s choice, which means that other types of sounds could have been proposed for the required functions,

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such as auditory icons (sounds that are caricatures of everyday sounds [21], used to convey information in a computer interface, for example [22]). The earcons proposed by the sound designer were built around two schemas, as presented below. 3.2.2.1. A pair for the beacon sound and feedback sound. For the first two functions, the sound designer decided to create two sounds that work together, according to a call-response schema. In other words, the feedback sound is a ‘‘response” to the beacon sound. Twenty pairs of sounds were proposed according to three different types of schemas (Table 2). For the dynamic schema, the pairs were built with a variation of five musical parameters: pitch, harmonic combination, dynamic profile, melodic profile and vibrato. For the harmonic schema, the other parameters were fixed, only the harmonic combination varied. For the melodic schema, the question-response was conceived according to classical musical principles (chord resolution, for example). 3.2.2.2. A sequence of four sounds for the timeline. For the timeline function, the sound designer proposed four different subsequences, placed at four steps between the beginning and end of platform 24. This sequence of four subsequences was supposed to indicate that the end of the walk was approaching. The sound designer created 10 different sequences (Table 3), using different kinds of schemas to indicate the progress. The 10 schemas were based on different kinds of musical progressions in four subsequences. Sequence T01 was based on a harmonic progression: sub-dominant, two dominant chords and a tonic chord. In sequence T02, an arpeggio was played with internote intervals increasing from 5 to 20 semitones. In sequence T03, the number of notes in a given chord was decreased. Sequence T04 was a countdown from four beats to one beat. Sequence T05 was an arpeggio whose tempo increased progressively. Sequence T06 was based on a contour variation in a three-interval melody: three ascending intervals (%), two ascending and one descending (%-%-&), one ascending and two descending (%-&-&) and then three descending (&). Sequence T07 was based on a rhythmic variation in a four-note melody: three short and one long (oooO), two short, one long and one short (ooOo), one short, one long and two short (oOoo), then one long and three short (Oooo). In sequence T08, the vibrato speed was increased progressively. The sequence T09 was similar to T06, but with a pentatonic scale melody. Then, the four steps of sequence T10 used a common melody (****) to which was added a second phrase made of a decreasing number of notes: from four (OOOO) to one (O). 3.2.2.3. Tonality and musical scale. The fundamental frequency of the sound proposed was tuned to the ‘‘keynote” of the soundscapes of the train station. This aesthetic notion was introduced by the Canadian composer Murray Schafer [23] and consists of the part of the soundscape that is predominant. Using the acoustical descriptions of the soundscapes (see Section 3.1.1), two keynotes were found: the background noise, the spectral centroid3 of which was close to the note C, and the spoken announcement jingle which was built on a C scale. Consequently, Kawakami decided to adjust the fundamental frequency of all the earcons to C or G and to use a pentatonic scale. 3.3. Sound selection in the laboratory The goal of this part was to select the sequences that would be installed in the train station for ergonomic validation, from among the proposals made by the sound designer presented previously. To 3 The spectral centroid of a sound signal is the center of gravity of its frequency spectrum. It indicates the frequency at which signal energy is equal above and below it in the spectrum. Perceptually, it is close to the ‘‘sharpness” of the sound [24].

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Table 2 Description of the 20 pairs of sounds created by Kawakami for the functions beacon (B) and feedback (F). The column ‘‘Harmonic combination” indicates the number of harmonics (multiples of the fundamental frequency). The dynamic profile indicates whether the energy increases (%), decreases (&) or does not change (?). The melodic profile indicates whether the melody contour is ascending (%), descending (&) or flat (?). The vibrato indicates the speed of amplitude variation in beats per second (Hz). Sound Dynamic schema B01 F01 B02 F02 B03 F03 B04 F04 B05 F05 B06 F06 B07 F07 B08 F08 Harmonic schema B09 F09 B10 F10 B11 F11 B12 F12

Pitch (Hz)

Harmonic combination

Dynamic proﬁle

Melodic proﬁle

Vibrato (Hz)

1200 800 800-1600 800 800-1600 800 800-1600 1600-800 1200 800 800-1600 800 800-1600 800 800-1600 1600-800

2,3 2,3 2,3 2,3 2,3 2,3 2,3 2,3 2,3,4,5,6,7 2,3,4,5,6,7 2,3,4,5,6,7 2,3,4,5,6,7 2,3,4,5,6,7 2,3,4,5,6,7 2,3,4,5,6,7 2,3,4,5,6,7

& & ? & ? & ? ? & & ? & ? & ? ?

? ? % ? % ? % & ? ? % ? % ? % &

0 0 0 0 13 0 13 13 0 0 0 0 13 0 13 13

800 800 800+1200 800 800+1200 800 Morph from 800 to 1200 800

5,8,13,21,34,55 2,3,5,8,13,21 1,2,3,5,8,13 2,3,5,8,13,21 2,3,5,8,13,21 2,3,5,8,13,21 5,8,13,21,34,55 2,3,5,8,13,21

& & & & & & & &

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Sound

Proﬁle

Melodic schema B13 F13 B14 F14 B15 F15 B16 F16 B17 F17 B18 F18 B19 F19 B20 F20

Increase Decrease, tonic resolution Increasing frequency Part of B14 Increasing melody B15 reverse and shorter Movement Stop, same fifth interval asB16 Call Response with same mode et scale Same scale Same scale Increasing profile Decreasing profile Long rythm Short rythm, tonic resolution

Table 3 Description of the 10 sequences of four subsequences created by Kawakami for the timeline function. Sequence

Schema

T01 T02 T03 T04 T05 T06 T07 T08 T09 T10

Harmonic Interval Chord Countdown Length Melody Rythm Vibrato Pentatonic scale Rythm+melody+countdown

Sub-dominant 5 Semitones 5 Notes 4 Notes Slow Arpeggio % oooO Slow %-& ****OOOO

Dominant 10 4 3 Faster %-%-& ooOo Faster % ****OOO

Dominant 15 3 2 Faster %-&-& oOoo Faster & ****OO

Tonic 20 2 1 Faster & Oooo Faster &-% ****O

achieve this goal, an experiment was carried out in which participants had to choose the sequences they preferred in terms of functionality, i.e., which sequences best fulﬁlled the three functions. The experiment was divided into two steps. The ﬁrst one concerned the beacon-feedback pair, and the second one concerned the timeline sequence.

3.3.1. Stimuli In step 1, stimuli were the 20 pairs of subsequences created for the beacon-feedback functions (see Section 3.2). In step 2, stimuli were the 10 sequences of four subsequences created for the timeline function. The participants were seated in a double-walled IAC sound booth. The stimuli were ampliﬁed by a Yamaha P2075 stereo

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amplifier and presented binaurally over a set of Sennheiser HD 250 linear II headphones. In a preliminary experiment, the two groups of stimuli were equalized in loudness with 10 participants. In this experiment, the participants had to adjust the level of each sound to match that of the reference sound (F01 for the beacon-feedback equalization and T08-1 for the timeline equalization, see Tables 2 and 3), the level of which was fixed at 56 dB(A). 3.3.2. Participants Thirty participants (15 women and 15 men, between 26 and 49 years of age) were recruited and paid for this experiment. None of them reported having hearing loss. No musical background was required. Before each step, the functions of the sounds were explained to the participants, and a description of the train station was given (photos and map). 3.3.3. Procedure In each of the two steps of the experiment, the task was the same. Using the computer interface,4 participants were asked to choose the three preferred stimuli in terms of functionality and to classify them from the most to the least preferred. They could listen to the stimuli as many times they wished to. They could not interrupt the sound until it ended. 3.3.4. Results Each sound was given a weighting N that was calculated as follows: N = 3 n1 + 2 n2 + n3, where n1 is the number of times that the sound was classified in first position (i.e., the most preferred), n2 in second position and n3 in third position. Results for the beacon-feedback pair and for the timeline sequence are presented in Tables 4 and 5, respectively. For the beacon-feedback function, the pair P18 is the one with the highest weighting (29). This pair corresponds to the call-response schema composed of an increasing melody for the beacon (B18 in Table 2) and two decreasing notes from the same scale for feedback (F18 in Table 2). For the timeline function, the sequence T04 was the one with the highest weighting. This sequence is based on a countdown schema (see Table 2). 4. Sound signalling system installation and evaluation of its ability to eliminate way-finding problems This last phase is an evaluation of the sound signals discussed previously in the real context of the train station. First, a sound signalling system was installed in the station using several speakers and IR sensors to trigger the sounds (Section 4.1). Then, an experiment was performed with new recruited travellers (Sections 4.2 and 4.3), using the same kind of procedure as in the first phase (see Section 2). 4.1. Installation of the sound system This section presents the installation of the sounds selected previously. The selected sounds and a 2D animation presenting the general principle of the installation are available on the following website: http://julientardieu.free.fr/sounddesign. 4.1.1. Principles The sounds were broadcast over stand-alone loudspeakers (ref: TOA EV20A) all along the walk from the beginning of the first moving walkway to the entrance of Vaugirard hall. Each loudspeaker

4 Interface programmed with PsiExp, a software environment for the creation of psychoacoustic experiments developed by [25].

Table 4 Classiﬁcation score for the beacon-feedback pairs of sounds. Sequences

Weighting

P18 P01 P15 P19 P14 P20 P13 P16 P03 P17 P07 P02 P09 P12 P05 P06 P08 P1O Pll P04

29 19 18 16 16 15 15 15 9 8 5 4 3 3 1 1 1 1 1 0

Number of times classiﬁed 1, 2 or 3

14 9 8 6 7 10 7 7 3 5 2 3 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 0

6 3 2 4 2 1 3 3 3 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

3 4 6 2 4 3 2 2 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

5 2 0 0 2 6 2 2 0 3 0 2 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0

Table 5 Classiﬁcation score for the timeline sequence of sounds. Sequences

Weighting

T04 T03 T05 T02 T09 T10 T06 T07 TO1 T08

51 30 29 24 14 9 8 8 5 2

Number of times classiﬁed 1, 2 or 3

22 14 14 13 7 6 6 4 3 1

11 6 5 4 2 1 0 1 0 0

7 4 5 3 3 1 2 2 2 1

4 4 4 6 2 4 4 1 1 0

contained a memory card onto which a sound was loaded. The sound could be triggered by an internal movement sensor (see Fig. 3, left), or by an external movement sensor (see Fig. 3, right). In other words, the sounds were broadcast only when a traveller walked in front of the movement sensor. In one case, the movement detection was made right next to the speaker (internal sensor), and in the second case the detection was made remotely (external sensor). The remote detection was used only for the triggering of the beacon sound. 4.1.2. Description Eight loudspeakers and three external movement sensors were installed in the train station, as presented in Fig. 4. Speakers 1, 3, 5, and 7 all broadcast the same sound: the beacon sound. Speakers 2, 4, 6, and 8 broadcast the feedback sound followed by the timeline sequences (4-, 3-, 2- and 1-note sequences, respectively). The system was used for 3 weeks without interruption. 4.2. Experimental protocol The selected sounds and the signalling system were designed to solve the various problems encountered by the travellers during the analysis phase of the pathway in Section 2. Thus, this in situ experiment aimed to evaluate the sound signalling system on the same pathway. The method is also based on the same experiment as the one used in Section 2 for the analysis phase.

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Fig. 3. Left: stand-alone loudspeaker used for the sound signalling system in Montparnasse Station. Right: loudspeaker in place with an external movement sensor.

Fig. 4. Sound signalling system for the Montparnasse train station.

4.2.1. Instructions The introductory part of the instructions was kept identical to that of the ﬁrst experiment (see Section 2.3.1 and Appendix A.2 for complete instructions). Then, in addition to their main task (i.e., to take the next train to Granville), they were instructed to pay careful attention to the sound signals.

4.2.5. Participants The participants were selected according to the same criteria used in the ﬁrst experiment (see Section 2.3.5). Eight new participants (ﬁve women and three men, between 20 and 50 years of age) were then recruited and paid 15 euros for this experiment. 4.3. Results

4.2.2. Meeting point The meeting point was the same as presented in Section 2.3.2. 4.2.3. Video The video recording of the walk was performed identically to that described in Section 2.3.3. 4.2.4. Interview As in the ﬁrst experiment, each walk was followed by an individual interview during which the participant explained the walk in detail with the help of the video replay. In addition, the participant was asked to explain whether the sounds helped him/her and how they did help.

The results were analyzed in the same way as in the first experiment (see Section 2.4). In addition, each interview was analyzed in order to show whether the sounds helped the participants or not. 4.3.1. The steps In a similar fashion as for the first experiment (see Table 1), Table 6 presents how each participant completed each of the main steps of the walk. A step was completed without problem when the participant walker in a direction coherent with the expected path to Vaugirard hall. This table shows that out of eight participants, only one encountered difficulties along the walk.

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Table 6 Main steps of the walk for each participant. Each column gives one step. A cross means that the participant completed the step without any difﬁculty. The exclamation point means that for the participant DP, the second moving walkway was out of order. Subject

Main steps Main platform

lst sign

lst moving walkway

2nd moving walkway

3rd moving walkway

Vaugirard entrance

On time arrival

VS JD VL DP SL JM DS TF

X X X – X X X X

X X X X X X X X

X X X ! X X X X

X X X – X X X X

X X X X X X X X

Total

4.3.2. The problems encountered DP had difficulties on the main platform, for a reason similar to the one identified in the first experiment (i.e., division of the lines into suburban and main lines). In addition, DP hesitated a lot at each step of the walk because of lack of information. This confirms the results of the first experiment. Otherwise, the other participants did not encounter any problem during the walk. 4.3.3. The role of the sounds Out of the eight participants, all of them noticed the sounds and found them useful for their walk. Table 7 presents the perceived functions of the sounds, reported by each participant in the interview. The first column presents how the beacon sound was understood by the eight participants, i.e., the sound broadcast by loudspeakers 1, 3, 5 and 7 (see Fig. 4). The second column presents how the feedback and timeline sounds (loudspeakers 2, 4, 6 and 8 on Fig. 4) were understood. This table shows that out of the eight participants, seven understood the confirmation given by the feedback sound. Only JD did not understand this function, but this participant explained in the interview that this function was already perceived in the beacon sound. This means that for JD, the beacon sound had both orientation and confirmation functions. This was also the case for participants VS and DS. Therefore, out of the eight participants, seven understood the orientation given by the beacon sound. For participant VL, all the sounds had the same function: confirmation. On the other hand, this table shows that none of the participants understood the function given by the sequence of timeline sounds. More generally, all eight participants appreciated the presence of sound signals, and indeed they all reported in the interviews that the sounds accompanied them all along the walk. 4.4. Conclusions The previous section presented the results of an ergonomic experiment on the validation of sound signals in real conditions. The results show that a large majority of the participants understand two out of the three functions carried by the sound seTable 7 Perceived functions of the sounds. Summary of the interview analysis. Subjects

VS JD VL DP SL JM DS TF

Perceived functions Beacon sound

Feedback and Timeline sounds

Orientation and confirmation Orientation and confirmation Confirmation Orientation Orientation Orientation Orientation and confirmation Orientation

Confirmation – Confirmation Confirmation Confirmation Confirmation Orientation and confirmation Confirmation

quences: the orientation given by the beacon sound and the conﬁrmation given by the feedback sound. However, the third function (timeline) was not understood. This could be explained in two different ways: (1) the timeline and conﬁrmation sounds were too close in time and thus were not distinguished, or (2) the four steps of the timeline sound were not explicit enough when heard in a real context and thus would require a learning phase. More generally, the sound signals have a positive global effect on the soundscape of this part of the train station, and all the participants appreciated being accompanied by the sounds.

5. General conclusion The study presented in this paper proposes a method to create sound signals in order to solve problems encountered by travellers in a train station. The method is composed of three steps that were applied in the case of a train station in Paris (Montparnasse Station). First, an ergonomic experiment based on a method proposed in [8,10,11] was carried out in the train station with 10 recruited participants who were asked to attain a specific goal (i.e., a train leaving from Vaugirard hall, a remote part of the train station), and to describe their walk during a subsequent individual interview. The analyses of the walks and the interviews showed that participants encountered several problems in attaining the set goal. Three kinds of problems were encountered: (1) orientation towards the entrance of the moving walkways and the entrance of Vaugirard hall, (2) lack of information confirming that they were headed in the right direction, and (3) a lack of information indicating the remaining distance until the end of the walk. This first experiment was particularly useful in determining precisely the difficulties encountered by travellers who want to reach this part of the train station. Second, sound signals were created and installed in the train station, in order to solve the three problems identified previously. They were created by a sound designer [4,16] who was given functional and environmental specifications. The specifications were the three functions of the sound signals that correspond to the identified problems: orientation, confirmation and timeline. The sound designer created several non-speech sound signals (earcons) according to principles mainly reported in [18] and [23]. An arbitrary choice from among the proposals made by the sound designer could have been done, but this does not mean that any kind of sound is possible. Indeed, the sound proposed for the confirmation (feedback sound) is a ‘‘response” to the sound for the orientation (beacon sound). Therefore, the sounds to be installed were selected in the laboratory based on ratings by 30 participants who were asked to choose the sound they preferred given the function they were to fulfil. The sound signals were installed in the train station, using an experimental broadcasting system made of eight stand-alone loudspeakers triggered by internal or external movement sensors.

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Third, another ergonomic experiment was carried out with newly recruited participants, in order to evaluate the sound signals under real conditions. The results show that most of the sound signals were understood and helped people during their walk. Only the sounds for the timeline function were not understood at all. This could be the result of an ambiguity with the preceding sound (the feedback sound), or just the difficulty to interpret this specific sound information without any pretraining session. The method deployed was therefore useful in evaluating the efficiency of new sound signals, coherently with the conclusion of the work presented in [9]. In conclusion, the study presented in this paper shows that way-finding problems encountered by users of a public space, such as a train station, can be reduced by non-speech sound signals if users are made aware of their existence. The proposed method has been particularly useful for both the identification of the functions that the sound must fulfil and the evaluation of the sounds once installed in real conditions. In other words, it is possible to create sound signals for public spaces that not only fit the users perception, but also take into account the course of their activities. The results are successful, because most of the sounds were understood and used by the participants. In terms of sound design in public places, this paper reinforces a methodical approach by providing a new way to specify and to evaluate new sound signals created in order to help users of a public space. This approach could be integrated into the design of a fully operational sound signalling system for a train station or any large public space. Future research could also take into account users with visual impairments. Since the success of this study, the French railway has installed in the same station a new sound system for visually impaired users called ‘‘the sound arrow” (http:// www.accessibilite.sncf.fr/mvh/sections/public). Acknowledgements This study was a part of a doctoral research project sponsored by the SNCF and the Association Nationale pour la Recherche Technique. The sound installation was made with the support of the station managers and the technical staff of the train station. We would like to thank Jacques Theureau for the fruitful discussions on method. Appendix A. Text instructions used for the two experiments in the train station A.1. First experiment (analysis phase) Introduction Cette étude porte sur la gare Montparnasse et a pour objectif d’identifier les défauts de cette gare du point de vue de l’usager. Nous cherchons donc les problèmes rencontrés par les voyageurs lors de leurs trajets dans la gare. C’est pourquoi nous vous demandons d’effectuer un trajet dans la gare. (This study concerns Montparnasse Station and aims to identify its lacks from the user’s point of view. Thus we are looking for the problems encountered by the travellers in the station. So we ask you to perform a walk in the station.) Tâche. (Task) L’objectif de votre trajet est de prendre un train pour GRANVILLE dès que possible. Il vous a été donné un billet ouvert, donc vous ne connaissez pas l’horaire exact. Nous vous demandons d’effectuer ce trajet le plus naturellement possible, comme si vous deviez prendre le train pour des raisons personnelles.

Après le trajet, nous effectuerons ensemble un entretien lors duquel vous pourrez expliquer comment s’est passé le trajet. (Your goal is to take the next train that goes to GRANVILLE as soon as possible. You’ve been given an open ticket, so you don’t know the exact time schedule. We ask you to perform this walk as naturally as possible, as if you had to take this train for personal reasons. After the walk, we’ll have an interview together, and you will have the opportunity to explain how your walk proceeded.) A.2. Second experiment (sound signalling evaluation) Introduction Cette étude porte sur la gare Montparnasse et a pour objectif d’identifier les défauts de cette gare du point de vue de l’usager. Nous cherchons donc les problèmes rencontrés par les voyageurs lors de leurs trajets dans la gare. C’est pourquoi nous vous demandons d’effectuer un trajet dans la gare. (This study concerns Montparnasse Station and aims to evaluate a new sound signalling system. This system is made of sound signals broadcast by loudspeakers installed at different places. So we ask you to perform a walk in the station.) Tâche. (Task) L’objectif de votre trajet est de prendre un train pour GRANVILLE dès que possible. Il vous a été donné un billet ouvert, donc vous ne connaissez pas l’horaire exact. Nous vous demandons d’effectuer ce trajet en étant particulièrement attentif(-ve) aux signaux sonores qui seront émis. Après le trajet, nous effectuerons ensemble un entretien lors duquel vous pourrez expliquer comment s’est passé le trajet, et ce que les sons vous ont apporté. (Your goal is to take the next train that goes to GRANVILLE as soon as possible. You’ve been given an open ticket, so you don’t know the exact time schedule. We ask you to pay careful attention to the sound signals that will be broadcast. After the walk, we’ll have an interview together, and you will have the opportunity to explain how your walk proceeded, and the extent to which the sounds were useful.) References [1] Weisman J. Evaluating architectural legibility. Way-finding in the built environment. Environ Behav 1981;13(2):189–204. [2] O’Neill MJ. Effects of signage and floor plan configuration on way-finding accuracy. Environ Behav 1991;23(5):553–74. [3] Loomis JM, Klatzky R, Golledge RG. Navigating without vision: basic and applied research. Optomet Vis Sci 2001;78 (5). [4] Kawakami H. Sign-on: report on the study and survey of sound design, model free from the barriers from to auditory sense. Technical report, The Japan Sign Design Association (SDA); 2000. [5] Tardieu J, Susini P, Poisson F. Soundscape design in train stations: perceptual study of soundscapes. In: Proceedings of the CFA/DAGA (Joint French/German acoustical societies meeting), Strasbourg; March 2004. [6] Tardieu J, Susini P, Poisson F, McAdams S. Soundscape design in train stations. In: Proceedings of the Journées design sonore, Paris; October 2004. [7] Tardieu J, Susini P, Poisson F, Lazareff P, McAdams S. Perceptual study of soundscapes in train stations. Applied Acoustics 2007. doi:10.1016/ j.apacoust.2007.10.001. [8] Theureau J. Cours d’action. In: Vocabulaire de l’ergonomie. Octarès; 1995. p. 98–104. [9] Theureau J. L’émergence d’un complexe d’échanges à travers les trajets des voyageurs: essai méthodologique. In: Bayart D, Borzeix A, Lacoste M, editors. Les traversées de la gare: la méthode des trajets pour analyser l’informationvoyageurs, vol. 118. Paris: RATP-Département du développement-Mission prospective et recherches sociales; 1997. p. 145–90. [10] Theureau J. Le cours d’action: méthode élémentaire. 2nd ed. Octarès; 2004. [11] Theureau J. Course-of-action analysis and course-of-action centered design. In: Hollnagel E, editor. Handbook of cognitive task design. Lawrence Erlbaum Ass; 2003. p. 55–81.

J. Tardieu et al. / Applied Acoustics 70 (2009) 1183–1193 [12] Vermersch P. L’entretien d’explicitation. 3rd ed. ESF; 2000. [13] Rutherford P, Withington D. The application of virtual acoustic techniques for the development of an auditory beacon used in building emergency egress. In: International conference on auditory display (ICAD), Espoo, Finland; July 2001. [14] Walker B, Lindsay J. Effect of beacon sounds on navigation performance in a virtual reality environment. In: Proceedings of the international conference on auditory display (ICAD), Boston; July 6–9 2003. [15] Walker B, Lindsay J. Auditory navigation performance is affected by waypoint capture radius. In: Proceedings of the international conference on auditory display (ICAD), Sydney, Australia; July 6–9 2004. [16] Kawakami H, Tardieu J, Susini P, Poisson F. The sound navigation system at Montparnasse station. In: Proceedings of the world forum for acoustic ecology, Hirosaki, Aomori, Japan, November 2–6; 2006. [17] Blattner MM, Sumikawa DA, Greenberg RMM. Earcons and icons: their structure and common design principles. Hum-Comput Interact 1989;4: 11–44.

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[18] Brewster S. Non-speech auditory output. In: The human computer interaction handbook. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates; 2002. p. 220–39 [chapter 12]. [19] Brewster S, Wright PC, Edwards ADN. A detailed investigation into the effectiveness of earcons. In: Auditory display. Sonification, audification, and auditory interfaces. Addison-Wesley; 1994. [20] Brewster S, Wright P, Edwards A. Experimentally derived guidelines for the creation of earcons. In: Human computer interaction. Huddersfield, UK; 1995. [21] Gaver WW. Everyday listening and auditory icons. PhD thesis, University of California, San Diego; 1988. [22] Gaver WW. The sonicfinder: an interface that uses auditory icons. Hum– Comput Interact 1989;4:67–94. [23] Schafer RM. The tuning of the world. Random House Inc.; 1977. [24] Zwicker E, Fastl H. Psychoacoustics. Berlin: Springer; 1999. [25] Smith B. PsiExp: an environment for psychoacoustic experimentation using the IRCAM musical workstation. In: Society for music perception and cognition conference’95, University of California, Berkeley; 1995.

PROJECT 5:

Recipes for Success: Good Design is Sweet Like Candy

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Recipes for Success: Good Design is Sweet Like Candy Whitley R. Kemble

Recipes for Success: Good Design is Sweet Like a Candy

Whitley R. Kemble 698 A: Graphic Design Seminar April 1, 2013

Recipes for Success: Good Design is Sweet Like Candy Whitley R. Kemble

Introduction Communication, as you well know, is a process. By definition, communication is specifically “a process by which information is exchanged between individuals through a common system of symbols, signs, or behavior…(it is also an) exchange of information.”i As with any good interface, a designer’s role in information design is only successful if the viewer understands what is being presented, how the elements on a page are correlated, and what he or she should do with that information. Amy Balliett of Seattle’s Killer Infographics is a specialist in this arena. In an article for Smashing Magazine, she shares her recipe for tasty information design. I’ve taken her “ingredients” and added a few of my own to analyze “A Delectable Kaleidoscope of Candy Bars”ii, a sweet little diagram from Pop Chart Lab.

Recipes for Success: Good Design is Sweet Like Candy Whitley R. Kemble

Presentation is Key Concept is like the chocolate of the infographic, and the stronger it is the tastier the finished design will be. Balliett encourages designers to show, not tell, the relationship between different chunks of data. Regardless of what we’re given to start with, as designers we are “responsible for turning that information into visually stimulating, cohesive design that tells a story and doesn’t miss a single opportunity to visualize data.”iii In the candy bar chart, the designer chose to organize the information in several ways. First, the varieties are sorted by the primary ingredient—white, milk, dark or compound chocolates. We know this is the starting point because these elements are larger and take up prime real estate at the center of the chart. The other ingredients—wafers, crisp rice, coconut, etc.—form the external ring of the chart. We know these are the second elements we’re supposed to view because they are secondlargest in size and are set apart by different colored frames. Between these two rings are the names of the candy bars themselves. These are anchored by the other two rings, showing composition by their colors, as well as the different “strings” to the ingredients. This structure represents three major principles of design: organization, color and hierarchy. Using these modes of organization will ensure a clean, comprehensible design. Bailett suggests using a grid (in our chart, this is achieved by concentric circles of data) to provide further organization and visual unity in a design. Presentation is everything, after all.iv Make it With Love Not every designer is a chocolatier, so to speak. In addition to a clear picture of the information, designers need to be able to facilitate clear understanding of complex data. Making a good infographic, like making good candy, starts with quality ingredients. These ingredients are data, and the designer must be able to determine which ones will give your viewer the most accurate taste of the information presented. “Even some of the best designers, with portfolios that would make you drool, cannot execute an effective infographic design,” Balliett writes. “But that mindset can be gained through practice and by sticking to certain standards, the most important of which is to respect and understand data viz.”v Our candy bar diagram is relatively straightforward. As previously mentioned, the information is arranged logically in concentric circles. This is a very effective strategy for relaying this information set. Using a simple structure, lines, and relatively minimal text and color, the designer was able to create a comprehensive guide to candy bars that is both easy to use and visually stimulating. Information Has Many Flavors Although the designer of the candy bar diagram was able to achieve a relatively innovative solution, this may not always be the case. Sometimes a complex design demands eliminating style in

Recipes for Success: Good Design is Sweet Like Candy Whitley R. Kemble

favor of clarity. “Not all data lends itself to creative and unique graphs,” Balliett explains, but even the most boring representation of data can “work very well if the rest of the infographic share(s) a similar aesthetic. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and produce a traditional bar graph or pie chart; nevertheless, always consider ways to dress it up”.vi This is sort of like the difference between Twix and a Kit-Kat—one package has a little more pizzazz than the other, but both are delicious. This doesn’t mean you have to create a lackluster design, though. “Organizing the data and sectioning off information without relying entirely on headings and color breaks is a good way to break the monotony,”vii Balliett suggests. She also suggests experimenting with columns, shapes, borders, themes, and process indicators to help provide clarity and style. A simple matrix or gridded design, for example, might have been a more straightforward method of conveying this lengthy list of candy bars. Don’t Let Your Ingredients Overpower Your Recipe A good recipe is one in which the ingredients harmonize to complement the natural flavor of its ingredients. Too many strong ingredients can create a very unpleasant taste. You have to choose your ingredients carefully. In much the same way, decisions on how to use typography and color within a diagram should be deliberate and purposeful. Balliett explains: “Typography can make or break a design…using typography to show off a big number instead of visualizing it in some way (is a poor solution)…typography does have its uses, which should not be ignored when creating an infographic. Most of the time, you will want to focus your creative typographical energies on titles and headings. The title of the infographic is a perfect opportunity to use a fun and eye-catching font and to give it a treatment that fits the theme or topic.”viii The typefaces used for “A Delectable Kaleidoscope of Candy Bars” evoke images of old-time candy shoppe. Although it’s incredibly long, the title is still playful enough to grab the viewer’s attention. This is a successful choice, but the way it’s broken up is somewhat frustrating. The designer tried to remedy this by placing the two pieces in a set of banners, meant to be unified by shape and color. Color itself is used in a similar way. Each ingredient has its own color, making its role in each of the candy bars much clearer. The additional colored lines help to reinforce these relationships. According to Balliett, designers should limit their color usage to three primary colors: “With all of the data that goes into an infographic, make sure that the reader’s eye easily flows down the page; the wrong color palette can be a big barrier to this…Choose three primary colors. Of the three, one should be the background color (usually the lightest of the three), and the other two should break up the sections. If you need to add other colors, use shades of the three main colors. This will keep the palette cohesive and calming, rather than jarring.” ix

Recipes for Success: Good Design is Sweet Like Candy Whitley R. Kemble

The candy bar diagram seems to use this idea, but the designer has employed many more colors. Using secondary tones helps make this diagram seem less intimidating. Though I wouldn’t normally use so many, I think the use of so many colors here is very constructive for this concept. The Secret Ingredient Just like every good candy bar has a gimmick, every infographic should have a hook. This, as described by Balliett, is the take-away. This should communicate your primary message to the viewer, leaving him or her with a new understanding or a call to action. It should elicit a response, too. That’s the reason you’re creating the piece, after all. Bailett suggests placing the “hook” element at the center or very end of an infographic. This, she argues, allows it to grab more attention. She further instructs designers to “give the most important information the most visual weight.” x In this case, the hook is chocolate. The different scales of the chocolate elements also informs us that milk chocolate is the dominant chocolate used in this candy bar set. In addition to understanding each bar’s chocolate foundation, the viewer is left with an understanding of the compositions of and relationships between a huge number of candy bars. Conclusion In summary, the key to a delicious diagram is to start with a full understanding of the information you’re trying to present. Formulate the best solution by creating a strong concept, limiting unnecessary elements, and making a clear point. Following these rules will improve the design and keep the client coming back for seconds. Bon a petit!

Recipes for Success: Good Design is Sweet Like Candy Whitley R. Kemble

Works Cited i

Definition for “communication”, Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online. Accessed via http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/communication, on March 30, 2013.

“A Delectable Kaliedoscope of Candy Bars”, Pop Chart Lab. Accessed via http://popchartlab.com/collections/prints/products/the-delectable-kaleidoscope-of-candy-bars on March 28, 2013.

iii

Balliett, Amy. “The Do’s and Don’ts of Infographic Design”, Smashing Magazine. October 14, 2011. Accessed via http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/14/the-dos-and-donts-of-infographic-design/

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

The Do’s And Don’ts Of Infographic Design By Amy Ballie! Published on October 14th, 2011 in Data visualization, Infographics with 96 Comments

Editor’s Note: You might want to read Nathan Yau’s article The Do’s And Don’ts Of Infographic Design: Revisited1 here on Smashing Magazine which is a response to this article. Since the dawn of the Internet, the demand for good design has continued to skyrocket. From Web 1.0 to Web 2.0 and beyond, designers have remained on their toes as they deﬁne the trends and expectations of our online universe. The Internet is a great designer’s playground, and online businesses are growing more and more appreciative of what can be gained from a bit of well-executed eye candy. Over the past two years, this fact has become the backbone of a growing trend in online marketing: the infographic. Infographics are visual representations of information, or “data viz” as the cool kids call it these days. The term “data viz” comes from “data visualization,” which implies that sets of data will be displayed in a unique way that can be seen, rather than read. This visualization should not be left up to interpretation, it should instead be designed in a way that provides a

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/14/the-dos-and-donts-of-infographic-design/

The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

universal conclusion for all viewers. In the simplest terms, infographics are not too different than the charts and graphs that programs like Excel have been spitting out for years. Of course, just as Web 2.0 changed 1.0, today’s infographics are far more eye-catching than simple pie charts and bar graphs. Today, infographics compile many different data visualizations into one cohesive piece of “eye candy.” They have evolved with design trends, received some creative facelifts, and the Internet is now getting filled with interesting information delivered in enthralling ways. While some design trends come and go, infographics are here to stay. With brands like USA Today, The New York Times 2 and Google and even President Obama getting behind them , infographics are becoming a powerful tool for disseminating huge amounts of information to the masses. Companies large and small are using infographics to build their brands, educate their audience and optimize their search engine ranking through link-building. This is why learning how to design a good infographic is a must, and avoiding the common pitfalls of infographic design could mean the difference between landing a big client and losing them entirely.

Wrapping Your Mind Around Data Viz Designing an infographic is not the same as designing a website, ﬂier, brochure, etc. Even some of the best designers, with portfolios that would make you drool, cannot execute an eﬀective infographic design. Creating infographics is a challenge and requires a mindset that does not come naturally to everyone. But that mindset can be gained through practice and by sticking to certain standards, the most important of which is to respect and understand data viz. Here are some simple rules to follow when wrapping your mind around proper data viz. S H O W, D O N ’ T T E L L A rule of cinema is to show, don’t tell. The same holds true for infographic design. The foundation of any good infographic

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

is data viz. As an infographic designer, you may or may not determine the concept and compile all of the research for the ﬁnal design, but either way you are responsible for turning that information into a visually stimulating, cohesive design that tells a story and that doesn’t miss a single opportunity to visualize data. Take this portion of an infographic about Twitter by ViralMS as an example:

This Twitter infographic writes out the data, rather than visualizing it.

What’s wrong with this infographic? It breaks the first rule right out of the gate. When you have an opportunity to display information visually, take it. Here, the tweets per second could have at least been shown in a bar graph. This would enable someone to quickly look at this section and see what’s going on; by seeing the various heights of the bars, the eye could have quickly gauged the differences in tweets per second per event without having to read anything. If you’re having trouble adhering to this rule, try keeping all of your text on one layer of your AI file (excluding text inside charts and graphs). Every once in a while, turn off the text layer and see whether the infographic still makes sense. If there

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isn’t any data viz, or if a bunch of pictures are missing context, then you are doing too much telling and not enough showing. I F T H E C L I E N T WA N T E D A N E XC E L C H A R T, T H E Y W O U L D N ’ T N E E D YO U It might sound harsh, but it’s true. If infographics were as simple as laying out a bunch of standard charts and graphs on a page, then clients would not need to search out great designers. Many tools are online that can create colorful pie charts, line graphs and bar graphs, so you have to take things to the next level for your design to stand out. Taking the data from above, which of the two graphs below do you think would make a client happier?

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

Two ways to visualize the data from the Twitter example above.

If you answered Graph B, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re catching on. Of course, not all data lends itself to creative and unique graphs. Graph A might work very well if the rest of the infographic shared a similar aesthetic. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and produce a traditional bar graph or pie chart; nevertheless, always consider ways to dress it up, as in the examples below:

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

Ways to dress up simple graphs for an infographic.

TYPOGRAPHY SHOULD NOT BE A CRUTCH Typography can make or break a design, but it should not be the solution to a data viz problem. More often than not, designers begin an infographic with a great deal of energy and excitement, but they lose steam fast as they continue down the page. This often leads to quick decisions and poor solutions, like using typography to show oďŹ&#x20AC; a big number instead of visualizing it in some way. Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s an example:

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

TravelMatch’s infographic highlights too much.

Whenever I see this, I’m reminded of the “Where’s the beef?” ad campaign, and I think, “Where’s the data viz?” Although Sketch Rockwell is one of my all-time favorite fonts, this is a perfect example of relying too much on typography. Any time a research number is provided to you for an infographic, ask yourself how it can be visualized. Percentages can always be visualized with creative pie charts; numerical values in a set can usually be turned into a unique bar graph; and when numbers don’t ﬁt on a consistent scale, you might be able to visualize them in a diagram. Here is another way the above data could have been visualized:

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

An example of how to visualize the TravelMatch data, rather than relying on typography.

T Y P O G R A P H Y H A S I T S P L AC E All that being said, typography does have its uses, which should not be ignored when creating an infographic. Most of the time, you will want to focus your creative typographical energies on titles and headings. The title of the infographic is a perfect opportunity to use a fun and eye-catching font and to give it a treatment that ﬁts the theme or topic. Just make sure the title isn’t so distracting that it takes away from the reason we are looking at the infographic in the ﬁrst place. The truth of the matter is that some infographic topics are boring, but the right title design can engage people enough to scroll

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through. Similarly, headings help to break up an infographic and make the data easier to take in, giving you another chance to let your font-nerd ďŹ&#x201A;ag ďŹ&#x201A;y.

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

The title of an infographic is your chance to draw attention to the design.

Organization And Storyline Organizing an infographic in a way that makes sense and that keeps the viewer interested is not always easy, but it’s part of the job for most infographic designers. Usually, you will be given a lot of data and will need to create a visual story out of it. This can be challenging at first, but you can follow some general rules to make things easier. WIREFRAME THE INFOGRAPHIC Wireframing an infographic enables you to work out a storyboard and layout for the design. You may have an idea of the story you want to tell, but as you start laying things out, you might hit a wall and have to start over. Having to reorganize after having already done a lot of the design is incredibly frustrating. Avoid this by setting up your storyline at the start to determine what data to show and how. Set aside an hour to sketch things out and make sure it all makes sense. This will also help to ensure that the color palette you will choose drives attention to the important points and keeps the eye flowing down the page. T H I N K O U T S I D E T H E B OX As you wireframe the infographic, you will identify section breaks that help to tell the story. Most infographics online have a vertical flow, in which each section has a heading to distinguish it from the last. This gets boring fast. Organizing the data and sectioning off information without relying entirely on headings and color breaks is a good way to break the monotony. For instance, rather than going for a typical one-column layout, you could use two columns in certain parts. You could also break up sections with borders, with backgrounds of different shapes or give the entire design a road or path theme.

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

Hereâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s some outside the box layouts to get your creative juices ďŹ&#x201A;owing:

There are many unique ways to lay out an infographic that will keep the viewer engaged.

TELL A STORY All good stories have a beginning, middle and end. Infographics deserve the same treatment. At the beginning of the

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infographic, introduce the problem or thesis. From there, back it up with data. Finally, end the infographic with a conclusion. V I S UA L I Z E T H E H O O K Every good infographic has a hook or primary take-away that makes the viewer say â&#x20AC;&#x153;A-ha!â&#x20AC;? As a designer, you should make this hook the focal point of the design if at all possible. Placing the hook at either the center or very end of the infographic is usually best, so that it grabs more attention. Give the most important information the most visual weight, so that viewers know what to take away. Here are some examples of well visualized hooks:

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

Hooks should either be in the center, beginning, or end of the infographic and need the greatest visual emphasis.

Cleaning !ings Up With Color The diďŹ&#x20AC;erence a color palette can make is amazing, especially in the world of infographics. The right palette can help http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/14/the-dos-and-donts-of-infographic-design/

The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

organize an infographic, evangelize the brand, reinforce the topic and more. The wrong palette can turn a great topic into an eyesore, harm the brand’s image and convey the wrong message. Here are some tips to consider when choosing colors for your infographic. MAKE IT UNIVERSAL In Web design, it’s always important to choose a palette that fits the theme of the website and that is neutral enough for a diverse group of visitors. Because infographics are primarily shared online, picking the right palette for an array of visitors is equally important. You must also consider what looks good online. For instance, dominant dark colors and neons typically do not translate well on infographics; neon on black can be hard to read, and if there is a lot of data, taking it all in will be a challenge. Also, avoid white as a background whenever possible. Infographics are often shared on multiple websites and blogs, most of which have white backgrounds. If your infographic’s background is also white, then deciphering where it begins and ends will be difficult. A T H R E E - C O LO R PA L E T T E I S E A S Y O N T H E E Y E S With all of the data that goes into an infographic, make sure that the reader’s eye easily flows down the page; the wrong color palette can be a big barrier to this. Choose a palette that doesn’t attack the senses. And consider doing this before you start designing, because it will help you determine how to visualize the various elements. If picking a color palette is hard for you, stick to the rule of three. Choose three primary colors. Of the three, one should be the background color (usually the lightest of the three), and the other two should break up the sections. If you need to add other colors, use shades of the three main colors. This will keep the palette cohesive and calming, rather than jarring. U S E T H E T O O L S AT YO U R D I S P O S A L When picking colors, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. A number of great websites out there will help you choose the 3 right palette for your infographic. Adobe’s Kuler offers fresh themes and a searchable database, as well as an easy tool to

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adjust the palette that you’re interested in. One issue with Kuler is that all of the palettes have five colors, and the colors are sometimes from completely different families, rather than shades of a few primary colors, so finding the right palette can be like searching for a needle in a haystack. 4

Another color-picking tool is COLOURlovers . This database is easier to search through: it breaks palettes into diﬀerent themes and can be sorted by favorites. While most of the palettes also consist of ﬁve colors, the colors are not always given equal weight; instead, the tool suggests which should be dominant. Here are some good and bad palettes for infographics:

Final !oughts While these standards are important to consider for most infographic designs, sometimes an infographic comes along that

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

breaks all of these rules and still succeeds immensely. In the end, clients like “eye candy” and designs that “pop!” While such terms are subjective (and annoying to most designers), we all know a great infographic design when we see one, and your clients do, too. Use these rules to guide you into the infographic realm, but create your own techniques and standards after you’ve gained some experience. (al)

FOOTNOTES: 1

The Do’s And Don’ts Of Infographic Design: Revisited - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/10/21/the-do%e2%80%99s-anddon%e2%80%99ts-of-infographic-design-revisited/

getting behind them - http://www.whitehouse.gov/search/site/infographic

Adobe’s Kuler - http://kuler.adobe.com

COLOURlovers - http://www.colourlovers.com/

Data visualization - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/data-visualization/

Infographics - http://www.smashingmagazine.com/tag/infographics/

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The Do's And Don'ts Of Infographic Design | Smashing Magazine

Amy Balliett is the co-founder of Killer Infographics, an infographic design agency located in Seattle, WA. Killer Infographics began as Submit Infographics, a user generated infographic gallery allowing designers to submit their work for review from a team of artists. After many requests, the company shifted into a design agency while still running the submission gallery. Since its inception in the fall of 2010, Killer Infographics has produced over 750 viral infographics for companies large and small.

With a commitment to quality content for the design community. Made in Germany. 2006-2013. http://www.smashingmagazine.com

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PROJECT 6:

Plats & Privateers: Maps of Ships and Shipwrecks at Sea

199

Plats & Privateers:

Maps of Ships & Shipwrecks at Sea “A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected.”

Larsen couldn’t be more correct. Not long ago, maps were the sole means of navigation by air, by land, and by sea. Though there was a general understanding of the world, the true vastness of the continents and the oceans was unfathomable. Fathoms, coincidentally, were a subject of great importance.

Equipped with only a compass, the stars, and a map to guide them, topographical accuracy could mean the difference between life and death for the great explorers setting forth to discover new lands and establish new trade routes. These UIX[ PIL \W JM XZMKQ[M IVL [XMKQÅK \W \PM \I[S I\ PIVL

The maps below come from Nigel Pickford’s Atlas of Shipwrecks & Treasure. They were created with the seafarer in mind, but just as there are a thousand uses for a paper clip, so too are there a thousand uses for a map. The context and purpose of each is made clear through design.

ŶReif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

LEVANTINE TRADE ROUTES This map depicts several trade routes between Italian provinces in the 16th century. It details the relationships between the various ports, as well as giving documented information about when these ships wrecked. Finally, it features several objects that have since been recovered from the wreckage. Though this is not an actual trade map, it does bear semblance to trade route maps of the period. You can see some of the same concepts in Giorgio Sideri’s 1537 Callapoda da Candia.1

Artifacts Captions

Who would use it? How was it used? It gives clear historical and cultural data, as well as general geographical data. Its narrative nature is best suited for research in a historical or anthropological context. Notable Features: routes (line), (geological featuretexture), size contrast, text, icons, illustrations, artifacts

Trade Route (Line)

Map Analysis: Maps do not simply communicate geographic features. They can tell us so much beyond the physical characteristics of a location. One of the most important things a map can communicate, according to J.B. Harley, is power. “Political power,” he writes, “is most effectively reproduced, communicated, and experienced through maps…Whether a map is produced under the banner WN KIZ\WOZIXPQK [KQMVKM¸I[ UW[\ WNÅKQIT UIX[ PI^M JMMV¸WZ whether it is an overt propaganda exercise, it cannot escape involvement in the processes by which power is deployed.”2

Background Information for Context

Geolological Features (Texture)

This map of Levantine trade routes not only communicates the routes ships followed, but also the reach of the Levantine Empire. Based on this map, a viewer can infer that the empire was prosperous, possessing great economic power.

Illustration

Compass

PIRATES & PLUNDER ON THE HIGH SEA Historic Text Map

1V KWV\ZI[\ \W \PM ÅZ[\ UIX Pirates & Privateers places emphasis on where a number of vessels were lost at sea, rather than the routes themselves. This map also gives brief snippets of information about the individuals commanding the ships. Who would use it? How was it used? This is another great example of a narrative historic map. In addition to more biographical information about the vessel commanders, it includes information about the ships they used and why these ships were suited for goods transport. The historic context is more evident here. This map would most likely be used in research or educational settings. It may also be referenced in storytelling, as tales of some of these pirate captains are still told today.

Background Information for Context Illustration

Notable Features: captions, ship icons, land features, empires, coastlines, illustrations, paintings, historic texts, compass, pirate–themed compass _Q\P ÆM]Z LM TQ[ QVLQKI\QVO VWZ\P Map Analysis: One of Harley’s greatest complaints against the current view of old maps is the emphasis on what he calls “empirical reality”. While he notes the importance of an accurate map, he also points out the importance of the map’s narrative.

Ship Icon & Caption

Geolological Features (Texture)

a Co

ine

stl

Nautical Compass

“Locating human actions in space remains the greatest intellectual achievement of the map as a form of knowledge,” he writes. “An equally IXXZWXZQI\M LMÅVQ\QWV WN I UIX Q[ »I [WKQIT KWV[\Z]K\QWV WN \PM _WZTL expressed through the medium of cartography.’ Far from holding up a simple mirror of nature that is true or false, maps re-describe the world—like any other document—in terms of relations of power and of cultural practices, preferences, and priorities. What we read on a map is as much related to an invisible social world and to ideology as it is to phenomena seen and measured in the landscape.”3

Empire

Some symbols—the compass on this map, for example—would often be used to imply power and declare ownership of a territory. Harley explains that “artistic emblems—which may not be cartographic in character but whose meaning can be iconoOZIXPQKITTa QLMV\QÅML NZWU I _QLMZ ZMXMZ\WQZM WN QUIOM[ _Q\PQV I culture—function as signs in decorative maps where they are embedded in the discourse of the map…”4 Used in any other context, this symbol would have made a very political statement.

LAST VOYAGE OF THE PRINS FREDERIK This map is entirely different from the others. There are no land or water features here, only a structural representation of a ship. This map is more of a diagram, showing the ship’s layout and structure. Unlike the other maps, this is an actual diagram shown as it was originally drawn at the end of the 19th century. Pickford has added details to clarify the diagram for modern viewers. He also gives a detailed account of the ship’s “life” from design to demise. He also details court proceedings following its collision with the Marpessa in 1890.

Notations/ Labels

Precise, Line-Only Design

Detailed Floor Plans

Who would use it? How was it used? A diagram such as this would be used in the ship’s construction, as well as by passengers and crewmembers during the trip. Because this ship was sunk, it is also likely that this type of diagram would be used to show the point of collision and damage assessment in court.

One Color

Notable Features: WVM KWTWZ XZQV\QVO TQVM[ LM\IQT TIJMT[ ÆWWZ XTIV KIZ\WOZIU Map Analysis: 1V PQ[ ÅVIT _WZS The New Nature of Maps, Harley tells us “topoOZIXPQKIT UIX[ WZ KQ\a UIX[ IVL XTIV[ _MZM UILM \W N]TÅTT several needs at once. They were designed as administrative or jurisdictional records, for defense, for economic development, or perhaps as general works of topographical reference.”5 Because we know this map was created for the latter purpose, we can assess it on a more utilitarian level. This map, unlike the others, is not illustrative. The maker of this map did not have to make decisions regarding color, stylization, or political statements of power. If this ship had not sunk, the simple design of this deck plan means this would still be a very useful tool today. With the exception of the original typographic elements, this plan is similar to those of modern cruise ships.

Works Cited:

Sideri, Giorgio. Collapoda da Candia (c. 1537). Image from http://www.venicethefuture.com/images/base/1502.jpg.

Harley, J. B. The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, edited by Paul Laxton. Issue 2002, p. 35. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. (2002)

Harley, J. B. The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, edited by Paul Laxton. Issue 2002, p. 39. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. (2002)

Henderson, George, and Waterstone, Marvin. Excerpted from “Maps, knowledge and power”, an essay by Harley, J. Brian on p.130. Geographic Thought: A Praxis Perspective. Routledge: 2008.

Harley, J. B. The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography, edited by Paul Laxton. Issue 2002, p. 35-36. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. (2002)

Harley, J. B. “The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography”, edited by Paul Laxton. Issue 2002, p. 40. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. (2002)

IMAGES: Pickford, Nigel. The Atlas of Shipwrecks & Treasure: The History, Location, and Treasures of Ships Lost at Sea, 1st Edition. Levantine Trade (p.30-31); Pirates and Privateers (p.62-63); The Prins Frederik (p.102-103). Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc.: New York. (1994)

“A map does not just chart, it unlocks and formulates meaning; it forms bridges between here and there, between disparate ideas that we did not know were previously connected.” ― Reif Larsen, The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet

INTRODUCTION: Larsen couldn’t be more correct. Not that long ago, maps were the sole means of navigation by air, by land, and by sea. Though there was a general understanding of the world, the true vastness of the continents and the oceans was unfathomable. Fathoms, coincidentally, were a subject of great importance for mapmakers. Equipped with only a compass, the stars, and a map to guide them, topographical accuracy could mean the difference between life and death for the great explorers setting forth to discover new lands and establish new trade routes. These maps had to be precise and specific to the task at hand. The maps below come from Nigel Pickford’s Atlas of Shipwrecks & Treasure. They were all created with the seafarer in mind, but just as there are a thousand uses for a paper clip, so too are there a thousand uses for a map. These maps depict trade routes, shipwreck sites, and deck plans for an actual ship. Though the subject matter is very similar, the context and purpose of each is very different. These elements are made clear through design. Map 1: Levantine Trade Description of the Map: This map depicts several trade routes between Italian provinces in the 16th century. It details the relationships between the various ports, as well as giving documented information about when these ships wrecked. Finally, it features several objects that have since been recovered from the wreckage. Though this is not an actual trade map, it does bear semblance to trade route maps of the period. You can see some of the same concepts in Giorgio Sideri’s 1537 Callapoda da Candiai. Who would use it? How was it used? It gives clear historical and cultural data, as well as general geographical data. Its narrative nature is best suited for research in a historical or anthropological context. Notable Features: line, color, texture, size contrast, narrative, photography, editorial Map Analysis: Maps do not simply communicate geographic features. They can tell us so much more beyond the physical characteristics of aii location. One of the most important things a map can communicate, according to J.B. Harley, is power: “Political power,” he argues, “is most effectively reproduced, communicated, and experienced through maps…Whether a map is produced under the banner of cartographic science—as most official maps have been—or whether it is an overt propaganda exercise, it cannot escape involvement in the processes by which power is deployed.” This map of Levantine trade routes not only communicates the routes ships followed, but also the reach of the Levantine Empire. Based on this map, a viewer can infer that the empire was prosperous, possessing great economic power. Map 2: Pirates & Privateers Description of the Map: In contrast to the first map, Pirates & Privateers places emphasis on where a number of vessels were lost at sea, rather than the routes themselves. This map also gives brief snippets of information about the individuals commanding the ships. Who would use it? How was it used? This is another great example of a narrative historical map. In addition to more biographical information about the vessel commanders, it includes information about the ships they used and why these ships were suited for goods transport. The historical context is more evident here. This map would most likely be used in research or educational settings. It may also be referenced in storytelling, as tales of some of these pirate captains are still told today. Notable Features: captions, artifacts, ship icons, land features, empires, coastlines, illustrations, paintings, historic texts/instructions, compass, pirate–themed coat of arms fleur de lis indicating north Map Analysis: One of Harley’s greatest complaints against the current view of old maps is the emphasis on what he calls “empirical reality”.iii While he notes the importance of an accurate map, he also points out the importance of the map’s narrative. “Locating human actions in space remains the greatest intellectual achievement of the map as a form of knowledge,” he writes. “An equally appropriate definition of a map is ‘a social construction of the world expressed through the medium of cartography.’ Far from holding up a simple mirror of nature that is true or false, maps re-describe the world—like any other document—in terms of relations of power and of cultural practices, preferences, and priorities. What we read on a map is as much related to an invisible social world and to ideology as it is to phenomena seen and measured in the landscape.” iv

This map, more than the others, tells a story. Though not as strong as some of the maps depicting the Viking sagas, this map gives the viewer a sense of the perils of 16th century sea travel. It should also be noted that while this map is not meant to persuade the viewer, it does share some indications of power shown in the Levantine trade map. Some symbols—the compass on this map, for example—would often be used to imply power and declare ownership of a territory. Harley explains that “artistic emblems—which may not be cartographic in character but whose meaning can be iconographically identified from a wider repertoire of images within a culture—function as signs in decorative maps where they are embedded in the discourse of the map…”v Used in any other context, this symbol would have made a very political statement. Map 3: Prins Frederik Ship Description of the Map: This map is entirely different from the others. There are no land or water features here, only a structural representation of a ship. This map is more of a diagram, showing the ship’s layout and structure. Unlike the other maps, this is an actual diagram shown as it was originally drawn at the end of the 19th century. Pickford has added details to clarify the diagram for modern viewers. He also gives a detailed account of the ship’s “life” from design to demise. He also details court proceedings following its collision with the Marpessa in 1890.vi Who would use it? How was it used? A diagram such as this would be used in the ship’s construction, as well as by passengers and crewmembers during the trip. Because this ship was sunk, it is also likely that this type of diagram would be used to show the point of collision and damage assessment in court. Notable Features: one-color printing, lines, texture, labels, floor plan Map Analysis: In his final work, The New Nature of Maps, Harley tells us “topographical maps or city maps and plans were made to fulfill several needs at once. They were designed as administrative or jurisdictional records, for defense, for economic development, or perhaps as general works of topographical reference.” vii Because we know this map was created for the latter purpose, we can assess it on a more utilitarian level. This map, unlike the others, is not illustrative. The maker of this map did not have to make decisions regarding color, stylization, or political statements of power. If this ship had not sunk, the simple design of this deck plan means this would still be a very useful tool today. With the exception of the original typographic elements, this plan is very similar to those of modern cruise ships. i

Sideri, Giorgio. Collapoda da Candia (c. 1537). Image from http://www.venicethefuture.com/images/base/1502.jpg.

Henderson, George, and Waterstone, Marvin. Excerpted from Maps, knowledge and power”, an essay by Harley, J. Brian on p.130.Geographic Thought: A Praxis Perspective. Routledge: 2008. iii

Harley, J. B. “The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography”, edited by Paul Laxton. Issue 2002, p. 35. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. (2002) iv Harley, J. B. “The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography”, edited by Paul Laxton. Issue 2002, p. 35-36. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. (2002) v Harley, J. B. “The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography”, edited by Paul Laxton. Issue 2002, p. 39. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. (2002) vi st Pickford, Nigel. The Atlas of Shipwrecks & Treasure: The History, Location, and Treasures of Ships Lost at Sea, 1 Edition. Levantine: p.30-31; Pirates 62-63; Prince Frederik pages102-103. Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc.: New York. (1994) vii Harley, J. B. “The New Nature of Maps: Essays in the History of Cartography”, edited by Paul Laxton. Issue 2002, p. 40. John Hopkins University Press: Baltimore. (2002)

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Number 45, Spring 2003

Cartography is Dead (Thank God!) Denis Wood Independent Scholar

Cartography Is Dead (Thank God!) Let’s admit it. Cartography is dead. And then let’s thank our lucky stars that after the better part of a century mapmaking is freeing itself from the dead hand of academia. That’s the crux of the matter: even as cartography was shanghaiing mapmaking, university geography departments were shanghaiing cartography. Some mapmakers were happy to “upgrade” their calling by shedding the craft implications of “making” and taking on the title of “professor,” but in general mapmaking imperatives were too universal to be constrained this way and so, no matter how badly university-based cartographers demanded it, few noticed, and even fewer paid attention to the attempts to make mapmaking a profession. Throughout this period which we might call the Age of Cartography - people with every kind of background continued to make every conceivable kind of map. Today it’s harder and harder for even cartographers to pretend they have much relevance. How many people attended NACIS XXIII? A hundred-fifty? I’ve been told that 11,000 people took part in the most recent ESRI user’s conference. Mapmaking? By all means! Cartography? What’s cartography? But then, easy come, easy go. When I tell people cartography’s not much better than a hundred years old they stare at me like I’m crazy. Pointing to words like “prehistoric,” “ancient,” and “medieval” in, for example, the title of the first volume of the Harley and Woodward History of Cartography they ask me, “What are you talking about?” The facts are simple enough: as far as we know “cartography” was coined as a Portuguese neologism (“cartographia”) by the Viscount de Santarem in 1839. Helen Wallis and Arthur Robinson say that the word “was quickly picked up and applied to the making of maps,” and that “mapmakers were soon calling themselves cartographers.” In fact, “cartography” is not attested to by the Oxford English Dictionary until 1859, “cartographer” not until 1863, “cartographic” not until 1880 (in the phrase “the cartographical art being only in its infancy”), and “cartogram” not until 1890 (and not in its modern sense until 1934). The word seems only gradually to have caught on, in fact, precisely as the subject to which it referred was making its way into the halls of academe. Imagine trying to justify a faculty position in “mapmaking.” “Cartography” sounds so much more respectable. In 1962 Erwin Raisz pointed out that, “In 1920 there were only two universities giving courses in cartography. At present the number is well over a hundred.” As we know, the number continued to rise into the early 1990s, when it began to decline. The signs are everywhere that this decline will accelerate. I’m betting that none of the positions currently occupied by cartographers will be filled with them once they fall vacant. Cartography will turn out to have been a mid-twentieth century phenomenon. The field’s dead. We’re just waiting for the death rattle. The word will stick around a while (words do), but its day is passing too. It has to. Take its use in phrases like “the history of cartography” or “cartographical innovations.” Applied to mapmaking prior to 1839 - to pick the earliest conceivable date - the word is at best anachronistic, at worst unpardonably presumptuous. Conflating the history of mapmaking

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cartographic perspectives

with that of cartography is like conflating the history of walking with that of the automobile. Were the history of the automobile written like we write the history of cartography, volumes of it would be devoted to the invention of sandals, of shoes. It’s not just silly, it denies the novelty of the innovation when it arrives. If “cartography” does survive, it will only be to refer to the practice of academic cartography in the twentieth century. Not the nineteenth? No, the word was too new then. It was still searching for its proper subject and form. It had yet to entrench itself. This only happened once those calling themselves cartographers entrenched themselves in universities and the related government bureaucracies. Mapmaking didn’t endure this professionalization alone. What happened to mapmaking happened to a range of practices as part of a general professionalization, an “embourgeoisment,” of what we might call the “white collar” trades. Apprenticeships vanished to be replaced with schooling. Names were changed. They were Latinized. Gravediggers became morticians. Newshounds became journalists. Teachers became educators. Sawbones became doctors. Mapmakers became cartographers. Ivan Illich refers to the middle of the twentieth century as The Age of Disabling Professions, “disabling” because the professionalization of so much life-work tended to disable non-professionals from imagining they could ... bury a body, start a newspaper, teach, care for their own health, make a map. To give a perfectly parallel example, it was in the middle of the nineteenth century that Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux coined the phrase “landscape architects” for themselves. “Landscape architect” caught on as a way to designate those who designed gardens, parks, campuses, residential precincts, even cities. In 1900 Harvard created the first landscape architecture department. The number of departments increased only slowly, but it exploded after World War II. Soon enough histories of landscape architecture were being written. Need I say that these historians discovered prehistoric, ancient, and medieval landscape architecture? Today landscape architects too are falling on harder times as civil engineers, architects, city planners (who broke from landscape architecture in the 1920s), park and playground designers (from new schools in forestry and natural resources), gardeners, earth artists, and others take on the design of gardens, parks, playgrounds, subdivisions, cities. Strong professions organize to prevent the practice of their mysteries by outsiders - Illich thinks about professions as cults - by conning legislatures into passing licensure laws. Weaker professions settle for certification programs. The weakest get along as they can. It’s against the law to practice law or medicine without a license. Public school teachers and accountants need to be certified. Anyone can call him- or herself an interior decorator or a cartographer. But all professions alike repel threats to the integrity of their professionalism by denigrating nonprofessional work as at best incompetent, and at worst as dangerous, threatening, even evil. Since the plain fact is that almost all maps are, and always have been, made by nonprofessionals (at least nonprofessional cartographers), cartography as a profession has been comparatively quiet about the quality of nonprofessional work. It has generally contented itself with encouraging what it has seen as good. But when threatened, it has responded with full professional hauteur. Classic was its reaction to the Peters’ map. Arno Peters’ map was ignored until its prominence and sales soared. Then it was attacked on all fronts: the map was ugly, the projection was stolen, and Peters wasn’t a

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Number 45, Spring 2003

cartographer but (gasp!) a journalist-propagandist for (double gasp!) leftist causes. When this strategy failed to stem the map’s growing popularity, the American Congress on Surveying and Mapping issued a fatwa against not just the Peters’ but all rectangular world maps. This had the useful effect of damning the Peter’s along with the Mercator (which Peters was using as a straw map to advocate for the superiority of his own projection), while seeming to attack neither. The feint fooled no one: in order to castigate the Peters ‘ and the Mercator, the ACSM was prepared to excommunicate an entire class of projections. Nearly the entire profession endorsed this idiotic resolution. Signing on were the American Cartographic Association, the American Geographical Society, the Association of American Geographers, the Canadian Cartographic Association, the National Geographic Society (but not NACIS). The resolution’s complete lack of effect - its laughable lack of effect - demonstrated to one and all how little authority the profession had. This was in 1989. It was, in its way, the death knell of the profession. GIS and ESRI just rolled the corpse over the cliff. The whole episode in its rigid prissiness - whose holier-than-thou tone attracts professional apologists even today! - made it really clear why the profession had to go: it was in the way. Of what? Of the ongoing evolution of human - not cartographic -mapmaking. The thing is, when it comes to mapmaking there are no outsiders, no more than there are outsiders when it comes to speaking or writing English. These are birthrights of the members of our society, who acquire the ability to speak and make maps as they grow up in it. Speaking and mapmaking are not like open-heart surgery or professional basketball which do require specialized training and years of practice. You can’t just step into the shoes of an NBA player and expect to score. You can’t just claw your way into your friend’s chest and repair her heart no matter how insistently her situation calls for it. But when a communication situation calls for speaking or making a map, you can just open your mouth (or attack the keyboard) or pick up your pen (or your mouse). I have no interest in denying that specialized training and years of practice can transform stumbling speech into eloquence, or a crude sketch map into a penetrating analysis; but surprisingly, training and practice are no guarantee of either. What seems to promote both are situations that call for them and people who are willing to rise to the challenge. I’m thinking at the moment of Gwendolyn Warren’s need to map where Detroit commuters ran over black kids on the Pointes-Downtown track, but I could just as easily be thinking of John Snow grappling with the nature of cholera or Tom Van Sant with the fragility of the earth. I could be thinking of Joseph Minard’s compulsion to map Napoleon’s losses on his Russian campaign or of Woody Sullivan’s to map the earth’s electromagnetic radiation (and so produce the first map of the earth at night). I could be thinking of Buckminster Fuller’s Dymaxion Map to which he was driven by his conviction that “spaceship earth” required a new way of being seen if its global reality were to be grasped, but I could as well be thinking of William Smith’s “Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales with Part of Scotland” to which he was driven by his conviction that the earth required a new way of being seen if its geologic reality were to be grasped. I could be thinking of Kevin Lynch’s “mental maps” of Boston, or of Harry Beck’s map of the London Underground, but just as easily It’s a long list, this of landmark maps made by people who were anything but professional cartographers, who were, in the cases above, “a black person of Detroit,” a man of medicine, an artist, an engineer, an astronomer, a designer/engineer/architect/ visionary, “a canal digger,”

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cartographic perspectives

an urban planner, an engineering draughtsman ... The communications situations they found themselves in called for maps and, as humans in map-immersed societies, they made maps in response. Thousands and thousands and thousands of mapmakers, trained in anything but cartography, do this everyday, many of them making their living at it, and many of the maps they make are as fine as any that have ever been made. Some of them, like the examples above, are sure to change the way we think about the world, and about maps. There’s a lot that cartographers have learned that is useful and valuable -1 have no interest in belittling the positive contributions made by the generations of academic cartographers - but there’s a lot that was dead wood to begin with, and is so rotten today it’s threatening the rest of it. All the prescriptive bullshit, every map must have a legend and a scale - all that - ignored in fact on a gazillion effective, useful maps, all that has to stop. And design! Academic cartographers have never understood a thing - not a thing -about design. God knows that, as a group, the least interesting, least attractive, least significant maps have been made by university cartographers: all that design talk, from design illiterates, that’s got to stop. And the hectoring of committed, driven people —you can’t change scale in a Xerox machine - that’s not helpful either. What would be helpful would be to offer professional assistance, on bended knee if necessary, to all the people trying to ameliorate their situation by mapping it: the First Peoples who have come to realize it’s map or be mapped; the impoverished locals trying to grapple with the impact of transnational mining, logging, and industrial development; people concerned about the rapid deterioration of their environment; people trying to get a handle on the concept of place ... Cartographers played a significant role in making the world safe for colonizers, mining conglomerates, and the military. We need to pay a little back. There’s no saving the profession. It’s over. But as it fades away there’s still an opportunity to leave a legacy we could contemplate without shame. That can’t be beyond our reach. For twenty-five years Denis Wood taught landscape architecture design studios and the history of landscape architecture as a professor in the School of Design at North Carolina State University. His Five Billion Years of Global Change was just published by Guilford Press.

PROJECT 7:

The Elementary Learing Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education

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The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education

Whitley R. Kemble 698 A: Graphic Design Seminar April 29, 2013

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

“…without the challenging possibilities of introducing the element of play, both teacher and student cannot help but be bored…” -Paul Rand

Introduction In his essay, “Design and the Play Instinct”, Paul Rand describes what has become known as the “play principle”. Like anything else, it begins with a well-constructed problem. It is human nature to assess and seek solutions. It is no different in gaming scenarios, in which the player must complete tasks and overcome challenges to advance. “Depending on the nature of the problem,” Rand writes, “some or all of the psychological and intellectual factors implicit in gameplaying are equally implicit in successful problem-solving…”i Although his essay is specific to design instruction for older design students, it is very much applicable to other disciplines and age groups. Filament Games LLC in Madison, Wis., specializes in educational gaming. Over the last eight years, filament has developed more than 40 learning games for middle-school-aged students. Most games focus on the sciences, but they’ve started to branch out to civics and language arts. The games are being met with great levels of success among teachers and their students. Filament’s games are largely structured around assessments, meaning teachers have a direct

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

means of measuring comprehension, progress, and mastery. There is also potential to see the specific areas students are struggling with, though this is an area of difficulty for some teachers. The problem is, these games are sometimes used as rewards instead of in supplement to the curricula. Filament Director of Research and Innovation Beth Quinn explains, “Teachers still tend to use games as ‘one-offs’ or supplemental activities…while educational games are used widely in classrooms, (they still) tend to live on the margins of a lesson plan…”ii If we tapped into the possibilities—took full advantage of the media capabilities of current technology—we could reenergize the classroom for our students while helping teachers provide more specialized assistance in the classroom. Turning course materials into games, competitions, etc., takes advantage of the need for play. “Unfortunately, in some of our schools little attempt is made to guide the student’s thinking in a logical progression…”, so students may not be prepared to apply the techniques, strategies, or even the materials used in the games to their everyday lives. “To insure that theoretical study does not end in a vacuum, practical applications of the basic principles gleaned from this exercise should be undertaken at the proper time…If possible, teaching should alternate between theoretical and practical problems—and between those with tightly stated ‘rules’ imposed by the teacher and those with rules implied by the problem itself.”iii I believe the best way to employ this theory in a classroom is by taking full advantage of our multimedia technology. My personal area of interest is the relationship between print and digital/interactive media. For my thesis project, I would like to explore how the integration of the two can be utilized to promote learning for young children. Scholastic Revolution is Just a Tap Away One in four American high school students fails to graduate on time; nearly 7,000 students drop out each year.iv These are sobering facts, especially when considering how this impacts their futures. Experts at CHOICES, a program that encourages students to remain in school, believe boredom in the classroom plays a major role. They’re not the only ones, either. In an article for District Administration Magazine, University of North Texas professor Cathleen Norris writes that lackluster teaching methods, in combination outdated curriculum, fail to engage students in the classroom.v It’s a simple concept—when our methods fail, our students fail. The answer, it would seem, is to update our curricula and revamp its delivery so that it pulls students in and keeps their minds constantly working. Enter the concept of edutainment. Tablets have been increasingly incorporated into the teacher’s arsenal of tools. They’re being used in classrooms across the nation, and have shown to be especially effective in math and science coursework. More and more schools, in partnership with the US Department of

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

Education, are taking additional measures to include these devices in their elementary school programs. What they’re finding is that the more types of media used to cover materials, the greater the comprehension among the students.vi Data from the most recent report on the Ready to Learn initiative indicates that children who watch educational programming on television and participate in related games online have greater vocabulary and reading comprehension skills than those who did not.vii According to the report, “when children ages 3-7 were invited to play a Martha Speaks game on the iPhone for two weeks (playing for an average of 2.5 hours overall during that period), they made dramatic gains in vocabulary, increasing their targeted words by as much as 31 percent.”viii They also saw more exponential growth when these tools were further integrated into the classroom, as well as when parents engage with their children while they’re experiencing these media.ix Although this research was conducted primarily in support of television media, it is highly applicable to interactive digital media. According to the most recent Nielsen survey, children in 70 percent of tablet-owning households use tablets on a regular basis.x Their top categories? Gaming, learning, and entertainment. Technology is being increasingly integrated into the classroom, and the age of adoption decreases each year. Introducing children to these tools at an early age allows them to quickly become technologically proficient, while developing skills and mental processes that will carry into adulthood. By teaching them to apply these tools in a way that enhances their education, we can encourage their natural inclination to media devices while instilling good study habits and an early love of learning. Parents and educators would, essentially, be setting them up for success by keeping them engaged with educational content on a playful and practical level. If exposure to content on multiple media platforms can boost learning in this way, How might learning be affected by bringing these elements together? I predict that combining these media— video, browsing, gaming, literature, etc.—will only improve the learning process for children.

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

Thesis Concept & Format I propose to develop an iPad application that works with a book-like interface. This application will be structured as a children’s book with embedded interactive and gaming features. It will be created with the purpose of educating children about Iowa’s history and heritage as shaped by the Great Plains Indians. This subject is one that children in the proposed age group are unlikely to be familiar with, and one that is often under-taught in our schools. This provides an opportunity to examine the role of technology in education, and a level starting point for research. At its core, my thesis will be a multi-level study of media, education, and interaction. The finished product will essentially function by making a wide variety of instructional tools and educational resources available in one app/product. By incorporating interactivity, multimedia, and traditional text, it will bring capitalize on the benefits of both print and digital media. These elements, I hope, will work together to reveal clues on how mixed media can be better-integrated approach play learning. My goal is to get an indication of the following: 1. the ways children interact with interfaces, as well as their evaluation of this sort of product/content delivery; 2. how integrating different types of media could potentially improve the overall media experience; 3. and the efficacy of this tool in the learning process, and how current play learning methods can be improved by the use of these tools. This book/app hybrid will include games and songs to help teach children about the history of tribes native to Iowa and the Great Plains. This app and interface will be for children ages 6-8. HYPOTHESIS: I predict, based on existing research and Paul Rand’s theories on play learning, that elementary students will be engaged with and curious about the content, enjoy the challenges posed by the gaming aspects of the app, and will find the overall interface experience favorable. For these reasons, I also predict they will have greater understanding of the technology and retention of material. METHODOLOGY Ideally, I would be able to test knowledge before any exposure to the app. The app itself would have testing embedded in the form of matching games, multiple-choice questions, etc. This veiled evaluation will provide information on which tasks have been mastered, as well as those users struggle with. Actual assessment questions will be included to confirm this information. In addition to having the primary user (the children) evaluate their experience, I would also like to record parents’ observations of how their children respond to the app and product, as well as sharing their own opinions.

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

If results warrant further research, creating an app with similar content (i.e., for history courses) would benefit from additional long-term testing. This may include pre-testing, testing once immediately after first exposure, and again after several weeks (assuming parents agree to help the children engage in the activities regularly over a set time period). Longitudinal research would provide a better indication of how these tools may be adapted and/or employed for use in the classroom.

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

Structure/Phases of Development Phase 1: Preparatory Research (2-3 months) In Phase 1 of my thesis, I will be conducting background research on Native Americans of the Great Plains. I anticipate that the research phase will take several months. Depending on what research yields, my major professor and I may decide to narrow the focus of this topic. During that time, I also intend to begin developing content (writing, sketches, etc.). Thus, there will be some overlap between phases 1 and 2. Phase 2: Book Development (3-5 months) Phase 2 will be dedicated to developing the narrative and interface for “Buffalo Tales”, a 24to 48-page “book” of poems, short stories, and songs exploring origin myths/trickster tales, way-of-life, and culture. This phase will likely overlap with Phase 3. Phase 3: Tablet Application Development (3-5 months) The tablet application will consist of 5-10 games, puzzles, and/or sing-/clap-a-longs exploring origin myths/trickster tales, way-of-life stories, and culture. This stage will commence in January 2014. Phase 4: Recruiting & Testing (3-5 months) Small groups of children in the target age group will be divided into three groups—Book Only, Application Only, and Combination Book/App. All children will be tested prior to exposure to the materials, and immediately after exposure. Parents will be asked to facilitate usage for 2-4 weeks following initial exposure, and to independently “quiz” their children at weekly or bi-weekly intervals. Final data will indicate the impact of each medium in shortand long-term retention. Phase 5: Reporting To conclude the thesis, I will report my process and findings in a booklet of 3 parts: • Part 1 will outline the structure of the thesis project and the reasoning behind it; • Part 2 will outline the quantitative findings from phase 4; • Part 3 will include a conclusion, as well as a summary of other observations (primarily qualitative) made during phase 4. This may include response to either platform, strengths/weaknesses in usability, etc. I hope to have this finished by March 2014; this will give me ample time to revise and submit my findings for publication.

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

WORKS CITED i

Kepes, Gyorgy. “Design and the Play Instinct” by Paul Rand, p. 156, Education of Vision. New York: G. Braziller. (1965)

Quinn, Beth. “Gameplay Data: Beyond Assessment”. Filament Games LLC: FilamentGames.com. (October 2012). Accessed online at https://live-filamentgames.netdnassl.com/sites/default/files/Quinn_GameplayData%28WhitePaper%29.pdf on April 26, 2013.

iii

Kepes, Gyorgy. “Design and the Play Instinct” by Paul Rand, p. 157, Education of Vision. New York: G. Braziller. (1965)

CHOICES Education Group, Private Donors Report, p. 1 and 2. (2006) Accessed online at http://www.choices.org/documents/PrivateDonors.pdf on April 26, 2013.

Norris, Cathleen and Soloway, Elliot. “Using Tomorrow’s Technology to Teach Yesterday’s Curriculum— What a Waste”, p. 59 of District Administration Magazine. (April 2012) Accessed online at http://www.districtadministration.com/article/using-tomorrow%E2%80%99stechnology-teach-yesterday%E2%80%99s-curriculum on April 26, 2013.

vii

Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS Kids. “Findings from Ready to Learn, 2005-2010”, p. 17. (April 2011)

viii

Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS Kids. “Findings from Ready to Learn, 2005-2010”, p. 17. (April 2011)

Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS Kids. “Findings from Ready to Learn, 2005-2010”, p. 15. (April 2011)

Nielsen Report, Q4 2011. Accessed infographic online at http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/newswire/uploads/2012/02/children-tabletusage.gif on April 24, 2013.

The Elementary Learning Experience: Integrating Print & Digital Platforms in Early Education Whitley R. Kemble | 698A, Spring 2013

WORKS CITED i

Kepes, Gyorgy. “Design and the Play Instinct” by Paul Rand, p. 156, Education of Vision. New York: G. Braziller. (1965)

iii

Kepes, Gyorgy. “Design and the Play Instinct” by Paul Rand, p. 157, Education of Vision. New York: G. Braziller. (1965)

CHOICES Education Group, Private Donors Report, p. 1 and 2. (2006) Accessed online at http://www.choices.org/documents/PrivateDonors.pdf on April 26, 2013.

vii

Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS Kids. “Findings from Ready to Learn, 2005-2010”, p. 17. (April 2011)

viii

Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS Kids. “Findings from Ready to Learn, 2005-2010”, p. 17. (April 2011)

Corporation for Public Broadcasting and PBS Kids. “Findings from Ready to Learn, 2005-2010”, p. 15. (April 2011)

Nielsen Report, Q4 2011. Accessed infographic online at http://www.nielsen.com/content/dam/corporate/us/en/newswire/uploads/2012/02/children-tabletusage.gif on April 24, 2013.

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What Happens When Toddlers Zone Out With an iPad By BEN WORTHEN

IPads can be wonderful, but are they wonderful for toddlers? Ben Worthen on Lunch Break explains why pediatric neuroscientists and researchers suggest that the iPad differs from TV and video games. Photo: Darcy Padilla for The Wall Street Journal.

More than half of the young children in the U.S. now have access to an iPad, iPhone or similar touch-screen device. For parents, their children's love of these devices raises a lot of questions. Kids for years have sat too close to the television for too long or played hours of Madden on family room game players. But pediatric neuroscientists and researchers who have studied the effects of screen-time on children suggest the iPad is a different beast. A young child will look away from a TV screen 150 times an hour, says Daniel Anderson, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Massachusetts. His studies over the past 30 years also showed children have trouble knowing where on a TV screen to look. A well-designed iPad app is more engaging because often the place on the screen that a child touches is the same as where the action happens. Live Chat Ben Worthen and Michael Rich, director of the

Many researchers hope this will help children learn. One study using an iPod Touch and sponsored by the

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Center on Media and Child Health at Boston Children's Hospital discuss toddlers and touch screens Read the Recap

Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop found children 4- to 7-years-old improved on a vocabulary test after using an educational app called "Martha Speaks." The 13 5-year-olds tested averaged a 27% gain. A study using a different educational app had a similar result, with 3-year-olds exhibiting a 17% gain. In many ways, the average toddler using an iPad is a guinea pig. While the iPad went on sale two years ago, rigorous, scientific studies of how such a device affects the development of young children typically take three to five years.

Darcy Padilla for The Wall Street Journal.

Julia Campins's son, age 2, uses his iPad in their San Francisco home.

Related Once Upon a (Virtual) Time

There is "little research on the impact of technology like this on kids," says Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Hospital. The iPad and similar devices allow children to interact with technology at a younger age than ever before. Tiny fingers not yet old enough to manipulate a mouse or operate a videogame console can navigate a tablet touch screen.

Journal Community

"Unfortunately a lot of the real-life experimentation is going to be done by parents who now have young kids," says Glenda Revelle, associate professor of human development and family sciences at the University of Arkansas. Some parents readily share a tablet with their children, citing the many apps marketed as educational tools. Some do not. Still other families turn to it as a tool of last resort to entertain and appease children on plane and car trips. In the list of parental worries about tablet use: that it will make kids more sedentary and less sociable. There's also the mystery of just what is happening in a child's brain while using the device.

Darcy Padilla for The Wall Street Journal.

He plays with a music and animal iPad app,. The family rule: If he whines, the iPad, which his grandfather gave him, is taken away.

The brain develops quickest during the first few years of a child's life. At birth, the human brain has formed about 2,500 synapsesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the connections that allow the brain to pass along signalsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;per brain cell. That number grows to about 15,000 per brain cell by age 3. In later years, the number decreases.

The more television children watch during these formative years, Dr. Christakis says, the more likely they are to develop attention problems later on. The study was based on observation, not lab research, he says. Other studies haven't found a correlation. While he hasn't studied tablets and young children, he suspects the effect could be similarâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;or perhaps more significant. "One of the

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strengths of the iPad"—it is interactive—"may be the weakness," Dr. Christakis says. Thirty-nine percent of children ages 2- to 4-years-old and 52% of kids ages 5 to 8 have used an iPad, iPhone or similar touch-screen device to play games, watch videos or use other apps, according to a survey last year by Common Sense Media, a San Francisco-based nonprofit group. Apple has sold more than 65 million iPads, and analysts predict that consumers will buy about 120 million tablets from Apple and other manufacturers this year. Julia Campins's 2-year-old son received an iPad in December from his grandfather. Mostly he uses it for Dr. Seuss books in which the app reads the story, and games about animals. Ms. Campins, who lives in San Francisco, says it keeps her son calm and entertained on flights. At home, Ms. Campins, a 31-year-old lawyer, and her husband, Nick Campins, only give him the iPad when they need to get things done around the house. The family rule: If her son whines, the iPad goes away. "When we feel ourselves using it too much, or whenever he starts whining for it, we take that as a sign and cut back." I first let my son use a borrowed iPad on a crosscountry flight when he was 2½ years old. He had cried for four straight hours on a previous trip, and I hoped the iPad would keep him entertained. He understood how to use it instantly and for five hours played kids' games, used a drawing app and watched episodes of "Curious George." About a year later, my wife and I bought an iPad, loaded it with word and puzzle games and let our son use it on a more regular basis. His knowledge of words seemed to pick up immediately. We also noticed things that worried us. He would go into a trance-like state when he used the iPad. He wouldn't respond when we called his name. "He's concentrating," says Sandra Calvert, a professor at Georgetown University. It's physiologically the same thing he does while deeply immersed in, say, Legos. Psychologists call it "flow experience." There is a subtle difference: The child decides when a building is finished; an app determines when the task is completed correctly. Researchers say it's unclear whether this difference has any impact on a child. Soon, getting our son to put down the iPad became a nightly battle. "It gives him a dopamine squirt," says Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital in Boston, referring to the brain chemical often associated with pleasure. Many apps for kids are designed to stimulate dopamine releases—hence encouraging a child to keep playing—by offering rewards or exciting visuals at unpredictable times. My wife and I stopped letting our son use the iPad. Now he rarely asks for it. He is 4 and his friends aren't talking about cool iPad games, so he doesn't feel he's missing out. The experts interviewed were mixed on whether we did the right thing. About half say they would have taken away the iPad if their kid exhibited similar behavior—asking for it constantly, whining. The rest say we overreacted. Write to Ben Worthen at ben.worthen@wsj.com

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Record: 1 Title: How I published an INTERACTIVE CHILDREN'S STORY. Authors: Williams-Ng, Stacey Source: Writer. Jun2012, Vol. 125 Issue 6, p35-37. 3p. Document Type: Article Subject Terms: *INTERACTIVE books *ADVENTURE stories for children *ELECTRONIC books *ELECTRONIC publishing *PLOTS (Drama, novel, etc.) Reviews & Products: ASTROJAMMIES (Book) Abstract: The article explores the process and gives advice on how to create the interactive children's story "Astrojammies," written by the author and available as a book application for mobile devices. The author suggests familiarizing oneself with the pre-existing products, extensively planning the story, and choosing the appropriate format. She also gives a brief summary of the production process of a digital book. Full Text Word Count: 2312 ISSN: 00439517 Accession Number: 75066429 Database: Academic Search Elite

How I published an INTERACTIVE CHILDREN'S STORY NEW PUBLISHING An author shares her process--and tips--for creating a fun book app After years as a creative director for multimedia, I longed to get back into traditional illustration and storytelling, and I started daydreaming about publishing a children's book. I began researching and submitting the traditional way, but I concluded that the best way for me to break into the increasingly competitive world of children's book publishing was right under my nose: the digital frontier. I published my first children's book, Astrojammies, as an interactive book app for the iPad in 2010. Astrojammies, a story about a little boy who imagines his pajamas can magically transport him into outer space, is what the industry calls "born-digital content," meaning it was available in digital format before print (my book has since been published in hardcover). It was a rare bird at the time--few publishers then or now are willing to take the risk of publishing an unknown author into relatively unknown territory. In fact, the App Store is notoriously crowded, which leads to the problem of what the industry calls "discoverability." Nearly everyone struggles with this when placing content on virtual

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shelves. So, although the obstacles to creating a self-published book are falling, thanks in part to digital publishing, the headaches associated with marketing and distributing your book are still there. And without a publisher's help, the road to success can be lonesome. But, if you, like me, are entering into this wild frontier with open eyes, and you have a fierce willingness to take risks on your story, then digital publishing might be your answer. Reading what's out there Begin by doing your research. I know: You're a writer, so you already knew that. Or did you? Now that I am helping other authors get their work translated into digital formats and published, I am surprised when these same writers answer in the negative to my first question: Do you own a digital reader? Buy one. If you're considering this as a legitimate option for your work, then think of your purchase as a necessary business expense. In preparing for Astrojammies, I bit the bullet, bought an iPad, and then spent many hours (and many multiples of $4.99) to learn from what I thought were the best of the iPad children's books. Which brings me to my second question: What are your favorite digital books, and why? Now, you may say that you're a novelist, so your favorite digital books are your favorite books period. Story trumps format. And I would agree with you, although I'd encourage you to look at transmedia digital books--books embedded with interactive media--especially if you write YA or romance. For example, Amanda Havard's The Survivors was published as a straightforward e-book as well as a standalone book app that her publishing company calls an "immersedition," complete with embedded maps, Twitter feeds and music videos. See also Penguin's new "amplified edition" of Ayn Rand's masterpiece Atlas Shrugged for the iPad. In cases such as these, the digital version becomes almost like a movie adaptation of a book--similar but altogether different. For children's books in particular, the digital realm is exciting new territory--for me, anyway. For my young readers, however, it's pretty ordinary. Children today are familiar with the touch-screen format, and I assume that when a 4-year-old sees my story on her parents iPad, it's likely not the first app she has encountered there. I don't have to tell her to touch the rocket to make it blast off; she sees the rocket and expects that it darn well better blast off. Tough crowd. For Astrojammies, I wanted to use the best of the available technology for the touchscreen tablet to create enhancements that would make the story really come alive for a young reader. My most important rule: nothing gimmicky. I noticed in my research that some animated book apps included plenty of sound effects and push-button interactions that did little to propel the story forward or add meaning. As an illustrator/writer, I already think in pictures. I've worked with art directors, and I know that even

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with paintings, the first concern is to make every image meaningful. (In fact, some people say the first "interactive books" were Victorian picture books.) So this lesson carries over into the interactive space, where the designer of the total book must consider how each element--sound, image, animation--adds value to the reading experience. One of my favorite pages in Astrojammies is the one in which my protagonist, Jimmy, is seeking an outer-space destination among Jupiter's many moons. I painted a series of different-colored moons and placed them on a space-sky background. In the hardcover version, I changed this illustration, because--well, a page of moons is not compelling in print. But on the iPad, the moons are "objects" in the scene and have weight and bounce like rubber balls. Readers can toss them about with a finger gesture, and the moons knock into each other and against the edges of the tablet. (This float-about effect is called "physics"; the term comes from the world of video-game development.) Plus, each moon is programmed with a different musical chord that plays whenever a moon collides with your finger or another surface. The page, a favorite when I do school visits, mesmerizes kids and could only be possible with this technology. A peek behind the scenes My writing process was unaffected by the digital nature of my project. As anyone in the publishing business will tell you, a good story is paramount. So I wrote and edited my story before any of the design work began. My illustration process, on the other hand, could not have been more different. Because I wanted to animate every page in some way, I had to create the paintings in layers, much like the "eels" created in the animation industry. I painted all objects and characters separately from their backgrounds, so they could move freely in an interactive space. Looking at the spreads in the hardcover version today, you'd never know that Jimmy was painted on one board and his bedroom on another, but they are two separate paintings, created so that Jimmy could move. The working process went something like this: Step 1: Planning. When the book was still in the manuscript phase, I was invited to participate in preliminary meetings with the project manager and the development team at Demibooks, so that we could establish an overall vision for the book app. We discussed our expectations and asked questions such as, "Roughly how many animations do we want in this book?" and "What is the tone of this story?" Step 2: Ideation. My work on illustrations began while the development team patiently waited--for weeks. As I toiled on sketches and layouts, I worked more in "storyboard mode" than in "dummy-book" mode. That is to say, I made several quick sketches per page to imagine how the stage would look before and after the action played out. Step 3: Storyboarding. I formalized my sketches and layouts into a fully articulated storyboard that

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outlined the specific contents of every page in the book. This crucial stage defined the scope of the work for everyone involved. For example, on any given page of the storyboard, I described and illustrated the interactive elements and noted the desired voice-over effects, musical score (if any) as well as sound effects. Step 4: Content creation. For me, this meant illustration --the long stretch in which I had to complete all the paintings, scan them into digital format, and "cut" them from their white backgrounds so that the team could manipulate them in the scene. Painting illustrations remains an arduous, careful task, no matter the final delivery format. Step 5: Composition. The technical team spent several weeks composing the app one page at a time. Today, writers and illustrators can compose their own book apps using do-it-yourself software platforms (see the sidebar on this page). During this phase of work, I remained on call for additions or revisions, and we set up weekly review meetings to discuss work-in-progress. Many fun parts of the interactive design were born during this process. I was fortunate to work with developers who have great personalities and childlike imaginations, so they often came up with ideas for the book app that I hadn't thought of. Many times we happily adjusted not only the storyboard but the paintings themselves to make these ideas happen. Step 6: Testing. When we felt the book app was almost ready, we set up school visits with first-grade classes to conduct informal "user testing." Watching the children interact with the app, we asked them questions about their favorite parts, and we gauged their reactions by simply observing their movements and facial expressions. One correction we made at this stage was to redesign the rocket blast so that the rocket would reappear for kids to tap again and again. We should have anticipated that young children would crave repetitive action, but we missed it until testing. For more details about how we built Astrojammies, see our nine-part blog, culminating in a short video, at demibooks.com/astrojammies. Navigating formats You'll notice I have only discussed the iPad platform until now, since this is a story of my journey, and I published for that device only. But as you consider your own strategy for digital publishing, its important to learn about the various electronic readers and devices as well as the formats that make the books readable on the devices. What are the differences among EPUBs, enhanced EPUBs and book apps? They are three different formats that in some cases run on different devices. The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) maintains EPUB, the standard distribution format for digital publications and documents. It allows for "reflowable text," meaning that if a reader tilts a device or increases the font size, the text will flow naturally to the next page to accommodate the change.

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Newer releases of EPUB (now in its third version, EPUB 3) allow for enhancements such as pop-up footnotes, hyperlinks, movie clips and sounds that can be embedded in the flow of the text. EPUBs and enhanced EPUBs can be read across all digital devices, although the enhanced content is limited to what the device is capable of displaying. There are some exceptions to this general rule of thumb, such as Apple's iBooks Author, which makes EPUBs that run only in iBooks on Apple devices. Book apps are stand-alone applications for iPad or Android devices, and readers cannot access these books from their device's library app (for iPad, that's the iBooks bookshelf app). Because they are not hindered by the limitations of EPUB, they are still the preferred option for highly visual and interactive stories, such as children's books and media-rich nonfiction. However, they are often more expensive to produce and may be losing ground as enhanced EPUBs offer an ever-increasing range of possibilities. Is digital self-publishing the right decision for you? For a children's book illustrator/ author, Apples iPad was--and is--where it's at for me. Since most schools have been using Apple computers for years, kids know and love Apple. Parents have embraced the iPad, because it can house movies, games and picture books all in one place--a huge blessing during a car trip. And with more than 55 million iPads sold as of 2011, the iPad offers a huge audience. You'll have to decide whether the self-published label bothers you. At the end of the day, I had a beautifully produced story released in the App Store for an international audience, and I was happy with that. Create your own interactive book with a free app DEMIBOOKS IS the company behind Demibooks Composer, a free app that allows you to create interactive books for the iPad, right on the device itself. After importing your own pictures and media files, you assemble the pieces to build a working book app using only your finger and the keypad to navigate. When your story is complete, you pay Demibooks a publishing fee to prepare your file for export and to test it. Demibooks can submit the finished book to Apple on your behalf. Composer is a great option for those who already have a strong grasp of layout, illustration and basic graphic-design software. Because it was originally intended for children's books, it is best suited for work in highly visual, low-word-count formats, such as picture books or cookbooks. Demibooks can also work with service providers to provide the software platform for custom book apps, especially in cases where the needs of the author or publisher are not easily created on Composer. For example, Demibooks can provide the underlying technology and source the talent to produce a long-format book such as a novel or textbook as an interactive stand-alone book app. The Survivors, mentioned in this article, is one such example. This summer Demibooks will be announcing Storytime, its new reader app that parents can

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download to their iPads to access a mini store of the best "Made on Composer" children's books. For more information, go to demibooks.com. --S.W. Astrojammies is available on the App Store for $4.99. Currently for iPad only, it will be released for Android and other devices soon. The hardcover version is for sale on Amazon. The author used storyboards to plan interactive elements and sound effects for each page of Astrojammies, a children's book app about a boy who imagines his pajamas can launch him into space. Writer/illustrator Stacey Williams-Ng hand-painted artwork, then scanned it. ~~~~~~~~ By Stacey Williams-Ng Stacey Williams-Ng is the author and illustrator of Astrojammies and the creative director behind many other interactive children's hook apps. A former multimedia instructor, she is a frequent lecturer on digital storytelling. She currently lives in Milwaukee and is busily working on the sequel to Astrojammies. Copyright of Writer is the property of Kalmbach Publishing Co. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10008707/Toddlers-becoming-so-addicted-to-iPads-they-require-therapy.html

Toddlers becoming so addicted to iPads they require therapy Children as young as four are becoming so addicted to smartphones and iPads that they require psychological treatment.

A young schoolboy left his family with a £2000 credit card bill after using an app on his grandfather’s iPad.

By Victoria Ward 4:29PM BST 21 Apr 2013

Experts have warned that parents who allow babies and toddlers to access tablet computers for several hours a day are in danger of causing “dangerous” long term effects. The youngest known patient being treated in the UK is a four-year-old girl from the South East. Her parents enrolled her for compulsive behaviour therapy after she became increasingly “distressed and inconsolable” when the iPad was taken away from her. Her use of the device had escalated over the course of a year and she had become addicted to using it up for to four hours a day.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10008707/Toddlers-becoming-so-addicted-to-iPads-they-require-therapy.html

Dr Richard Graham, who launched the UK’s first technology addiction programme three years ago, said he believed there were many more addicts of her age. “The child's mother called me and described her symptoms,” he said. "She told me she had developed an obsession with the device and would ask for it constantly. She was using it three to four hours every day and showed increased agitation if it was removed." Dr Graham said that young technology addicts experienced the same withdrawal symptoms as alcoholics or heroin addicts, when the devices were taken away. He warned that the condition prevented young people from forming normal social relationships, leaving them drained by the constant interaction. "Children have access to the internet almost from birth now,” he told the Sunday Mirror. “They see their parents playing on their mobile devices and they want to play too. It's difficult, because having a device can also be very useful in terms of having a reward, having a pacifier. But if you don't get the balance right it can be very dangerous. "They can't cope and become addicted, reacting with tantrums and uncontrollable behaviour when they are taken away. Then as they grow older, the problem only gets worse. Even the most shy kids, when they hit their teens, suddenly want to become sociable and popular." It is feared that products such as baby-proof iPad covers and iPotties, which feature built-in iPad stands, only fuel the problem. Parents who have found themselves unable to wean their children off computer games and mobile phones are paying up to £16,000 for a 28-day “digital detox” programme designed by Dr Graham at the Capio Nightingale clinic in London. Psychiatrists estimate that the number of people who have become digitally dependent has risen by 30 per cent over the past three years. A survey last week revealed that more than half of parents allowed their babies to play with their phone or tablet device. One in seven of more than 1,000 parents questioned by babies.co.uk website admitted that they

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/10008707/Toddlers-becoming-so-addicted-to-iPads-they-require-therapy.html

let them use the gadgets for four or more hours a day. James Macfarlane, managing director of the website, said: “Given that babies between 3-12 months are awake for only around 10 hours per day this is a huge proportion of their waking day. “Although 81 per cent of our users felt that children today spend too much time on smart devices, it hasn’t put most of them off using them to entertain their baby.”

going mobile

• Cathleen Norris and Elliot Soloway

Using Tomorrow’s Technology to Teach Yesterday’s Curriculum What a waste.

If we want children to memorize the capital of each state or the presidents of the United States, then 3x5 flashcards, at $0.99 for 25, is a timetested technology. There are dozens and dozens of flashcard and drill-type apps on Apple’s iTunes store that basically simulate 3x5 flashcards in one way or another, and many are even free. From the stories we’ve heard about iPad usage, especially in the lower grades, these apps are very popular. While these iPad apps typically emphasize the flash of flashcards better than their paper-based cousins do, in these challenging economic times, one would be irresponsible not to ask the following question: Are flashcards that cost $600.99 that much more effective than flashcards that cost $0.99? Not only is there no evidence that iPad flashcard apps are more effective than 3x5 flashcards, but we didn’t find even one empirical study that explored this question. According to Apple, there are already 1.5 million iPads among the 55 million K12 students in the United States. Whatever happened to data-driven decision making? Fast-forward 12 months and you can see the headline in The New York Times: “Yet again schools are wasting their money on educational technology.” Is the technology at fault? Is the iPad the bad guy? Absolutely not. The bad guy is an outdated curriculum. Why do we still insist on making children memorize the capitals of states when such facts are just a Google search away? Because the standardized tests are still primarily fact-based. At the same time, we say with total sincerity that we need to prepare our children to compete in a global, knowledge-work economy, where the focus is on 21stcentury skills such as teamwork and deep www.DistrictAdministration.com

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Are flashcards that cost $600.99 that much more effective than flashcards that cost $0.99? understanding—the how and why—but we act by promoting the drilling of our children on the who, what and when. Interestingly, via the ATC21S Foundation, Cisco, Microsoft and Intel—three giant global corporations with joint yearly revenues of about $200 billion, who are not education researchers or education practitioners or education policy makers per se—are taking a leadership role in developing new tests that truly focus on assessing the growth of 21st-century skills such as teamwork and problem solving. Perhaps we should be paying more attention to the ATC21S Foundation.

K12 schools are wasting money by applying what is unquestionably one of the most amazing technologies ever invented to teach what every thinking educator and thinking parent knows as a 20th-century, irrelevant curriculum. The motion picture camera was initially used to record theater, and it took a few years before Hollywood came along to invent movies, a new genre of storytelling. With that in mind, perhaps it’s okay to use the iPads for flashcards and drilling exercises for a short while. But enough is enough. Now is the time to use tomorrow’s technology to teach tomorrow’s curriculum. DA Cathleen Norris is a Regents Professor at the University of North Texas and a past ISTE President. Elliot Soloway is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor at the University of Michigan and Chair of ISTE’s Special Interest Group on Mobile Learning (SIGML). For the past 10 years, Cathie and Elliot have been circumnavigating the globe, advocating for the use of mobile technologies in classrooms. April 2012 59

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Copyright of District Administration is the property of Professional Media Group, LLC and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.

Touch AND Grow Learning and Exploring Using Tablets Bonnie Blagojevic, Hillary Brumer, Sue Chevalier, Audrey O’Clair, and Karen Thomes

Young children are increasingly using tablets (as well as smartphones and other devices with touch screens) in early education settings and with family members. This raises important questions, such as when and how these devices can be used with young children. Tammy and Rose, age 4, have been studying sunflowers with their class-

Intentional choices: Selecting the right tool for the task

mates. They want to sing and record a song about sunflowers while creating a drawing, using an application (app) on the tablet. The girls problem solve to coordinate their efforts and are thrilled with the result. They repeatedly share their production with other children and adults in their rural Head Start/public pre-K/early intervention classroom.

Whether choosing a traditional or a new tool, such as a tablet, teachers need a clear understanding of • how the tool can meet identified educational and life goals for a child or for a group of children; • the functions of various tools; • how to monitor children’s engagement and progress, and adjust tasks accordingly; and

photos © bonnie blagojevic

• the children’s interests and preferences—individually and as a group.

TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN

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To help the class learn more about sunflowers, Kathryn, Tammy and Rose’s teacher, used the tablet to find online sites with photos and facts. She then took the children on a virtual tour of Van Gogh’s sunflower paintings. They read and discussed an electronic picture book about Van Gogh’s life. The children had already examined real sunflowers and their parts, made sketches, read informational texts and stories, counted seeds, and participated in a variety of investigations touching on every learning domain. The teacher’s use of the tablet alongside hands-on early learning activities expanded the children’s horizons. Activities offered on the tablet provided new ways for the children to represent and share what they learned.

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Using the tablet: Extending learning Nadia cares for six toddlers and preschoolers in her family child care program. At story time, she reads aloud a board book. She and the children discuss action words from the story, such as bow and twirl, review the words, and act out the motions. Later, Nadia and the children look at and listen to the e-book version of the same story on a tablet. While Nadia prepares lunch, three children take turns touching particular words on the screen to hear them read aloud or using their fingers to cause a character to bow or twirl. The e-book animations add playful actions that support the story line and inspire additional discussion. They also offer visual support for the action words.

Tool and app selection is important • Research features and types of tablets and apps to determine the best match for daily use with children and by adults. • Explore the entire app. Are all activity choices appropriate, and do they enhance children’s daily learning experiences? • Look for apps that allow for audio and photo input. They can be culturally sensitive if they allow children to input images and audio that reflect their own culture. • Consider the feedback options. In some apps a feedback option tells children immediately whether their choice is correct. Apps that decrease the number of available answer choices may help motivate a child who is struggling.

Supporting Dual language learners

One of the benefits of including tablets in your program is they can put language supports at your fingertips. Find translation apps for the home languages spoken by the children in your group. You will be able to find key words in the languages of dual language learners so they can understand the concepts being explored. Find nonverbal supports like pictures and video clips. Use them to make concepts understandable for dual language learners at the moment learning is happening.

Introducing tablets to children Consider how to introduce the tablet and apps.

Using tablets for documentation As the only adult in her program, Nadia uses technology to help her document children’s activities and experiences. This allows her to communicate with families and meet accreditation requirements for documentation needed to maintain state licensing and National Association for Family Child Care accreditation. Using the video feature on her tablet, she records Colin, age 2, for two minutes, as he tries to get a baby doll to stay in a toy high chair while putting on the tray. Nadia later reviews the video on the tablet and dictates comments about Colin’s persistence in problem solving into an app on her smartphone that transcribes words into text. Nadia can share the video clips and notes with family members via e-mail. The videos allow families to observe their child, while the notes explain Nadia’s interpretation of what is going on and how she will use this information to plan new learning activities.

• Lead a discussion with children in small or large groups or individually, whichever is most appropriate. • Use accurate language and words when naming the device and its parts and demonstrating how it works. • Discuss careful and respectful use of the tool. Create and review poems, chants, and songs about rules and routines as needed to help children remember them. • Schedule individual support time, practice with a peer, and extra time to explore for children with differing abilities or limited prior experience.

Managing tablet use Strategies for ensuring safe and effective use of tablets vary depending on the number available and the educational setting. Some considerations to keep in mind: • Plan how to set up the device (as you would for other kinds of learning). Think about the number of apps and how to organize and display them.

FOR THE PRESCHOOL PROFESSIONAL

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• Promote social interaction by planning pairs or small group activities that lead to peer mentoring, collaboration, and problem solving. • Help children wait their turn by offering a sign-up list, if appropriate. • Ensure balance between child choice and teacher choice. • Carefully monitor the amount of time children are engaged with tablets and how they are using them. • Remember—more isn’t necessarily better. Helping children become thoroughly familiar with a few intentionally selected apps is a good way to start.

Increasing access to learning

Assessing understanding

Tablets can personalize learning for diverse learners, including dual language learners. The devices can help them learn new skills and become familiar with routines and activities.

Teachers and administrators can use tablets to evaluate and document learning.

• Yiannis is anxious about riding the bus to school, but he is unable to express his thoughts or ask for help in English. His teacher realizes a personal story can help and uses the tablet to take and combine recorded phrases with photos of Yiannis, the bus, and the bus driver. Yiannis then learns what to expect in the morning and how to ask for help. • At lunchtime, Maryam does not know the names of unfamiliar foods and cannot ask for or discuss them. Using an app with pictures of food, however, she can look at the food item, listen to the English pronunciation of its name, and record herself repeating it. Through this she gains confidence and learns new vocabulary. • For children with minimal exposure to technology or limited English proficiency, the tablet can help increase comprehension and vocabulary. For example, a teacher can show a photo of a giraffe, explain what a giraffe is, share a video clip of it in its natural habitat, and further explore the topic through educational activity apps.

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• Teachers can save children’s drawings, writing samples, language samples, or media projects, which are created and automatically dated on the tablet, showing progress over time. • Some apps can track and record an individual child’s activity. Based on learning goals, choose apps that can track children’s progress. • When observing children using different apps, such as educational game apps to practice counting, reading with e-books, or creating art, teachers might note something new about their abilities. This information could impact future teaching strategies. • Digital documentation forms can streamline the data collection process. Forms can include drop down boxes with a number of prepared comments, such as knows the difference between living and nonliving things. They are easy to complete and e-mail. In addition, the information is automatically entered into a database the teacher has set up.

Looking for apps? Check out • App review sites. • App price-drop notification services. • App product descriptions. Read them thoroughly and look at the screen shots. • “Lite” or free versions of apps that offer free trials. • Recommendations from other users (online or in person).

Consider these questions when evaluating apps • Is the app easy to use and engaging? • Does the app connect with and support learning goals? • Does the app offer levels of difficulty or custom settings? • Is available feedback corrective and appropriate, rather than negative or loud? • Are there options to track children’s progress? • Is the information accurate? (For example: do phonics apps speak the letter sounds correctly?)

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Add tablets to the toolbox The unique qualities of tablets can be used to help diverse learners, including children with disabilities. Caleb, who has cerebral palsy, lacks the motor skills to play with blocks, but he can stack digital blocks using an app on a tablet. While the goal remains to use real-world materials, the tablet offers Caleb valuable play experiences not possible before. Pia, a child with autism, cannot tell her parents about her day. Her teacher e-mails photos and videos of the various learning activities throughout her day that she is engaged in. After seeing Pia use a tablet in the classroom, her parent remarked, “I was not originally sold on the tablet idea. In fact, I was highly resistant to it until I saw what it could do for my child. Now I am a believer.” Tablets have the potential to be powerful tools for early learning. The choices we make about how they are used determine whether the technology is helpful or not. We need to develop “digital literacy” skills and decide how to use these new tools in ways that can support every child’s healthy development and learning.

To learn more, keep current, and support conversations with families: • Review NAEYC’s joint position statement with the Fred Rogers Center on technology and interactive media, which offers guidance on the use of technology with young children. www.naeyc.org/content/technology-andyoung-children • Participate in ongoing professional development in all areas of early learning, including technology integration. • Track emerging research on the use of tablets with young children. • Join professional networks in person and online. • Take advantage of free webinars to learn from and with others. • Learn from your colleagues! Share successes and lessons learned.

Resources about tablets and technology tools: Colorado Department of Education. “Results Matter?” Video project. www.cde.state.co.us/resultsmatter/ RMVideoSeries_iPadsInEarlyChildhood.htm NAEYC Technology and Young Children Interest Forum. www.techandyoungchildren.org Puerling, B. 2012. Teaching in a Digital Age: Smart Tools for Age 3 to Grade 3. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf. Shillady, A., & L. S. Muccio, eds. 2012. Spotlight on Young Children and Technology. Washington, DC: NAEYC. The TEC (Technology in Early Childhood) Center at Erikson Institute. http://teccenter.erikson.edu

Families can guide children’s technology use. Sign and make copies of the Message in a Backpack on page 22 to send home. It’s also available online (in English and Spanish) at naeyc.org/tyc.

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Tempted to Buy Your Tot An iPad? As Teaching Tools, News Is Mixed The Washington Post, December 17, 2012 Byline: Rachel Saslow If there's one toy guaranteed to captivate toddlers this holiday season, it's the iPad. What's more appealing to a tot than blinking lights, fun sounds and touch screens that allow them to move things with the swipe of a tiny, sticky finger? A 2011 survey of parents by Common Sense Media, an organization that provides media education for families, found that 39 percent of 2-to-4-year-olds have used digital media such as smartphones and iPads. James Steyer, chief executive and founder of the group, is confident that number has risen in the past year. To make things easier on parents, kids and the iPad itself, Fisher-Price has a line of iPad and iPod protectors. For example, the "Laugh & Learn Apptivity Case," which comes with an attached rattle, is said to guard against "baby's dribbles & drool; teething; and unwanted pressing of home button." There's also the "iGuy," a free-standing case made of tantrum-proof foam. But Steyer has stern advice for adults considering buying toddlers their very own iPads this Christmas: "No. Ridiculous idea." Among parents and experts, the idea of giving a toddler an iPad is a fraught subject. There are some obvious drawbacks. For one thing, they're expensive - as much as $829 for the most recent version. They're also fragile. But the science on how the iPad affects young children isn't yet clear, and while some experts see them as developmentally inappropriate, others see some benefits to the technology - and not just in keeping a parent's sanity (if not guilt) in check. --The iPad has only been around only since 2010, so there hasn't been enough time to observe its long-term effects on kids, according to Michael Rich, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital in Boston. Rich, who runs the online advice column Ask the Mediatrician, says that apps on iPads and smartphones are limited as teaching tools since they typically focus on one type of learning - "skills and drills," which teach children to correctly identify the ABCs or to moo when they see a cow on the screen. "What's more important at this age is learning how to learn rather than mimicking something," Rich says. Moreover, studies show that kids don't learn anything substantial, such as language, from screens - television, iPads, computers - until 30 months of age. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents hold off on any form of screen time until their children are 2. A 2004 study in the journal Pediatrics showed that children exposed to television at ages 1 and 3 had decreased attention spans at age 7. It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg question, though.

"You can see how a kid who already has difficulty paying attention is put in front of the television to chill him out," Rich says. "It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy." Toddlers also sometimes struggle to translate what they see on two-dimensional screens to the three-dimensional world. (Check out the YouTube video "A Magazine Is an iPad That Does Not Work," in which a 1-year-old seems to get confused as she swipes her finger on a magazine, trying to move the pictures around.) "Kids learn by doing, not by watching," says pediatrician Howard J. Bennett of Chevy Chase Pediatrics in Washington. "People once thought videos like 'Baby Einstein' were good for kids too, and that's out now." Giving children iPads to play with could also backfire, Bennett warns. "Screens have this addictive quality, so when you take it away," he says, the kids "will probably cry." Allison Mistrett, the founder and director of Leaps and Bounds, a pediatric occupational therapy practice, says she has seen children master "Where's Waldo?" on an iPad but struggle to find their shoes in a crowded room. Similarly, Rich says that many toddlers enjoy finger painting apps, but he questions whether the two-dimensional version trumps the real thing. "The iPad does not give you that great feeling of paint squishing through your fingers," he says. "As much of a pain as that is for parents, think how much kids are learning about cause and effect. Not only can they draw pictures, they can make their hair all green and get a real reaction from Mom." --Bennett has seen some practical benefits to iPads, however. Some toddlers watch movies while receiving shots in his office, which is helpful because distraction is one of the best tactics for dealing with pain at that age. He generally advises parents to follow the AAP's recommendation that children over 2 should limit screen time to less than one to two hours per day. "[Screens] should be a position of last resort," he says. "It's okay to let a toddler use a screen for 15 to 30 minutes once a day if a parent has to make dinner and has no other way to keep the child occupied and safe." Tonia Sanders, a stay-at-home mother and blogger in Fairfax County, Va., doesn't see the harm in young kids' using technology. Each of her daughters, ages 3 and 6, has an iPhone, and the older girl got an iPod Touch when she was 2. Both girls also play with Sanders' iPad. Sanders says that apps initially helped her older daughter master counting, learn letters and identify shapes. Now that she's older, she is interested in apps that show the workings of the digestive and nervous systems. The idea that children don't learn from screens until 30 months of age does not square with Sanders' experience. "When there's a child who can take technology and make it her own in 10, 15 minutes, I think there's something to

be said for that kid. I wouldn't want to hinder her abilities," Sanders says. "This is the world we live in. Why stop children from learning about technology?" Like many parents, Mistrett is more conflicted. She typically eschews battery-operated toys in favor of pretend and exploratory play and time on the playground. "But the 1-year-old can already swipe to unlock my iPhone, so that's where I contradict myself," she says. She also sees some benefits to touch-screen technology. All of the swiping can help develop fine-motor skills and hand-eye coordination, and such apps as "LetterSchool" can help with handwriting skills. The devices also motivate kids to stay focused: "If you hand them the screen, they could go for hours," Mistrett says. To minimize the temptation for kids to do nothing but swipe, Mistrett and her husband have drawn limits for their children. She set up her iPad so that her 3-year-old son can access only his own apps. Mistrett allows him to play on the tablet a couple of times a day for 10-to-15- minute stretches. Rich and other experts say that if parents are going to allow their kids to use an iPad, they should sit and play along with them. That way, the parent is the teacher, rather than the technology. "The fact that Mom hugs the child when she gets something right, the tone in Mom's voice - none of that can be conveyed by the iPad," Rich says. --This suggestion goes against what many parents use the iPad for: a "shut-up toy" - an industry term, according to Common Sense Media - because parents give them to their children in situations where they need them to be quiet, such as in restaurants, waiting rooms and airplanes. Those are the types of situations when Maryland mother Monica Sakala allows her 3-year-old daughter to play with an iPhone, though not without some guilt. "I like to think we could go out to dinner and she could color or read a book," Sakala says. "We didn't have this stuff when I was a kid. We had to entertain ourselves. Sometimes I worry it seems lazy to whip [the iPhone] out." As with most things, the key to iPad use in toddlers, most experts say, is moderation. "What I tell parents is there are pros and cons," Mistrett says. "But if you're going to do it, look at stories and games together. Don't just hand it to them and walk away." Mistrett suggests a few guidelines. Limit the amount of time children spend playing apps. Download only ageappropriate apps and games. And perhaps most important: Make sure the kid is blinking. Saslow is a former Washington Post staff writer. By Rachel Saslow

Source Citation Saslow, Rachel. "Tempted to Buy Your Tot An iPad? As Teaching Tools, News Is Mixed." Wa shington Post 17 Dec. 2012. Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 22 Apr. 2013. Document URL http://ic.galegroup.com.proxy.lib.iastate.edu/ic/ovic/NewsDetailsPage/NewsDetail sWindow?failOverType=&query=&windowstate=normal&contentModules=& mode=view&displayGroupName=News&limiter=&currPage=&disableHighli ghting=&displayGroups=&sortBy=&source=&search_within_results=&am p;action=e&catId=&activityType=&scanId=&documentId=GALE%7CA31231 0146&userGroupName=iastu_main&jsid=ae5fc83577ad4243f2b12cac6715d9f3 Gale Document Number: GALE|A312310146

Gameplay Data: Beyond Assessment Beth A. Quinn, Director of Research Filament Games LLC Can educational video games be the next generation of assessment tools? A lot of people working in the field of educational video games think so. Interactive, individual, and wired for easy data retrieval, a well-designed video game—where the targeted learning objectives are explicitly embodied in the game play mechanics—is a kind of “digital learning lab” providing oodles of motivation to perform, and potentially oodles of data to confirm that performance.1 Indeed, video games and their cousins, digital simulation tools, may be our best hope for assessing the complex set of skills and knowledge dubbed, "21st Century Skills." Most of this discussion has been centered on games as assessment tools, and the associated reports and dashboards as means of communicating and compiling these assessments. For example, under a grant from the Institute for Education Sciences, we've been working with our partners at iCivics to design teacher gameplay reports that can be used as formative assessments. Information on how students are doing in the game is parsed and linked to specific suggestions for remediation or enrichment for individual students or for an entire class. By extension, similar gameplay reports could be constructed for summative purposes: ways of evaluating and documenting how much and how well a student has learned. You'd think that this would be enough to be excited about. (And it is really exciting!) But I think the potential is even deeper: Well-constructed data reports are windows into gameplay, and as such, they may hold the key to wider, more effective use of educational games.

On the Margins, Still I invite you to step away from the usual focus on the use of data—that is, as assessments—and consider what gameplay data describes at its core: the gameplay experience. That is, what did the player see? What did they do? How have they succeeded and where are they struggling? These are the questions that commercial game developers ask all the time. What was the player's experience? How did they play? As Director of Research at Filament Games, believe me, I understand the value of solid information about play experiences to the development of quality games. But it means so much more for an educational video game developer. Our games are largely used in classrooms, led by a teacher, for the express purpose of providing a learning experience. As such, our responsibility to our customers extends beyond providing a fun experience; we must provide players with a solid educational experience and their teachers with a useful teaching tool.

Many “learning games” use unrelated game mechanics (e.g., shooting a target) as incentives for the player to do other, more traditional, “learning” activities (e.g., quizzes). At Filament, we don’t consider these to be “learning games” but rather “learning + games.” For purposes of this essay, I am focusing on the types of games where game mechanics are developed directly from learning objectives, that is, real learning games.

What I've come to realize is that developers and researchers are not the only ones who want—indeed, need—a window into what players are doing in the game. Teachers do too. Let me explain by pivoting to a vexing question facing the educational video game industry: While educational games are used widely in classrooms (Millstone, 2012), why do they still tend to live on the margins of a lesson plan? Teachers still tend to use games as “one-offs” or supplemental activities, and they tend to select games with the simplest mechanics, despite the promise of games to teach higher level thinking skills. In addition, we see a trend of teachers taking a great single-player game—one designed to provide a rich individualized experience for students—and having the class play it as a group on the classroom white board, even in classes where there are enough computers to go around.

Professional Development Won’t Do It In the educational game community the usual answer is that teachers are inexperienced gamers and don’t know how to play or teach games. If this is true, then, all we need do is provide adequate professional development (PD) and/or wait until the generation of gamers become teachers. But with almost half (48%) of US teachers under the age of 40, and 37 percent of game players older than 36, it’s difficult to make a compelling generation gap argument. Also, we question whether age and “tech savviness” correlate in the assumed way. More experienced teachers are often the most savvy users of educational technology, regardless of age. The experience of some long-running game educational game projects that provide copious amounts of PD for teachers raises the inconvenient possibility that PD may be insufficient in supporting the continued and effective use of games.

The Patient Has Been Misdiagnosed The problem, then, perhaps has been misdiagnosed. We know that in most cases the user base for educational games is dual—student-player and teacher-user—and that these two groups have different goals and needs. The latter operates as a kind of meta-user who guides and monitors from outside the game, and usually for a group of players. In contrast, in commercial games there is no directly analogous role: no other user/customer cares about or needs to know what a set of players are doing in a game with the intention of providing immediate or future interventions. But teachers DO need to know. To effectively teach with a game, a teacher has to know what’s happening in the game. This is not out of a need for control, but rather a need to know what to do next. When the game play experience is hidden, so are the teachable moments. If the game has any complexity, it is not sufficient to simply play the game yourself prior to teaching it; your experience of gameplay will not be the same as that of your students. As the complexity of the game increases, the variation of student experiences increases proportionately. So it is also not even enough to watch your students play the game.

Open a Window, Please! But we have the power to provide teachers with a window into their students' diverse in-game experiences through similar kinds of data, metrics, and reports as we are developing in the assessment

world. With the right kind of information—with this window into the game—a teacher would be able to build intelligently upon students’ play experiences and integrate them into other aspects of her lesson plan, be it discussion, projects, or other digital activities. Without that window, she will continue to struggle to incorporate a complex game into her lesson plan because she is blind to most of the richness of her students’ gameplay experiences. At best what she will see is her students’ level of engagement and enjoyment. Is it any wonder, then, that teachers have seen games primarily as means to engage and motivate their students? And that when they do use games as teaching tools, they tend to be fairly simple and straightforward games?

Bottomline: It's Also About Teaching the Game Teachers need meaningful and clear windows into each student’s gameplay experience in order to “teach the game.” Could good gameplay data go beyond measuring performance on targeted learning objectives? Effectively structured data may be the key to teachers being able to truly leverage the power of game-based learning in their classrooms. Question: What do you think? To use a video game as a teaching tool, what kinds of information about your students' in-game experience would you like to see? --------Acknowledgments: I want to thank my colleague, David Hatfield, for the hours of conversation that were instrumental in developing my thinking on this, and other, topics. --------REFERENCES Shaffer, D. W., Squire, K. D., Halverson, R., & Gee, J. P. (2005). Videogames and the future of learning. Phi Delta Kappan, 87 (2): 104-111. Millstone, Jessica. (2012). Teacher Attitudes about Digital Games in the Classroom. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, in collaboration with BrainPOP. Available at http://joanganzcooneycenter.org/images/presentation/jgcc_teacher_survey.pdf.

Educators explore iPad usage Technology changes the way youngsters think March 09, 2012 By KEVIN PIERSON , The Marietta Times MARIETTA - Five-year-old Sophie Hutchinson certainly knows her way around the iPad. Quick to display her prowess with one of the hottest technological gadgets, Hutchinson has everything from math games to painting down pat. And she's not the only youngster like that. Technology like the iPad is becoming more and more prevalent among children as young as toddlers, and it's altering the educational outlook for their generation. "It's changing the way young children think. They're more willing to attempt new things than an adult would be with technology," said Dottie Erb, professor and chair of the education department at Marietta College. Children are adept at manipulating technology like the iPad, which Hutchinson proudly showed to classmates at the Betsey Mills Club Wednesday morning. "You have to win levels and the gorilla goes to (the banana) and then you have to tap and do what it says," Hutchinson said, explaining one of the games she was displaying Wednesday. A recent survey by the Nielsen Company found that seven out of every 10 children under the age of 12 in tablet-owning households will use the tablet. That has some people questioning if the iPad is too much of a good thing but Erb disagreed. "The apps and the software that are available, from an educational standpoint, there are excellent resources," Erb said.

Marietta College uses the iPad in its teacher education program, which has about 200 students. For the past two years the college students have been using the iPad with young children with impressive results, said Erb. She noted the department is seeing particular success with children that have various learning and physical disabilities such as autism, attention deficit or reading difficulties. "We're really getting some good results with that work," Erb said. The iPad is also fun, which makes it more appealing for children and something they're less likely to put down as they might a traditional book. "I think that's the whole point, having fun while you learn. You can't beat that," said parent Darcy Delancey, of Beverly, who has children ages 4, 6, and 8 who use an iPad. When they're having fun, children tend to do more work, and Hutchinson proved the point as she was surrounded by classmates while playing a "paint and learn" app designed to help artistic skills. "I play all of them a lot," Hutchinson said. Delancey said her childrens' favorite is the game Angry Birds, but her youngest enjoys putting puzzles together and has now learned her alphabet and how to spell her name and recognize shapes from using the iPad. The use of the iPad is something that Erb would like to see more schools employ, as the tablet literally can access thousands of books and learning materials. "It's basically like having a library in one little piece of hardware," Erb said. The use of the iPad in schools is part of why Delancey allows her children to use her tablet essentially every night. "They like playing the games on there. I heard the school systems are going to be using them in a couple years, so I wanted them to get used to it," Delancey said. Belpre City Schools already have iPads in the classroom, with more than 100 of the devices at Belpre Elementary School. Fourth-grade teacher Christy Boothby regularly uses the tablet, and even had her students email superintendent Tony Dunn after completing a multiplication project to prove their math skills.

"They not only had the practice of doing their multiplication facts, they were able to email their superintendent and get a response back that morning," Dunn said. Dunn said Belpre has had great success with the iPads, in part because they have captured the attention of students the way calculators did in the 1980s. "The better we can engage kids in the classroom the more they're going to learn. The iPads are very engaging for kids at this point," Dunn said. Erb's grandson is another iPad fanatic, having displayed considerable skills with the tablet. Now he even tests out other books to see if he can interact with them the same way. "My 2-year-old grandson, he always tests out books to see if he can push on anything. He thinks my flat screen TV is a large iPad," Erb said. While there are more benefits to young children using iPads and other technology, experts do advise setting limits. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends children watch no more than one or two hours of television each day, and suggests the same for things like the iPad. In the Nielsen survey, 55 percent of the adults surveyed said their children use the tablets for entertainment while traveling to avoid the "are we there yet" query and 41 percent said their kids use it as entertainment in restaurants. An iPad is just another tool to help the learning process, Erb said, but it can have tremendous impact on the development of a child's mind. "It's a tool. It's no different than any other tool. You have to have a purpose for using it," Erb said. "It's not going to replace teachers. It's not going to replace a parent or an interested adult."

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Is the iPad bad for children? Screen time can be bad for young children, but it's not all terrible news for parents who rely on tablets to occupy their offspring By Peter Weber | April 1, 2013

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Tight-lipped tablet time.

"I recently watched my sister perform an act of magic," says Nick Bilton at The New York Times. Bilton was sitting in a restaurant with his sister and her two children, ages 4 and 7, and the chattering, fighting kids were keeping the older siblings from conversing. "Like a magician quieting a group of children by pulling a rabbit

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out of a hat, my sister reached into her purse and produced two shiny Apple iPads," handing one to each child. The kids fell "eerily" silent for the rest of the meal. This is hardly a unique occurrence. In restaurants, churches, and other public places all over the U.S. (and probably the developed world), harried parents pull out their tablets or smartphones for a spell of peace and quiet for them and any other adults around them. And, like Bilton's sister, many of these parents feel "slightly guilty." Are iPads and other magical child-quieting tablets dangerous for a child's development? "I did not have an answer," Bilton writes, "and although some people might have opinions, no one has a true scientific understanding of what the future might hold for a generation raised on portable screens." Worse, says Mat Honan at Wired, "it seems like there is simply no way of knowing." The American Academy of Pediatrics is unambiguous about time spent with screens. It says any at all is bad for children under a certain age.... We made an effort to follow AAP guidelines and prevent her from getting any screen time at all before

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she was 2. But honestly? On long flights, we've loaded up Sesame Street on the iPad before takeoff. Parenting is hard.... And, really, is there harm in an app? In the age of the educational app, those AAP guidelines seem, well, quaint. [Wired] Tablet manufacturers are much less conflicted than parents, of course. You can buy everything from a tablet PC made especially for toddlers to a special iPhone case designed specifically so your infant child can play with your portable touchscreen device without breaking your expensive gadget or ordering thousands of dollars worth of apps. And even some early-childhood educators are surprisingly sanguine about tablets for tots. Three kindergarten classes in Australia are participating in study of "the educational benefits of iPad use for pre-school children," says Matthew Dunn at Australia's The Standard. Specifically, they want to know if using iPad apps to create art, study creative crafts like puppetry, and read e-books can help kids prepare for school. "There have been past studies examining young children's use of iPads and smart phone technology but this is the first to link the use with literacy and numeracy through creative applications," says Sandra Gattenhof at the Queensland University of Technology. If you want a "long-term double-blind study to prove an interactive smartphone app is different than a TV show," which is probably bad for kids, well, too bad, says Wired's Honan. "The first generation of toddlers that played with iPhones is not even out of elementary school. A child born the day the iPhone shipped would be kindergarten age today. We are all fumbling through this new world, and nobody knows what the long-term implications are." Actually there has been some potentially relevant research, and it's surprisingly hopeful for iPad-wielding parents, says the Times' Bilton. Assuming, of course, parents pick the right apps. A report published last week by the Millennium Cohort Study, a long-term study group in Britain that has been following 19,000 children born in 2000 and 2001, found that those who watched more than three hours of television, videos, or DVDs a day had a higher chance of conduct problems, emotional symptoms and relationship problems by the time they were 7 than children who did not. The study, of a sample of 11,000 children, found that children who played video games â&#x20AC;&#x201D; often age-appropriate games â&#x20AC;&#x201D; for the same amount of time did not show any signs of negative behavioral changes by the same age. [New York Times] But experts agree pretty unanimously that, at least at the dinner table, talking (or even drawing with crayons) is better than zoning out over an iDevice, both for developing social skills and even learning to cope with or grow from boredom. "I have no fear that my child will only be able to form relationships with avatars," says Wired's Honan. Nor, like some parents, "do I think that it's imperative to dunk her in the digital stream from an early age" so she'll be able to swim better as she grows. Like pretty much everything else, "there's some sort of weird balance we have to fumble our way into finding." But here's a cautionary tale: Last year, we took our daughter to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, a free concert in Golden Gate Park. We met a few other parents, who had toddlers of their own. Before the band started playing, one began throwing a tantrum. He wanted his iPod Touch, and so he got it. Then the Preservation Hall Jazz Band began to play, and all the children began to dance and laugh and play in the grass. Except for the one who sat on the blanket, staring at a screen, oblivious to all else. [Wired]

Peter Weber

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Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian, and plays in an Austin rock band, The Heavenly Rays.

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Young Children, Apps & iPad

prepared by Michael Cohen Group LLC Principal Investigator and Evaluation Team Ready to Learn Research undertaken as part of the evaluation activities of the U.S. Department of Education Ready to Learn Program

Young Children, Apps & iPad

Executive Summary

Background and Objectives Touch screen

Both Projects UMIGO and LAMP are developing

technology has introduced a first generation of tools

educational transmedia properties for children

that afford remarkable access and potential for

ages two to eight. MCG as evaluation partner is

creative use. This study posits three hypotheses:

responsible for formative research to inform the

1. Touch screen technology allows younger children

creation of educational media properties as well as

(two years old and older) to access and play

summative

productively with a sophisticated media technology

effectiveness of those properties.

assessments

educational

platform; 2. Scientific knowledge is needed about how young

These transmedia properties in development

children (ages two-to-eight) approach, play, and learn

include the Apps for touch screen devices such as

with touch screen devices as well as how children

Apple’s iPad. iPads have been in the market for

master

approximately a year and little research has been

the

challenges

age

appropriate

applications (Apps);

conducted on young children’s usage of touch

3. Research is needed to identify the components

screen devices. In order to best support LAMP and

that comprise the App anatomy, including the specific

UMIGO and to contribute to the emerging body of

components that are salient for learning and creation

literature on touch screen technology (in this study

of effective educational Apps.

iPads), MCG has undertaken this study to explore young children’s and their caregivers’ perceptions

The Michael Cohen Group LLC (MCG) is currently

and use of iPads and Apps.

the evaluation partner for Project UMIGO* and Project LAMP**, two partnerships awarded Ready To

Methodology

Learn cooperative agreements in 2010 by the U.S.

hypotheses, MCG conducted qualitative research

Department of Education. The focus of Ready To

with sixty (60) children two-to-eight years old.

Learn is the optimal utilization of media for education.

Children interviews

* WTTW (Chicago Public Television), W!LDBRAIN Entertainment Inc., Michael Cohen Group LLC. ** Hispanic Information & Telecommunications Network (HITN), Callaway Digital Arts, Michael Cohen Group LLC.

order

participated (IDIs)

Parents/caregivers

(in

address

one-on-one and

this

these

in-depth

observations. study

caregivers)

participated in small focus group interviews (FGIs)

Young Children, Apps & iPad

and completed a survey questionnaire. Research

provide a set of tools for drawing and building.

was conducted during February and March 2011.

High appeal is based on children’s interest in making things in a no-fail environment with

Findings Children as young as two years old

endless possibilities and outcomes. Additionally,

access, play and learn with touch screen devices.

the child’s experience is characterized by learning

Children’s initial reactions are characterized by

by doing, building on their existing skills and being

fascination and shaped by their developmental level,

motivated by their own interests.

prior experience with technology, and the design of the App interface and game/play. Simply, iPad

Ideally, the use of digital tracking and analytics

access and use are relative to the design of the App

identifies the child’s level of mastery and provides

interface, game experience, and the fit between the

feedback in the service of extending learning. At

App content and the child’s developmental level.

its best, touch screen technology offers a mode of interactive experience that mirrors the child’s

Findings also indicate that there are several types of

natural constructivist learning.

learning that occur during App play. These include: the tacit learning of the game and how it works;

An overview of child development in relation to

mastering of explicit learning tasks (e.g., matching,

iPad and App usage as well as questions for future

counting) embedded in the game narrative; and the

research are detailed in the report.

use of skills and models learned and applied to other types of games and levels of play. Engaging with creative App activities often shifts the child’s focus away from the subjective experience of winning or losing to a personal-best competition. Additionally, children progress quickly from novice to mastery when using a well-designed App. The world of Apps currently designed for children includes three general types: gaming Apps, creating Apps and e-books.

Children in this study prefer

creating and gaming Apps. Specifically, children prefer gaming Apps whose interface afforded ready access and provided interactive games that are easy to learn and compelling to master. Creating Apps

Young Children, Apps & iPad

Background

Touch screen technology has introduced a first

summative

generation of tools that afford remarkable access and

effectiveness of those properties.

assessments

educational

potential for creative use among young children. Having been in the market for about a year, there is a

iPads have been in the market for approximately a

small but emerging literature on the use and impact

year. To date, little research has been conducted

of touch screen tablets or iPads. This work on

on young children’s use of touch screen devices.

children’s usage of mobile devices and touch

In order to best support LAMP and UMIGO and to

screens, combined with anecdotal reports from

contribute to the emerging body of literature on

caregivers as well as clips posted on YouTube, all

touch screen technology, MCG has undertaken

point to the widespread usage of touch screen

this study to explore young children’s and their

devices by very young children.

caregivers’ perception and use of touch screen devices (in this study iPads), and Apps.

The Michael Cohen Group LLC (MCG) is currently the evaluation partner for Project UMIGO and Project

Objectives

LAMP, two partnerships awarded Ready To Learn

The current study is designed to explore young

cooperative

U.S.

children’s use of touch screen devices and

Department of Education. The focus of Ready To

currently available Apps, and contribute to the

Learn is the optimal utilization of media for education.

general body of knowledge on children’s use of

Both Projects UMIGO and LAMP are developing

touch screen technology. Specifically, the study is

educational transmedia properties for children ages

designed to increase understanding of the iPad’s

two to eight. These transmedia properties include

potential for use as an educational tool by young

development of Apps for touch screen devices such

children (two- to eight-year-olds).

agreements

2010

the

as Apple’s iPad. MCG, as evaluation partner, is responsible for formative research to inform the creation of educational media properties as well as

Young Children, Apps & iPad

The study posits three main hypotheses:

Methodology

1. Touch screen technology enables young children

Design. In order to meet these objectives a

(two years old and older) to access and play productively with touch screen devices.

qualitative research study with young children ages

2. Scientific knowledge is needed about how young children (ages two-to-eight) approach, play and learn with these new tools as they master the challenges of specific age appropriate Apps.

two-to-eight

and

their

caregivers

was

designed. The study included in-depth interviews (IDIs) and observations of children using iPads, as well as small focus group interviews (FGIs) and completed questionnaires by most caregivers.

3. Research is needed to identify the component features that comprise the App anatomy including features most salient for consideration when designing educational Apps.

This study was conducted in two phases. Phase One was completed with children two-to-eight years old at a research facility. Children were recruited

represent

equal

numbers

During the initial phase of research, observations of

experienced and novice touch screen users.

young children with iPads led to the formulation of

Children were observed during IDIs, while their

additional questions and hypotheses, including: How

caregivers were interviewed separately in FGIs. All

do motor skills shape usage, and how do these skills develop through interaction with a touch screen device? How do children at different developmental levels understand an App interface? How do children at different developmental levels explore touch screen devices and Apps? What is the relationship

caregivers completed a pre-interview survey about their familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s media and technology ownership and usage, focused on touch screen devices and Apps. Phase Two was conducted with children two-to-eight years old in schools that serve lowincome children.

between a childâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s developmental level and an App game concept? How do developmental differences impact game comprehension and play? What are the features of an App interface and game mechanics that optimize access, play and learning?

What

curriculum is optimal for integration into App play? What are the criteria for evaluating App usability and educational potential?

Sam ple.

total

sixty

(60)

children

participated. Children were recruited to represent three age groups: two-to-three, four-to-five and six-to-eight years of age, as well as equal gender distribution (29 boys and 31 girls). Participating children included a mix of both novice and experienced touch screen users. Approximately two thirds of the participating children live in lower

Young Children, Apps & iPad

income

families.

Sixty-five

(65)

caregivers

3. The iPad’s large size touch screen provides

participated and completed a questionnaire on family

easy

media usage and thirty (30) caregivers participated in

engagement;

FGIs.

access

and

allows

for

sustained

4. Young children explore and learn in ways that are natural to them (touch, repeat, trial and

Research was conducted during February and March

error, ‘make silly things happen’);

2011 at three locations: a research facility in

5. Overall, children are enthusiastic about iPads.

Manhattan and day care centers and a school in

However, the device alone does not guarantee

Bridgeport, CT, and Brooklyn, NY. Signed consent

engagement and learning;

was obtained from all caregivers. MCG research professionals

conducted

all

interviews

and

observations and analyzed all data. Data included

6. The App interface is as critical as the platform and needs to be intuitive in order to easily afford access;

interviews, questionnaires and structured observation

7. Accessibility and use are relative to the App

logs completed for each child, documenting the

interface design, child’s prior digital gaming

details of the child’s approach to play with the touch

experience, and the relationship between the

screen device. A content and usage analysis of

App design and child’s developmental level;

several specific Apps was conducted. Interviews and

8. There is a sequential progression from novice

FGIs were recorded. The study was approved by an Institutional Review Board (IRB).

to mastery; 9. Moving from novice to mastery occurs quickly with age appropriate Apps;

Findings

10. The progression from novice to mastery is

Overall. Overall findings are as follows:

often achieved within the first playtime with an

1. Touch screen technology and accompanying

iPad;

digital Apps offer an accessible and meaningful

11. The risk of frustration and boredom is high

media platform for children as young as two years

unless game challenge is sustained through

of age;

leveling.

2. Children’s initial reaction to touch screen devices is characterized by fascination and immediate engagement,

and

shaped

by:

child’s

developmental level, previous experience with touch screen devices, and the App interface

Detailed

findings.

Detailed

findings

are

represented in the following order: 1. Usage

and

learning

the

context

developmental level; 2. Caregivers’ perceptions and attitudes;

design and game/play;

3. Novice to mastery learning;

Young Children, Apps & iPad

4. Learning and different types of Apps;

The

5. Barriers to use and learning;

summarizes

6. Apps taxonomy.

developmental/ age levels.

accompanying

chart

children’s

(see

Appendix

experience

three

Detailed findings by age group/developmental level Caregivers’ perceptions and attitudes.

are described in Appendix A.

Novice

caregivers

with

little

touch

screen

iPad Usage and Learning in the Context of

experience express anxiety about their children

Children’s Developm ent. The central themes

using these devices, fearful that their child could

of child development are familiar. Children progress

access the Internet and inappropriate content.

from an immediate, concrete, sensory experience to

Additionally, App game play is not perceived as a

a more conceptual and abstract understanding. The

constructive activity. Experienced caregivers who

unfamiliar

own and use touch screen devices readily

increasingly

becomes

familiar,

and

conceptual models for organizing experience evolve

introduce

through trial and error, application and adaptation. In

perceiving that children learn by "figuring things

the context of iPad usage, children’s skills develop

out.” Many of the experienced caregivers regulate

from novice to mastery when game play includes

their children’s use of the touch screen devices.

sequentially

progressive

levels

and

the

their

children

the

technology

child’s

subjective experience is one of independence,

Caregivers’

autonomy and “doing it myself.”

content is limited. However, experience mitigates

awareness

Apps

educational

anxiety. Caregivers are enthusiastic, however, iPads engage even very young children. Responsive

about the concept of App play that includes

to touch, iPads afford access with a sense of fun and

possibilities for learning and making things.

the possibility of mastery. Caregivers perceived that Apps with greater value From a developmental perspective iPad usage can

and an extended "shelf life" had the following

be organized in six ability and preference categories.

characteristics:

These categories include:

1. Provide children opportunities to play and be entertained on their own;

1. motor skills; 2. approaches to exploration; 3. game concept; 4. generalization of skills; 5. preferences for activities and designs; 6. comprehension of App interface.

Young Children, Apps & iPad

2. Provide children opportunities to participate in digital activities that would otherwise "make a mess" or "get them into trouble," like splashing water in a pond or making cupcakes; 3. Provide children a rich game experience, with leveled play to sustain engagement; 4. Demonstrate children's progress through an interactive, embedded, and scaffolded curriculum; 5. Allow children to easily learn how to play, yet require effort to master—so that game play is neither frustrating nor boring.

children will engage in trial and error efforts, and then quickly move on.

Learning – From Novice to M astery.

Children’s learning through App play takes several

A pattern was identified in both children’s initial

forms:

encounter with the iPad and Apps and their progress

•

from novice to mastery.

the tacit process of figuring out the game and how to make it work for them;

• Children are enamored with the fact that the device responds immediately to their touch. It is ‘love at first swipe’. The feel of the device (the weight, glass

the gradual mastery of more explicit learning tasks embedded in the game narrative; and

•

applying skills they have learnt to other levels or types of play.

screen, size) generated a positive visceral reaction. Novice children quickly progress from apprehensive to curious, to eager to explore.

This

mode

interactive

learning

offers

microcosm of an optimal learning experience that involves

The progression of iPad use often goes from hold,

active

exploration,

construction

solutions and learning explicit content.

tilt, palm, push, drag, tap or swipe to progressively more targeted and differentiated moves. Additionally, once children understand the function of the Home button, they can move from App to App. Curiosity about other Apps increases as patience with the current App decreases. If the interface of an App is not intuitive or does not readily afford access,

Variables

that

influence

use

and

learning from different Apps. As children learn and master the iPad and Apps, there are a number of variables that impact their path

and

inhibit

engender

progress

frustration. As stated, age and developmental

Young Children, Apps & iPad

stage determines the kind of App and learning

Barriers to use and learning.

activity that is appropriate for each child.

Findings indicate that there are several barriers that inhibit use and learning. These include:

Apps need to be age appropriate to be effective. A

•

child’s prior experience impacts both the activity and

App’s unclear, unfriendly or unresponsive user interface,

the content that they find appealing. The transfer of

•

game play that lacks reward or feedback,

learning from computer games, cell phones and other

•

obscure game objectives,

media is critical to iPad and App learning.

The

•

too many distractions,

intuitiveness and rapidity with which children bring

•

Apps that lack “palm rest”, where buttons

skills from other contexts to their iPad play and

trigger themselves if accidentally touched

problem solving are significant and impressive. Trial

within play area.

and error exploration is central in this process. The acquisition of schemas from prior game play yields

App mechanics are a particularly salient feature

more successful process of exploring and mastering

due to children’s developing motor skills.

iPads and Apps. Types of Apps and App Content. App

accessibility

and

playability

vary

widely.

There are currently three categories of Apps for

Examples of easily accessible Apps include Super

children: e-books in many forms, gaming Apps,

Why!, Koi Pond and are characterized by a user-

and creating Apps. The following features are

friendly interface. The navigational schema for other

important

Apps is more opaque and as a result, more difficult

differences between these types:

for children to use (e.g., Cut the Rope, Tang and Tao, Jump Start). Educational

Apps,

characterized

curriculum

embedded in game play, are confronted with challenges. In many cases, children move from one App activity to another in rapid succession and in any order, so that learning and teaching a sequenced curriculum

impossible.

However,

levels

and

leveling re-introduce a sequenced curriculum. Doing it well is a challenge.

for

considering

similarities

•

game play/mechanics or activity,

•

characters,

•

narrative

defined

game

and

experienced by child, •

curriculum, both implicit and explicit.

Gaming Apps In gaming Apps the activity includes a range of challenges, actions and reactions that lead to skills acquisition, and achievement as levels are played and mastered. The game play itself is a learning system and

Young Children, Apps & iPad

curriculum is optimized if it is embedded in the

•

activity.

Young children explore and learn in ways that are natural to them (touch, repeat, trial and error, make silly things happen);

E-books In reading Apps or e-Books the story or

•

Overall, children are enthusiastic about iPads.

the reading of the story is the activity. Playful features

•

However, the device alone does not guarantee

or mini activities are integrated into a familiar schema

engagement and learning.

of reading a book. The curriculum is in this context either explicit in the text or implicit and embedded in the activities.

Creating Apps Creating Apps provide tools, workspace and activities.

(e.g. cupcakes, robots,

painting, etc.) Appeal derives from: •

No-fail environment,

•

Child determines pace,

•

Learning by doing,

•

Tool use,

•

Endless possibilities & outcomes,

•

Children can build on what they like to do,

•

Children’s interest determines use.

The App interface design is critical. The App needs to afford access and support the player’s intuitions as they move through the entry screen to successive layers of the App content. The move from novice to mastery can be rapid with well designed, age appropriate Apps. The challenge is to sustain engagement through leveling, and simultaneously integrate educational content that

Curriculum is embedded in the tool use.

is woven into the game activity. There is a considerable risk in alienating the user if category

Summary and Implications

expectations are not met, navigation is difficult and

Findings indicate that children as young as two years

counter intuitive, and/or game play is frustrating or

old access, play and learn using touch screen

boring.

devices.

Touch

screen

technology

and

accompanying digital Apps offer an accessible and

App play and App experience takes place in the

meaningful media platform for children:

context and presence of many other Apps, which

•

The iPad’s large touch screen provides easy

are visible on the screen. The larger context of the

access and allows for sustained engagement;

App marketplace differs from a traditional store or

Young Children, Apps & iPad

the online purchase experience.

Many items are

free. The store is always open and available. The

their own progress and a sense of personal recognition.

App competitive landscape is vast, but it is not well organized. Often purchases are impulse driven,

Observation of young children’s behavior on

based on word of mouth or an icon that depicts a

iPads, including their rapid trajectory from novice

favorite character. When a child is in the App store,

to mastery, poses questions for future research.

immediate gratification is a click away. Apps face a

What are the similarities and differences between

similar challenge to other media platforms in that

virtual and real life experiences? How closely is

appeal and engagement must be maintained in a

touch screen learning comparable to real life

competitive context.

constructivist learning?

How can educators

optimally utilize touch screen technology and Findings indicate that we can identify and understand

Apps? How can we integrate pre-school learning

the features and anatomy of Apps. Additionally,

into Apps and their content? How can the design

educational Apps can be adjusted or shaped to

of scaffold challenges and leveling be responsive

optimize learning. The introduction of leveled play is

to a child’s learning and development? What is

a potential solution to the challenge of integrating a

the best use of feedback, and how can embedded

sequential curriculum and sustaining engagement.

assessments support learners?

Findings indicate that embedded analytics can identify the appropriate challenge level for each child and provide the user (or caregiver) with an on-going progress report. Tablets or iPads provide access and engagement which, when experienced with optimal content and design, sustain young children’s play and learning. Currently, there are few examples of well designed educational Apps for young children. The

dynamics

App

play

have

unique

characteristics. Findings indicate that the engaging nature of App game play and creative activities shift the child’s focus away from the subjective experience of winning or losing. In App play the child engages in a personal-best competition. Furthermore, welldesigned Apps provide children with feedback on

Young Children, Apps & iPad

APPENDIX A iPad Use and Learning Patterns Observed in Three Age Groups

Motor Skills

2- to 3-year-olds

4- to 5-year-olds

6- to 8-year-olds

Big gesture exploration as if image is an object. Learn to target. Often press or drag hard, gradually learning to tap or swipe.

Gestures more directed and intentional. Initial press or drag evolves to tap and swipe with trial and error.

Quickly figure out the moves that work. If novice, may press too hard initially but soon tap and target accurately.

Approach to Exploration

Eager to “make something happen”. Want a response to their gesture.

Concept of Game

“The game” is about “making things happen”. Patterns of cause and effect are refined. Their goal is “to do” and create an effect.

Generalization of Skills

Explore experientially, like an object in the world. How does it feel? What does it do?

Preferences Familiar characters are attractive. Simple, colorful designs afford direct for access and response. Activities & Design

Enjoy “making things happen.” Now try to figure things out using “trial and error” to explore. Curious but concepts of “game” play are limited to familiar (match, target). Simple purpose, process and pay off work best. Enjoy making or drawing.

Enjoy novelty of a new app. Pursue “the game”. Try and adapt familiar schemas. A “game” is expected. Want a purpose, process and way to improve (master level). Enjoy making things.

Generalize schemas from Generalize experience with games, gaming, and technology. play with toys or computers. More developed and flexible Challenge to adapt their schemas. schemas to new game. Familiar characters engage. Intuitive and interactive design with some novelty appeal. “Winning” a level or making something sustains interest.

Grasp of app What they see/do is what they grasp What they see is where they as possible. begin to play. interface – Responsive, accessible, If access is intuitive, they try “what Fun interaction is key. Child may to figure it out. you see is play the game in his or her own They may or may not way. actually play the game. what you get” vs “how do you get inside” and figure out the game?

Moderate novelty fosters interest. A challenge to master in new ways (slicing fruit with a sword), or create in new ways sustain interest.

Interface understood as the starting point; a surface providing access. Will work to figure out the game and its levels.

Michael Cohen Group LLC Research & Consulting 375 West Broadway Suite 502 New York NY 10012 1 (212) 431 2252 www.mcgrc.com Contact: Michael Cohen Ph.D. Principal Investigator Martha Hadley Ph.D. Co‐Principal Investigator Minda Frank M.A. Co‐Principal Investigator

mcohen@mcgrc.com mhadley@mcgrc.com mfrank@mcgrc.com

prepared by !

Research undertaken as part of the evaluation activities of the U.S. Department of Education Ready To Learn Program

Research was funded by the U.S. Department of Education as part of the Ready To Learn program, award numbers U295A100016 and U295A100026. The contents of this report were developed under a cooperative agreement from the U.S. Department of Education. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.

2012 45th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

iPad in Education: A case study of iPad adoption and use in a primary school Sarah Henderson The University of Auckland s.henderson@auckland.ac.nz

Jeff Yeow The University of Auckland jyeo017@aucklanduni.ac.nz first of its kind. It is neither a smartphone, a netbook nor a tablet PC, but includes some elements of all of them. The features which make the iPad stand out amongst other mobile devices include the streamlined design, the lack of peripheral attachment, the connectivity, the large multi-touch screen and the variety of different applications available to the consumer. On the first day of its release in April 2010 in the US, Apple sold over 300,000 iPads [3] and sold 3 million within the first 80 days after release [4]. Initial sales were largely to consumers who are fans of Apple and technology enthusiasts wanting to use the iPad as a personal device, but attention soon turned to how the device could be used in business and educational settings. Several schools announced they would be adopting the device However further down the track, businesses and other sectors began looking at the iPad as a device to help assist in occupational activities. Some schools swiftly decided to adopt the technology, with one New Zealand school purchasing a set for classroom use as soon as they were available in that country [5]. This paper will explore the experience of that New Zealand primary school as they adopted the iPad for use in the classroom with students aged 5 – 12. We seek to understand the issues they faced and the benefits they perceived from both educational and IT management perspectives.

Abstract Apple’s iPad has attracted a lot of attention since its release in 2010 and one area in which it has been adopted is the education sector. The iPad’s large multi-touch screen, sleek profile and the ability to easily download and purchase a huge variety of educational applications make it attractive to educators. This paper presents a case study of the iPad’s adoption in a primary school, one of the first in the world to adopt it. From interviews with teachers and IT staff, we conclude that the iPad’s main strengths are the way in which it provides quick and easy access to information for students and the support it provides for collaboration. However, staff need to carefully manage both the teaching and the administrative environment in which the iPad is used, and we provide some lessons learned that can help other schools considering adopting the iPad in the classroom.

1. Introduction As technology becomes intertwined in our lives and with the birth of digital natives, schools are attempting to utilize technology to help provide the best learning experience for children [1]. Traditionally, the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) in education has been segregated from the normal teaching classroom: personal computers were relegated to a separate computer lab where students would go to study computer-related topics. A more technologyintegrated classroom might have a PC or two down the back of the room that students could sometimes use during class time. More recently, smaller devices such as laptops, tablets and mobile devices have been tested and used within the classroom as a tool to help children supplement their lessons [2]. These changes mean there is need to investigate the impact these modern educational devices have in the classroom and on childhood education. With the release of the Apple iPad, new and innovative ways of accessing and relating to information have emerged for both businesses and personal use. The iPad can be considered a pioneer, the 978-0-7695-4525-7/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/HICSS.2012.390

2. Literature Review This section will briefly review some theories of education with a particular focus on understanding social learning, and learning with technology. We next review the different types of devices that have been used in education settings in order to provide a comparison with the iPad. Theories of Education. Most educational practices are based on a constructivist approach, while a lot of educational technology is built from a behaviorist perspective. Behaviorism posits that learning is manifested by a change in behavior, and that the 78

environment determines these changes. Skinner had a notion of a “teaching machine” which presents students with material to learn and then tests then to ensure they have remembered the correct answer. On passing the test, they are taken to the next set of material to learn in a sequence he called “programmed instruction” [6]. Constructivism is based on the idea that knowledge is not a substance that is transferred from teachers to students, but that knowledge is constructed by students themselves when they interact with objects in their environment [7]. This view on constructivism is based on the principle that children learn by doing and that they construct their own knowledge through their surroundings, and in particular that the best way to ensure constructive learning is through actively performing a task. Building on constructivism is the notion of social constructivism, whereby social participation is one of the main activities though which learning occurs in children [8]. Children construct knowledge through their interactions and engagements with others, creating shared meanings as they do so. This is true provided that instructors facilitate the proper environments to ensure engagement, which is often done through putting students into groups and creating situations where students need to interact with one another in order to solve a problem [8]. This kind of social collaboration can also boost achievement in that it helps to keep students engaged in their learning for longer periods of time. It is only relatively recently that educational technology has been able to support a constructivist approach. Smaller devices are better able to facilitate social collaboration than PCs which users must use singly, and the rise of more social application software enables much better opportunities for collaboration than were possible in the past.

desktop and programs. Typically the screen rotates so it can be used in a standard laptop format with the screen above the keyboard, or with the lid closed with the screen on the outside. Some mobile devices, netbooks and tablet PCs support multi-touch screens and therefore have the ability to interpret multiple simultaneous pressure points on screen [9]. Fingers are the most common stimuli for multi-touch, which provides a natural means of input. As a result, students feel more motivated and interested to learn and are more engaged with content, therefore keeping students interested in learning for longer periods of time [1]. In single-touch devices, students have to take turns to use the device, which can disadvantage some students. Some students may dominate the technology while other more passive group members become marginalized, which results in a loss of learning benefits from group exercise for those students [10]. Multi-touch has the potential to reduce this inequality that as students are capable of interacting at the same time and with the same object, and has been shown to increase engagement with the mobile device [11]. Engagement is also influenced by the fact that the displays on modern mobile devices are similar in size to that of a story book, thus a student would engage with content on screen the same way they would when reading a book [12]. An important factor which influences engagement that is provided by mobile technology is that feedback is given in real time. Direct real-time feedback to a student’s actions reduces the level of distraction, since it allows them to seamlessly flow on to the next task at hand, rather than idling in class, waiting for feedback before moving on [13]. Seamless learning is the notion that students can learn whenever and wherever they are curious and can easily switch learning contexts, for instance from formal to informal, or personal to social. A key component of this idea is each student having their own dedicated mobile device [14]. Using mobile devices allows students to physically move around various different locations with their device and communicate with others, and thus learn across space [13; 15]. Students and teachers will be able to use the device in the classroom, on field trips, at home, or wherever activities take place [16]. Having this portability enables students to further explore their interests in a subject at any given location [17]. Mobile devices can therefore help to augment the current environment children are in by providing access to information while on the move [18]. Another aspect to engagement is whether the engagement is sustained or is susceptible to the novelty effect. If the novelty effect applies, engagement would

Mobility. Various mobile form factors have been deployed for technology used in educational settings. Small devices such as PDAs or smartphones have the advantage of becoming ubiquitous. While the small size provides mobility and a very personal user experience, it also makes it difficult to support interpersonal and collaborative learning [8]. Students may not achieve the same learning experience and amount of involvement as they would on a device with a larger display. Netbooks are very similar to traditional laptops, but are smaller, weigh less and are usually cheaper in comparison to laptops. They typically don’t have a touch screen, with primary interaction being using a keyboard and trackpad. Tablet PCs combine the keyboard of a laptop with a touch screen and a stylus for navigating around the

The height and the width of the iPad resembles the most popular size of a portrait children’s book. The iPad is also very thin, with a depth of 1.34 cm, which makes it a very easy device to transport and handle. The iPad has a relatively large 9.7 inch diagonal multi-touch LED display with a 1024 x 768 pixel resolution, which provides viewing of bright, highquality images. The iPad also has a wide viewing angle display (178°) which allows different people to view content on the iPad within the angle, hence the ability for children to collaboratively share viewing content with one another without distorting images [3]. The display has the ability to switch between different viewing positions from either portrait or landscape, depending on the way the iPad is held. The standard iPad weighs 680 grams [3], making it a lot lighter than a traditional laptop or Tablet PC. The iPad also does not have any cables or peripherals attached to it, such as a keyboard or a mouse, and controls only consist of one single button. With the combination of the iPad’s size, light weight, lack of attachments and connectivity, it makes it a very portable device for children to hold, operate and use it where they choose, whether at their own desk, collectively around a table, on their lap or possibly out of class. The iPad comes in both Wi-Fi and 3G models, both with Bluetooth, therefore allowing wireless connectivity to the internet at any given location which supports Wi-Fi or 3G. However, a monthly data usage plan from a telecommunications provider is required to support the 3G connection which can be quite costly. The iPad has several thousand different educational applications available which must be downloaded via iTunes from Apple’s Application Store (either free of charge or paid), thus acting as a central hub for Apple applications [3]. Apple’s iTunes application store also acts like an integrated distribution network linking developers and end users together. Since external developers are able to submit their own applications to Apple, a large number of applications can continuously emerge from Apple’s application store. The cheapest iPad (16GB Wi-Fi model) costs NZ$799, which is expensive compared with other devices such as tablet PCs and netbooks typically purchased for a school. Because of the high cost it may be difficult to get an iPad for every student in a classroom due to budget constraints. Although due to the collaborative nature of the iPad, it is possible and that the iPad be shared among young students. The purchase cost is not the only cost, with software and maintenance also being a factor. If an iPad breaks it is not cheap to replace one or get it fixed [23]. The fact that the iPad will be used in a school setting means there will be a high probably that the iPad may be

be high early on while the student is unfamiliar with the device, but after gaining familiarity, the level of engagement would drop [12]. Collaboration is promoted by mobile technology, since it stimulates face-to-face social interaction between children [12; 13]. Having a mobile device right in front of students allows them to strongly engage with content, since mobile technology can be viewed as a portal which allows students to view content they are interested in at any given location [19]. This encourages and motivates children to read content, as they are able to easily access information which they enjoy in front of them [12]. It allows students to take control of their own learning and provides the ability for children to supplement what they are learning in class in real time as the educators speaks. Social and emotional implications can also be an issue when using mobile technology in the classroom [20]. Mobile technology may not be for every student, as some may feel uncomfortable and have an aversion to using such technologies to learn [21]. Carr [22] discusses that using technology to learn can create a divide between students through the various “cultural baggage” students have. Notwithstanding the benefits of using mobile technology, there will always be technical issues to resolve, such as connectivity, software, processing power, storage and design flaws. In addition, mobile technology may raise specific educational issues. One possible result of mobile learning is that teachers have less control over students. Children may use their mobile device for activities that are unproductive and unrelated to school [2]. Students may be able to use chat rooms, instant messaging, play inappropriate games, cheat in tests and visit inappropriate websites during class time if mobile technology is not appropriately controlled [2]. Technology may also be seen as an “intruder” by educators as it alters their traditional ways of teaching. Educators may resist the technology, or may need training on how to fully utilize and facilitate an environment for using mobile technology in the classroom [2].

3. iPad Features & Characteristics This section briefly reviews the individual features and design aspects of the iPad. This will provide a good understanding as to why the iPad can be considered an educational tool to assist in learning for children within primary schools.

broken or damaged. If schools do choose to pay for educational applications, the costs can mount up as applications must be purchased for each iPad. To date, there is inability to control activities performed on the iPad. Schools that use laptops and personal computers to teach students are able to install monitoring software which allows teachers to keep track of what students are doing on their device [23]. This allows teachers to have more control over their students to ensure they are staying on task and also not viewing content which they should not be. Control is a very important part of education, especially for younger children. They can be easily distracted from their work and being that the iPad is a media device, there is a high chance children will be distracted without educators having appropriate controls to prevent or reduce distractions from occurring. Ultimately, the iPad is a device which was created to consume content. The iPad was created for users to listen to media, view web content and access applications in a different ways, but doesn’t allow easy creation of content [23]. The main iPad tool used to educate children will be through the use of the educational applications or web content. This is a disadvantage because children are merely using the applications on the iPad to answer questions, follow instructions, drag an object, and tap the screen at certain times etc. However, it doesn’t allow children to become creative and develop their own content, such as recordings, videos and pictures, as there is no microphone and camera [23]. Nevertheless, word documents can be created on the iPad using the on screen keyboard, which may be tedious to use for long periods of time. While a physical keyboard can be attached onto the iPad this somewhat defeats the purpose using the iPad for its superior mobility. There is an initial novelty effect for any new technology such as the iPad, but if teachers continue to use the same teaching techniques, the same applications, and use the iPad in the way for long periods of time, the effect or the appeal of the iPad will wear off eventually and so will the benefits [23]. Finally, one notable feature of the iPad is that it is not specifically built for childhood education. It is a device specifically made for consuming media and not to educate young children. It is designed to be sleek and streamlined, rather than rugged and protected

features, factors or issues that might apply in similar situations” [25]. For example, rather than testing, explaining or comparing a phenomenon, like in explanatory case studies, the study will seek to explore why the iPad was selected, how it has been used in an educational context, and to discover if there are any issues involved in using the iPad, based from the responses given by participants. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with key school personnel. Semi-structured interviews allowed for flexibility when interviewing participants, since the technology was new and it wasn’t possible to determine in advance all the issues that might arise [26]. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed using content analysis to extract the key themes [25]. The case site is Redoubt North Primary School – a primary and intermediate school located in Auckland, New Zealand which was one of the earliest adopters of the iPad as an educational tool in the classroom. Three participants were selected based on recommendations from the Principal of Redoubt North Primary School and from faculty members: the school’s ICT manager, a senior teacher (lesson co-coordinator) and a teacher.

5. Results This section will first present background information on the school regarding their selection of the iPad, followed by the management or administrative perspective on the iPad. This includes a discussion of how both the hardware and software (applications) were managed. Finally, we explore how the iPad is used in the classroom and the surrounding issues teachers have encountered.

5.1 Choosing the iPad Prior to the iPad, Redoubt North had a total of 30 Aspire netbooks (five per class) and was looking at various devices to replace the netbooks. The ICT Manager states: “We were actually looking at the time for a replacement for the netbooks. We were initially looking at newer laptops. We found the netbooks to be good but the screen size was a little bit small and the keyboard was quite small. A very usable machine but we were looking for something to replace those because they were three years old.” However, rather than investing in newer laptops to replace the old netbooks, the school selected the iPad. The school considered the iPad as an option for the upgrade based on doing research from videos and articles which they had read over the internet. The ICT Manager also explains that Apple’s iPhone (similar features to the iPad) had been used by staff members, thus having firsthand experience with the technology.

4. Research Method As the purpose of the study is to understand and explore how iPads are being used in an educational setting, the research method selected for this paper will be a case study [24]. Specifically, this is an exploratory case study as it seeks to “discover relevant

sourcing applications is that finding the right one can be hard: “There’s thousands upon thousands of apps out there so it’s quite difficult finding one that’s suitable for the right level and you may have to get five or six, trial them out, see whether they’re gonna be any good before you find the right one...The trouble is new stuff comes out all the time it’s quite hard to keep up with it.” Another issue brought up by the ICT Manager is that each iPad needs to be individually updated with the software/application. A brand new iPad can take around 30 minutes to install all current applications. An iPad currently at hand will take around 4 minutes. Seeing that the school has almost 50 iPads, it takes some time to update all iPads. Redoubt North has a wireless network, with all devices having the same SID username and password. It allows every iPad in the classroom and throughout the school to be connected via the school’s Wi-Fi network, thus making them internet enabled. The ICT Manager noted that on top of the initial cost of purchasing the iPad, there is the additional cost of purchasing applications (where appropriate ones are not free). Applications need to be purchased per iPad, thus the cost can mount up quite dramatically. There is a system in the USA which makes this process easier and cost less, but there is unfortunately no such system available yet in New Zealand. Another potential cost is data traffic costs. The school avoids this by not purchasing data plans for their iPads but simply connecting them though the school’s Wi-Fi network. The cost involved with keeping the iPads connected is therefore part of the school’s existing internet costs. Additional costs are also incurred through the purchase of protective gear for the iPad, such as cases and screen protectors. Screen protectors for the iPad are also purchased by the school at $10 each and needs to be replaced every so often. “We also purchase screen protectors for them, which is an ongoing cost because the screen protectors only last about two or three months and then we’re having to replace them... because they get grubby and they start peeling off”- ICT Manager A case is purchased for each iPad, which costs the school around $20 per case. Silicon cases were chosen for two reasons. The first reason is to protect the device from falls as it provides the iPad with a slip resistant surface and also to protect it from being damaged when dropped. The second reason is to use the different case colors to help distinguish individual iPads from one another in a classroom set. Each classroom has a set of five to six iPads, and with each iPad color-coded, it makes it easier for

Before implementation, the school’s senior managers trialed the iPad and purchased one from a New Zealand online auction site before the official NZ release. The iPad was demonstrated to the Principal of Redoubt North, and once approved; the school purchased another five for other senior members of the school to trial. After trialing the iPad, the school’s senior members collectively decided that the iPad was suitable for the classroom, and purchased a further 10 iPads to be trialed in the classroom. The 10 iPads were trialed for four months throughout different age groups, as the ICT Manager explains: “We also did trial work with the intermediate kids taking the iPads to the junior school’s classes, and doing some work with the kids there and we found them really useful, a lot more useful than the current laptops that we had in the current classroom.” Once the iPads were deemed to be successful, they were given the green light to be used in the classroom on a permanent basis. More iPads were then purchased for the rest of the school to use after its official release in New Zealand.

5.2 Management of the iPads and Applications At present the school has a total of around 48 iPads which are used on a daily basis. The iPads are mainly used in the senior classes of the school (ages 9 to 12). There are six senior classes (approx. 30 students), with each class usually using five to six iPads at a time. The school also has an additional two boxes of iPads, with six in each box, for the rest of the school to book and use. The ICT manager describes the process of how the junior school would go about gaining access to the iPad: “We’ve got a booking system where they jump on the email, go to the calendar and say oh we want to book the iPads for this day, and then I’ll hand them out. If no one books the iPads, then we will send them to class with the intermediates (seniors) so that one particular day, one class can have ten or fifteen iPads in a class.” One of the most compelling features of the iPad is the range of applications available. A number of applications are needed because student needs vary depending on the level and topic. Thus the ICT Manager states that applications are selected by the teachers. Teachers visit the iTunes application store and select applications which they believe can be used in the class. They notify the ICT Manager, who then downloads the applications. Downloaded applications are then trialed and evaluated by senior members. Once approved, the application will be added to the list of applications to be downloaded onto the other iPads. An issue pointed out by the ICT Manager in regards to

students within a class to remember which iPad they had worked on previously to retrieve their work. “If a child is using a particular iPad they might be working on the pink one, they know next time if I want to keep going on my work, I go to the pink one.”- ICT Manager Along with colored cases, each iPad is numbered, as there are only a limited number of colors available. A number is given to the iPad which corresponds to what class it belong to. Thus if a class requires additional iPads which are then borrowed from another class, the individual iPads can be easily identified and returned to their assigned class. Rather than rely on students always being able to retrieve files they stored on a particular iPad, the school uses Apple’s file-hosting service, MobileMe iDisk. This acts as a virtual hard drive for storing files which can then be accessed remotely [3]. It allows students to e-mail/upload their work to Apple’s iDisk, which can then be retrieved by either the teacher or the student on a different device.

In terms of the senior part of the school, mathematics is the only subject where application games are used by the senior students to help reinforce their learning. However, the senior teacher states that the use of gaming applications (or any application) within the senior school is still a relatively new part of the curriculum which they are still exploring. “We’re still very much in the experimental phase to be honest...We’re getting more and more of them and finding more and more that are appropriate especially in the maths context, awesome little games and puzzles that you can do to reinforce learning” – Senior teacher For the younger children in the school (junior school), gaming applications are used more frequently than the web browser. As the senior teacher describes, children at a younger age are still learning the basics of how to read and write properly, thus making the internet “a bit too high for them”. As a result, gaming applications such as simple math and spelling games are more widely used as part of the junior school’s learning curriculum. Also as part of the junior curriculum, children from the senior school help to teach others in the junior school through the gaming applications on the iPad and also through e-books. The iPad has allowed learning to become more accessible and productive, as described by both the senior teacher and the teacher interviewed. They both found that it allows information to be easily searched and accessed quicker at any given location in the classroom. For example, as described by the teacher and senior teacher, students will not need to wait for the desktop computer or netbook to boot when they log in as they previously did, but simply press the iPad’s button and tap on the web browser. Accessibility has also empowered students through not only allowing them to view a wider variety of information to enhance their learning and productivity, but also provides students with a sense of pride in their work, as the teacher explains: “The ease of access to information makes a huge difference...The standard of their presentation has hugely improved. They have a lot more pride in it so they’re putting a lot more time into it...The presentations most students created I was amazed, they just looked so impressive...and the information was of a higher level as well” When asked how the iPad has improved students’ learning, it was made clear by the senior teacher that the iPad is not seen as a tool to improve learning in the context of test results or grades. It is seen as a tool to increase productivity in the classroom by making things easier and accessible, and to a certain extent, possibly enhancing learning through the use of applications.

5.3 How the iPad is Used in the Classroom How the iPad is used in the school depends not only on the subject being taught but also on the age group using the iPad. Both the teacher and the senior teacher say that the web browsing function is the most commonly used and important feature for senior students within the school. It allows students to research topics learnt in class online and is predominately used for subjects such as social studies, science and English. Once information is gathered online, students then use Apple’s Pages to type up what was learnt from their research. Students also sometimes use Apple’s KeyNote (similar to Microsoft PowerPoint) to present their findings to the rest of the class through attaching the iPad to a projector. “The internet is used a lot in terms of the research... the internet is the main thing that the iPads used for...The safari browser is used a heck of a lot and then they can import some of those notes into ‘pages’...Sometimes either they present that on the projector for the rest of the class or then send it off to another computer” – Senior teacher As stated earlier, e-books are also used in the classroom for teaching. Parts of a novel are read every day to students through the iPad’s iBook application. Students also use the iBook application to individually and peer read. Not only are e-books used for story time, but also as the teacher explains, their math textbook can be in PDF format, which allows it to be loaded onto the iPad for children to use, thus creating six extra math textbooks in the class.

“It’s a lot more productive, whether it’s enhanced learning, yes with the applications...It’s just another tool and probably an easier tool than some of the other tools that we’ve had so far...It’s just all in one, sort of simple sort of solution”

Issues can arise when working with the iPad in groups, as the teacher explains. Every now and then a “strong one” emerges from the group and physically holds the iPad in front of him/her. This makes it difficult for other students to view content and interact with the iPad, as one person has it in very close proximity to themselves. In this situation, the teachers would give instructions telling students in a particular group they are unable to physically hold the iPad, but the iPad needs to be placed down on a desk in front of them, thus only using their fingers to navigate around the iPad’s interface. “I prefer them to be working at tables so that then it’s sitting in between them because that tends to make it a more of a group thing rather than just individual within a group... that makes a big difference if you’re not actually touching (holding) it” - Teacher In some cases it is necessary for the teacher to assign group roles, telling students, “You’re the only person who’s allowed to actually touch the iPad”. However, as the teacher explains, the issue of a dominant student with the iPad rarely occurs and the need to issue instructions is uncommon.

5.4 Collaboration The iPad is used either individually or in groups, depending on what is being taught and the expected learning outcome. Given that there are usually five to six iPads in a classroom, iPads are usually shared, sometimes in pairs or sometimes among three to five students. When using the internet to do research, children normally work in groups. If using an educational application, students would usually work in pairs or individually. The teacher explains that the iPad is also used in group sessions with five to six students. For example, when a group-reading session is conducted via the iPad e-book, students with iPads gather around the teacher and follow what is being read while also given the ability to look up words on the iPad. As the teacher explains: “They’ll be working individually with you on iPads being able to search things like definitions of words or things that extend their learning” The group and individual use of the iPad is managed via roster system, where it is seen by both teacher and student. It allows students to identify what tasks they will be doing and at what time. Individual use of the iPad is usually rotated every 20 minutes, thus allowing each student to have a turn. Having prior experience with netbooks and desktops in the class, the teacher states that using the iPad in groups becomes a lot more manageable. It allows for 360-degree viewing, whereas with the netbook, children previously had to crowd around each other to view content. In terms of the desktop computer, the senior teacher discusses the fact that using the iPad can promote a better collaborative learning environment compared with a desktop computer. “You have to a) bring a group to the computer and b) have to kind of sit around it, whereas if you want to show somebody work on the iPad you can flip it over and the screen would flip...Once you’ve finished with it you can pass it to the class in seconds, whereas a desktop computer you have to shuffle everybody to the computer” The portability and the ease of use of the iPad both contributed to its ability to support collaboration: “They’ve been able to find information quickly and also move it quickly to the next person whereas...laptop, it does take quite a while to shuffle off the user and get it round.”-Senior teacher

5.5 Engagement “Doesn’t make any difference how intelligent they are... It’s just an easy tool; I think it’s just so accessible for them and at all levels.”- Teacher The senior teacher and teacher were both asked about the issue regarding the novelty effect. The senior teacher replied that there was an initial novelty effect at the start but eventually students saw the iPad as a conventional piece of educational technology. Thus, the novelty effect did wear off but did not reduce the engagement students had with the iPad. “They do get used to it pretty quickly...they’ve seen technology grow so fast already. The novelty wore off within days I would say, and it quickly became a learning tool. So I don’t think there’s been a decline in engagement because of it or anything like that.” – Senior Teacher Both the senior teacher and the teacher said that the learning curve with the iPad is almost nonexistent due to its simplicity, and in some cases, students can help teachers and other students to solve problems. “Kids nowadays are very intuitive when it comes to their technology. It’s a simple design it’s only got an exit button and all the rest is just push on the screen so they’ve picked it up extremely fast...with a five minute discussion and they’re away” – Senior teacher “I was having real trouble doing something the other day in ‘Pages’. I couldn’t put a picture in the background. I had a student who’d finished early, I said “hey can you find out how to do this?” and within

at the bottom and you’re on the internet you know. So it’s a lot quicker.”

5 minutes he solved the problem and then he taught the whole class how to do it so it was really good” – Teacher The teacher describes an instance where a new student arrived in the country with little experience with technology and had to be taught how to use both the netbook and the iPad. The teacher found it was much more difficult to teach the student how to use the netbook when compared with the iPad, especially regarding opening files and transferring data from one place to another.

One issue brought up by the senior teacher is that they are aware that the iPad is a difficult tool to be used for creating content but easy to consume, due to the nature of it. However, it was made apparent by the senior teacher that the iPad should not be used as an exclusive tool in education but to be used alongside others: “It’s difficult to create content, it’s easy to consume...I’m not convinced yet that typing out a big document is easy on the iPad as it is on a computer... I don’t think, it couldn’t replace everything we certainly wouldn’t ditch everything in place of the iPads.” Not all students readily adopt the iPad. In the interview it was discussed by the teacher that there was a case where a student chose to use the school’s netbooks rather than the iPad: “I’ve only got one student in my class who if there is a choice will go for the laptop...its new technology, she’s a bit scared”

5.6 Distraction Both the senior teacher and teacher recognize that distraction is an issue with the iPad, although they regard this as an inevitable part of using any technology. Expectations are clearly laid out in terms of behavior around the iPad and school work by the teacher at the beginning of the each class. It is part of the teacher’s role to ensure that these expectations are being enforced. An example given by the teacher is that when a student is caught on an application or web page they should not have been on, they lose iPad privileges for one week. They will still be allowed to work with the iPad in groups but will be unable to touch the device. Distractions can also occur when students who are not meant to use the iPad come in contact with those who are meant to. However the teacher noted that due to the iPad’s portability, students with iPads can be easily separated from those doing paper-based work. In terms of control, the teacher says that because the iPad is “so open and visual” (being placed on a desk), they are able to instantly see if children are off task. When the iPad is not used, students simply flip the iPad so that the screen is facing the desk, which prevents them from “fiddling” with the device throughout the lesson. The iPad can sometimes be incorporated into a reward system that teachers have. For example, on rainy days during lunch breaks, if students are behaving well they will be allowed to play games on the iPad, which they really enjoy.

6. Discussion The mobility of the iPad was one of the most significant features. The portability was enabled by the small size, the lack of peripherals, and the presence of a Wi-Fi data connection. These features allowed students to gather around the teacher and use the iPad to follow what was being read to them whilst also looking up definitions of words; it also allowed them to easily work in groups and move from one location to the next when needed. The ease with which it could be passed around meant that students could easily work on it along with other kinds of learning resources, or during presentations by the teachers. This was consistent with Rogers & Price [18], where devices are used to help students in their immediate foreground for short periods of time. However, in this case study, the iPad doesn’t really demonstrate its true potential as a mobile device, nor is it really used to support the ability to learn across space and time as suggested in [13; 15]. The iPad is capable of being a truly mobile device, and with a data plan, it can be used to its fullest extent anywhere and anytime. However, the school only allows students to use their iPads inside the classroom, and usually only during class time. While students are occasionally able to use the iPad during a rainy lunchtime, normally they are not available during recess or lunch, and cannot be taken outside. Seamless mobile learning (as described in [14]) is also hindered in this particular context since students

5.7 Other Issues The responsiveness of the device was mentioned several times as a key benefit of the iPad, which is best explained by a quote from the teacher: “It’s the instant factor...When we’re doing the laptops it takes you half an hour to get them out, plug them in...There’s not all the logon issues and other things that kind of get in their way...you press a button

do not have their own dedicated device. While either the color-coding or the MobileMe data service may allow them to resume a previous task, the fact that there are generally only 5 or 6 iPads shared amongst 30 students means that they don’t really have the option to do so whenever they choose

describes. Older students were also given the ability to read and teach younger students, which, as the teacher explained, they enjoyed very much. When the issue of the novelty effect [23] was posed to the teacher and the senior teacher, they stated that there was an initial novelty factor at the start, but interestingly, the senior teacher explains that once students understand that the iPad is a tool to help them learn and not to be played with, they come to understand what is expected of them. The students see the iPad as any other tool in the classroom, such as a desktop PC or laptop, thus having the same novelty effect a desktop PC or a laptop would. However, it was noted that students were still excited when using the iPad as a means of reward when behaving well. Nevertheless, the iPad has only been used in the classroom for a few months and therefore the degree to which the novelty effect is still in play is unknown.

The mobility is perhaps a mixed blessing when it comes to collaboration. The collaboration benefits of the iPad do not seem to be as strong as might initially be suspected and this is partly because of the mobility and partly because of the multi-touch. The promise of multi-touch to allow multiple students to work together on the same screen at the same time [1] doesn’t seem to be realized in a device of this size. The experience reported by the teachers is that while multiple students can view the device together, only one can realistically operate it at a time, and thus there is the potential for some students to monopolize the device. The ability for multi-touch to support multiple users seems to be valid for interfaces with larger surfaces (such as [10]), but not for devices with a form factor as small as the iPad’s. This potential for monopolization is aided by the devices mobility, since it is easy for one student to move the device closer to them to have better control of it, or to pick it up and hold it, thus preventing others from seeing it. On the other hand, the portability of the device can clearly enhance collaboration in other ways. For instance, one person can to a search and find some information and then easily pass the iPad over to another student to share that information. The screen is big enough that more than one person can read it at a time, thus making it possible for people to collaborate on a task. And the networked nature of the iPads means that it is possible for students to individually use an iPad but collaborate (or compete) through particular applications. The mobility of the iPad is also clearly a benefit when it comes to the management of the devices, since it allows the moving of iPads around the school to maximize the use of scarce resources. It also allows the devices to be easily managed from the perspective of gathering them together to charge batteries and perform updates.

Having teachers manage and facilitate a learning environment around the iPad emerged as an essential part of using the iPad successfully in an educational setting. The most effective use of the iPad varies depending on age, subject area and learning outcome. For example, gaming applications are heavily used in the junior school, whereas gaming applications in the senior school are only used in the subject of mathematics. However, in the senior school, the use of the iPad is mainly focused on software applications such as word processing, publishing and webbrowsing. Setting guidelines around the use of the iPad also overcomes some issues identified by the literature and in this case study. For example, the issue of students dominating the device was managed by not allowing students to physically pick up and hold the iPad but to place it on the desk in front of them, thus allowing other students to share and view content. Distractions were also managed by teachers through conveying expectations and taking appropriate actions, which prevent or mitigate students from being distracted. The way the iPad is managed out of the classroom is essential in order to get the best out of the device. Out of the classroom refers to the more ‘administrative’ side of the iPad. For example, as seen in the case study, colored cases and numbers are placed on the iPad to help students and teachers distinguish iPads from one another, applications are selected by teachers to meet the needs of their the classroom and virtual hard drives were set up, giving students and teachers the ability to easily retrieve and store work.

The findings from this case study regarding student attitudes are consistent with the literature of Hourcade, et al., [12] and Li, et al., [27], where students felt engagement and felt empowered by their work, creating and sharing richer content with their peers, parents and teachers confidently through a digital medium. Use of the iPad often resulted in students spending more time and effort on their work, thus creating high level presentations as the teacher

It is important to note that many of these issues are likely to be common to other technologies, and thus the iPad shouldn’t be expected to replace all other devices.

than single-touch for children's collaborative interactions?, 9th international conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, 2009. [11] Rick, J., A. Harris, P. Marshall, R. Fleck, N. Yuill, and Y. Rogers, Children designing together on a multi-touch tabletop: an analysis of spatial orientation and user interactions, 8th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, Como, Italy, 2009. [12] Hourcade, J.P., D. Beitler, F. Cormenzana, and P. Flores, Early OLPC Experiences in a Rural Uruguayan School. in: A. Druin, (Ed.), Mobile Technology for Children, Morgan Kaufman, 2009. [13] Leichtenstern, K., E. André, and T. Vogt, Role assignment via physical mobile interaction techniques in mobile multi-user applications for children, 2007 European Conference on Ambient Intelligence, Springer, Darmstadt, Germany, 2007. [14] Wong, L.-H., and C.-K. Looi, What seams do we remove in mobile-assisted seamless learning?. Computers & Education 57 (2011) 2364-2381. [15] Sharples, M., J. Taylor, and G. Vavoula, Towards a Theory of Mobile Learning, 4th World conference on mLearning, Cape Town, South Africa, 2005. [16] Sá, M., and L. Carriço, Handheld devices for cooperative educational activities, 21st Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing, Dijon, France, 2006. [17] Sá, M., and L. Carriço, Detecting learning difficulties on ubiquitous scenarios. Paper presented at the Proceedings of the HCI International, Beijing, China, 2007. [18] Rogers, Y., and S. Price, How Mobile Technologies Are Changing the Way Children Learn. in: A. Druin, (Ed.), Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning, Morgan Kaufman, 2009. [19] Guernsey, L., It's Mine;: Kids Carrying Their Culture Wherever They Go. in: A. Druin, (Ed.), Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning, Morgan Kaufman, 2009. [20] Shih, Y.E., and D. Mills, Setting the New Standard with Mobile Computing in Online Learning. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning 8 (2007). [21] Meche, M.A., D.R. Ross, and A. Vincent, Computer Learning Behavior: Strategies For Learning And Behavior Improvement. Journal of Information Systems Education 13 (2002) 331 - 341. [22] Carr, D., Computer games in classrooms and the question of 'cultural baggage'. British Journal of Educational Technology 38 (2007) 526-528. [23] Heussner, K.M., Apple's iPad Joins the 6th Grade: A Novelty or the Next Big Idea?, 2010. [24] Yin, R.K., Case study research design and methods, Sage Publications, USA, 2003. [25] Myers, M.D., Qualitative Research in Business & Management, Sage Publications, London, 2009. [26] Lindlof, T.R., and B.C. Taylor, Qualitative Communication Research Methods, Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, USA, 2002. [27] Li, S.C., J.W. Pow, E.M. Wong, and A.C. Fung, Empowering student learning through Tablet PCs: A case study. Education and Information Technologies 15 (2010) 171-180.

7. Conclusion This paper has provided a case study of the use of Apple’s iPad in a primary school setting. The teachers interviewed found that the iPad has features and a design to make it a very useful tool for education. The size, portability and lack of peripherals allow it to be easily moved around the school and the classroom, although in this case the device wasn’t used in a truly mobile fashion. Students were generally very eager to use the device, and able to pick it up and use it intuitively with little instruction. It was so readily adopted that it was successfully used as a reward. The device can be used to support engagement and collaboration amongst groups of students working on a project although careful attention needs to be paid to ensuring that students don’t dominate the device in a group situation, and to ensure they stay on task and don’t get distracted. However, without a proper learning environment, management and facilitation, the device’s potential may not be realized. It is important to have a good management framework in place, both in the classroom and behind the scenes. There needs to be a plan for managing things like recharging batteries, application deployment, backups, and protecting, repairing and replacing iPads as needed. In addition, choosing appropriate applications from the large range available can be difficult and thus schools will need to have a process in place to manage this.

8. References [1] Agostini, A., E. Di Biase, and M. Loregian, Stimulating cooperative and participative learning to match digital natives' needs, PerCom, Mannheim, Germany, 2010. [2] Mifsud, L., Alternative Learning Arenas — Pedagogical Challenges to Mobile Learning Technology in Education, IEEE International Workshop on Wireless and Mobile Technologies in Education, Växjö, Sweden, 2002. [3] Apple. Apple Sells Over 300,000 iPads First Day. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/04/05Apple-SellsOver-300-000-iPads-First-Day.html [4] Apple. Apple Sells Three Million iPads in 80 Days. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/06/22Apple-SellsThree-Million-iPads-in-80-Days.html [5] Interface, iPads: "There's no limit to how successful they will be", New Zealand Interface Magazine, 2010. [6] Skinner, B.F., Programmed Instruction Revisited. The Phi Delta Kappan 68 (1986) 103-110. [7] Tangdhanakanond, K., S. Pitiyanuwat, and T. Archwamety, Constructionism: Student Learning and Development. Academic Exchange 9 (2006) 259. [8] Vosniadou, S., How Children Learn, 2001. [9] Buxton, W. Multi-Touch Systems that I Have Known and Loved. http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html [10] Harris, A., J. Rick, V. Bonnett, N. Yuill, R. Fleck, and P. Marshall, Around the table: are multiple-touch surfaces better

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Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Computers & Education journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compedu

The effects of the size and weight of a mobile device on an educational game David Furió a, Santiago González-Gancedo a, M.-Carmen Juan a, *, Ignacio Seguí b, María Costa b a b

Instituto Universitario de Automática e Informática Industrial, Universitat Politècnica de València, Camino de Vera, s/n. 46022 Valencia, Spain AIJU, Ibi, Alicante, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history: Received 22 February 2012 Received in revised form 3 December 2012 Accepted 13 December 2012

In this paper, we present an educational game for an iPhone and a Tablet PC. The main objective of the game was to reinforce children’s knowledge about the water cycle. The game included different interaction forms like the touch screen and the accelerometer and combined AR mini-games with non-AR mini-games for better gameplay immersion. The main differences between the two devices were screen size and weight. A comparative study to check how these differences affect different aspects was carried out. Seventy-nine children from 8 to 10 years old participated in the study. From the results, we observed that the different characteristics (screen size and weight) of the devices did not inﬂuence the children’s acquired knowledge, engagement, satisfaction, ease of use, or AR experience. There was only a statistically signiﬁcant difference for the global score in which the iPhone was scored higher. We would like to highlight that the scores for the two devices and for all the questions were very high with means of over 4 (on a scale from 1 to 5). These positive results suggest that games of this kind could be appropriate educational games and that the mobile device used may not be a decisive factor. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Augmented reality Mobile devices M-learning Edutainment

1. Introduction Teachers have always been seeking new ways to enhance students’ understanding (Veenema & Gardner, 1996) and trying to find teaching methods using tools that can reach their students at multiple levels (Tan, Lewis, Avis, & Withers, 2008). Since children may have a better learning experience when more senses are involved (Sandor & Klinker, 2005), play becomes an important activity to improve and develop children physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially. It is a natural way to learn because it uses all their senses to solve problems and to understand their environment (Rapeepisarn, Fung & Depickere, 2006). Play can help children experience a greater form of learning than when they are in classroom (Gee, 2003) and stimulates the children to understand new concepts that would otherwise be difficult to reproduce (Blecic, Cecchini, Rizzi, & Tronfio, 2002; Squire, Barnett, Grant, & Higginbotham, 2004). Play is an enjoyable activity that serves as a medium to develop capabilities, abilities, etc., through active participation (Blecic et al., 2002). Play is amusing and fun, and enjoyment is important when endeavoring to achieve learning goals, because what is enjoyably learned is less likely to be forgotten (Blecic et al., 2002). Thus, creative learning becomes a fun experience. Educational games combine playing and learning though participative techniques that aim to develop children’s knowledge and abilities. Educational games also help to motivate children to study. They can be used to reinforce and check knowledge acquired in the classroom. Psychologists and philosophers have studied the influence that playing games has on the learning process of children and they have concluded that entertainment was an important factor that helped to improve learning (Albert & Mori, 2001; Taran, 2005). Edutainment is a term that also merges education and entertainment that relies heavily on technology like video games (Pan, 2006; Rapeepisarn, Wong, Fung, & Depickere, 2006). As some studies have demonstrated, digital educational games can hold significant benefits for children. They can improve knowledge and skills and also stimulate motivation and interest (Fisch, 2005; Rigas & Ayad, 2010; Shelton & Hedley, 2002). Games are linked to the four basic dimensions of children’s development: psychomotor, intellectual, social, and affective-emotional (Garaigordobil, 2005). Games can serve as tools for developing thinking skills. They can also work as learning sources. They can stimulate children’s attention and memory and also support the development of language (Garaigordobil, 2005). *Corresponding author. Tel.: þ34 963879720; fax: þ34 963877359. E-mail addresses: mcarmen@ai2.upv.es, mcarmen@dsic.upv.es (M.-C. Juan). 0360-1315/$ – see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.12.015

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M-learning is a new educational model (Earnshaw, 2011). Even though there is no unified definition of m-learning and it depends on the researcher’s point of view, m-learning is a term that usually refers to the use of mobile devices in education (Sharples, Corlett, & Westmancott, 2002). In other words, m-learning is learning services that can be used at anytime and place through a simple mobile device (Brugnoli et al., 2004; Earnshaw, 2011). M-learning has some advantages over other learning methods. In m-learning, the devices used are small, portable and wireless. They make the educational process flexible and adaptable for students. They are usually cheaper than other devices like desktop computers and can be used anywhere at anytime (Earnshaw, 2011; Georgiev, Georgieva, & Smrikarov, 2004; Jones & Jo, 2004). Mobile technology is also becoming a potential platform for games (Facer et al., 2004). Despite these advantages, m-learning also has some disadvantages (like the different screen sizes and the limited functionalities of the devices), which makes the design of applications more difficult than with other approaches. Furthermore, teacher may not be able to control students in the same way as they do in a classroom environment (Mahamad, Ibrahim, & Taib, 2010). According to Earnshaw (2011), m-learning environments fall into two categories: Fieldwork: in this environment, the learner experiences physical world situations, using mobile device resources. Classroom: in this environment, virtual worlds are used to educate and engage learners via multimedia content.

Earnshaw (2011) suggested that a thorough m-learning system should have both of these environments and combine them. We also share this view. Several m-learning studies have been carried out with results that would indicate that the students who used this educational model gained more knowledge compared to those who used traditional methods (Mcconatha, Praul, Chester, & Lynch, 2008; Thornton & Houser, 2005). If all of these benefits are considered, mobile devices can become tools with a great potential for engaging students at multiple levels in their learning activities (Tan et al., 2008). A commonly accepted definition of Augmented Reality (AR) defines it as a system that has three main features: 1) It combines physical and virtual objects; 2) It has real time interaction; and 3) It has 3-D registration (Azuma, 1997). In other words, AR allows the user to see the physical world with virtual objects superimposed upon the physical world, which supplements reality. In an ideal AR application, the physical and virtual objects could not be distinguished, seeming to coexist in the same space, thus achieving a total fusion of the two environments (Azuma, 1997). According to the virtuality continuum defined by Milgram and Kishino (1994) (Fig. 1), Mixed Reality (MR) encompasses AR and Augmented Virtuality (AV). The virtuality continuum ranges from the completely physical to the completely virtual environment through AR and AV. Taking this continuum into account, MR can be used to refer any combination of physical and virtual elements. AR is appropriate where this combination is closer to the physical environment, that is, where there is a greater contribution from the physical environment. On the other hand, AV is appropriate where the combination is closer to the virtual environment, with a greater contribution from virtual elements. AR has matured to the point where it can be applied to a much wider range of application domains, and education is an area where this technology could be especially valuable (Billinghurst, 2002). AR is a technology that has the potential to engage and motivate learners to explore material from a variety of different perspectives (Kerawalla, Luckin, Seljeflot, & Woolard, 2006). It has been demonstrated that AR systems usually impress those who have experienced it (Ardito, Costabile, Lanzilotti, & Pederson, 2007; Billinghurst, Kato, & Poupyrev, 2001) and that they are useful for teaching subject matters that students could not possibly experience first-hand in the physical world (Kerawalla et al., 2006). A number of experiments to gather empirical evidence as a basis for theoretical propositions and validation were conducted with results that showed that AR was a powerful and engaging visual and cognitive experience for users (Shelton & Hedley, 2004). Some advantages that AR can offer are the ability to transit smoothly between reality and virtuality and the use of a tangible interface metaphor that utilizes physical objects to manipulate virtual information (Billinghurst, 2002). Another advantage that AR offers is that participants can interact between real and virtual environments. That is something that cannot be done in virtual environments. As described in (Shelton & Hedley, 2002), with AR, users do not have to use their imagination to envision what is happening: “With AR, there is no need to pretend an apple is the earth. There is the earth right there, positioned as an object before the users’ eyes”. In this paper, we present a mobile AR game for learning about the water cycle, water composition, and water pollution. The game was developed for iPhone and Tablet PC devices. The game combines AR and non-AR mini-games. Using AR, the children explored a room looking for objects by focusing the device’s camera on different markers. The non-AR mini-games did not use AR, but they used tactile or accelerometer capabilities. The non-AR mini-games usually consisted of children having to collect a certain number of objects to get to the next screen. We also present a study that compared which device was better suited for fun and learning and to determine if children acquired new knowledge after playing the game. Our game combined AR mini-games with non-AR mini-games for better immersion. The game also combined different forms of interaction, including the touch-screen and the accelerometer (Liarokapis & Newman, 2007). The main objectives of this study were to determine if the game helped children in the learning process and to observe if one device had more influence than the other on the participants regarding the acquired knowledge, satisfaction, and interaction. The primary hypothesis was that there would be significant differences between playing in an iPhone or a Tablet PC device regarding acquired knowledge, satisfaction, and interaction, and that children would prefer the Tablet PC mainly due to its larger screen size. The secondary hypothesis was that there would be significant differences between the initial knowledge before playing the game and the knowledge acquired by playing the game using both devices. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 focuses on the state of the art in AR applications related to learning. Section 3 details the game design principles, describes the game, and briefly explains the software and hardware required to develop the application for the two

Fig. 1. Representation of the virtuality continuum.

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devices. Section 4 presents the study. Section 5 presents the results, and Section 6 presents the discussion. Finally, in Section 7, a number of conclusions and areas for future research are identified. 2. State of the art In the last few years, thanks to continuous improvements in technology, the production of mobile AR applications has increased. It has been demonstrated that mobile AR has multiple applications (Van Krevelen & Poelman, 2010) some of which are related to learning and edutainment. Several mobile AR and m-learning studies have been presented in this particular area, but not many have performed studies that analyzed their learning outcomes. There is also a lack of learning theories and research in developing educational games (Shaffer, Squire, Halverson, & Gee, 2004). 2.1. M-learning and mobile AR learning studies focused on children In 2003, Ketamo developed two slightly different geometry-learning games for a laptop PC and an adaptive geometry-learning game for a Compaq iPaq PDA (Ketamo, 2003a). Children were asked to find and mark the required polygon. A study with two stages was conducted. The first stage included three groups of six-year-old children (two experimental groups of 21 and 20 participants, and a control group of 30 children). This phase compared one game with reflexive thinking, another game without reflexive thinking, and a traditional lesson. The second stage had only one experimental group made up of 17 participants, which was compared to the groups of the first stage. The results of the first stage showed that both games helped low-skilled students to reach the level of the average pupils. Ketamo concluded that this result could support the premise that computer-based teaching could help low-skilled students. The results of the second stage showed similar outcomes to those in the first stage, where low-skilled students benefitted more from the learning game. Specifically, the PDA version of the game achieved a double learning effect in the low-skilled group, while the average-skilled group did not have a significant improvement in the learning effect, similarly to the high-skilled group in the first stage. Despite the results, the second stage had a relatively small sample (almost half), which could lower the significance of the results. Moreover, no statistical measure was used to indicate the effect size. In 2010, Huang, Lin, and Chen developed a Mobile Plant Learning System (MPLS) for a PDA with a camera to facilitate botany learning among elementary school students (Huang, Lin, & Cheng, 2010). A study was conducted with 32 participants with an average age of 11 years old. In this study, the children were organized into two groups in order to investigate the effectiveness of the new tool. One group used the MPLS and the other one used a guidebook. The study consisted in observing the characteristics of leaves and then attempting to find a plant. The results showed that more students in the MPLS group reported having positive perceptions about the outdoor learning activities. The analysis also revealed that there were significant differences in the students’ attitudes in favor of the MPLS group. The authors concluded from the results that mobile technologies and an outdoor learning strategy are both useful tools in teaching children about plants. There were some problems observed in the trials; for example, the group who used PDAs experienced too much enthusiasm. This could lead to students not paying enough attention to the activities, thus giving more problems to teachers. This activity could have benefitted from a collaborative version in order to let the users interact with others, which could improve the learning activity (Johnson & Johnson, 1981; Jones, 2006). In 2011, Juan et al. (Juan, Furió, Alem, Ashworth, & Cano, 2011) presented an AR mobile phone game for learning how to recycle. It was developed on a Nokia N95 8 GB. They compared the AR mobile game with a video game in a study with 38 children. The questionnaires used in the trials analyzed the participants’ perceived knowledge of recycling, their behavior and attitudes toward recycling, and their perceived willingness to change the behavior. Other aspects investigated during the study were the ease of use, the engagement and fun, and the children’s preference between the AR and non-AR games were. The results did not show significant statistical differences between the two games. Nevertheless, 69.4% of the participants preferred the AR game, which they perceived as being easy to use and more engaging and fun than the video-game. However, Juan et al. did not test whether or not the children learn with the game. 2.2. M-learning studies focused on high school students There are also several other m-learning studies aimed at high school and university students to enhance learning. In 2009, Uzunboylu, Cavus, and Ercag presented a study to investigate the use of mobile phones to increase students’ use of mobile technologies and to develop environmental awareness in students (Uzunboylu, Cavus, & Ercag, 2009). Forty-one participants with an average age of 21.37 years old took part in the trials. The participants filled in a pretest and a posttest questionnaire. The results showed that the mobile devices engaged the participants and had a significant impact on students’ attitudes toward maintaining environments. The study did not consider an experimental or control group to compare with the mobile group. In 2005, Schwabe and Göth (2005) presented a mobile game developed for a PDA to support the orientation days at a university. Twenty-two students from 19 to 25 years old participated in the study, where each participant was equipped with their own device. The evaluation showed that participants had fun with the game, but they could not demonstrate an enhancement of learning. However, this study did not use an experimental or control group to compare with the mobile game group. During the trials, the children had to compete in two tasks at the same time. This could confuse the participants or could lead them to concentrate on only one of the tasks leaving the other task out. 2.3. Non-mobile AR learning studies focused on children With regard to AR learning applications developed for PCs and laptop PCs, several works can be cited. In 2011, Connolly, Stansfield, and Hainey presented ARGuing, an Alternate Reality Game designed for a PC to increase the motivation of students in the learning of foreign languages (Connolly, Stansfield, & Hainey, 2011). Forty-five participants between 12 and 15 years old took part in the trials. Students played the game in the classroom or at home for 10 days. The study, which aimed at increasing the motivations of secondary school students in the learning of modern foreign languages, showed positive results regarding attitudes, motivation, and perceived learning with evidence suggesting that the system managed to deliver the motivational experience expected by the students. The participants complained about the amount of time involved in completing the tasks and the difficulty of some of the tasks. This might lead to a decrease of motivation.

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In 2007, Balog, Pribeanu, and Iordache presented the ARiSE project, which aimed at creating an AR technology in schools by adapting virtual showcases used in museums (Balog, Pribeanu, & Iordache, 2007). Twenty students from 13 to 17 years old filled in a usability questionnaire. The study tested three types of interaction (pointing at a real object, selection of a virtual object, and selection of a menu item) in an AR platform formed by 4 independent modules organized around a table on which real objects were placed. While the results showed that the participants enjoyed interacting with the AR objects since the exercises were similar to computer games, the trial had a small population, which lowered the significance of the results. Also, the study did not compare the different interaction methods used in the trials. In 2008, Freitas and Campos presented SMART, which consisted of a TV-show style learning game. The system is composed of several racquets with 3D augmented reality markers, a web camera, a PC, and displays such as LCD or projectors (Freitas & Campos, 2008). Fifty-four students between 7 and 8 years old participated in the trials. The study compared a class using traditional methods and students who used the SMART system. The questionnaires focused on the knowledge questions and did not ask the participants about the usability or the engagement and fun, etc. of the system used. Analyses showed that SMART had better results than the traditional method in weak and average students, but the effect of the experimental system on good students was less noticeable than in the traditional class group. These results should be further examined, since Freitas and Campos did not examined whether or not there were statistical differences between the different groups and gender. In 2010, Hsiao presented a new approach to the implementation of AR in the educational environment by creating a Chemistry Augmented Reality Learning System (CARLS) (Hsiao, 2010). The participants consisted of 673 seventh-grade and eighth-grade students, aged between 13 and 14 years old. This system combined learning with three types of physical activity. In the study, the first three groups used the CARLS learning system, while a control group used a keyboard and a mouse to operate the computer. Each experimental group practiced a different type of AR physical activity. The study revealed that the students using all three types of physical activity together with CARLS had a significantly higher academic performance compared to the traditional ways. Despite these results, the author remarks that future researchers should emphasize more valuable characteristics of AR and that this study did not directly prove that any specific physical activity in CARLS improved any specific student’s abilities. In 2006, Chen conducted a study to compare the use of AR and physical models in chemistry education (Chen, 2006). The application was developed for a laptop PC with a webcam. Four students participated in the trials. The study evaluated their perceptions regarding these two representations in learning about amino acids through interviews. From these interviews, it was inferred that students liked to manipulate AR by rotating the markers to see different orientations of the virtual objects. Their interactions with AR demonstrated that they tended to treat AR objects as real objects. However, due to the small sample, these findings should be corroborated with a larger sample. Apart from the interviews done, some pretests and posttests about the system developed might have helped the authors to obtain more feedback. In 2010, Chang, Lee, Wang, and Chen presented RoboStage, a mixed-reality learning environment with robots to help students learn new words (Chang, Lee, Wang, & Chen, 2010). Thirty-six eighthgrade students participated in the study. Four groups were formed. Two of them completed the learning activities using an English textbook and the other two used RoboStage to complete them. The comparison between the two methods showed that RoboStage significantly improved the sense of authenticity of the task and also positively affected learning motivation and performance. The participants felt like they were putting language into real use when using virtual robots. Despite this, no significant differences in terms of learning new words between using the virtual and the mixed-reality environments were found. 2.4. Device or visualization comparison studies A critical aspect in the evaluation of new devices is to determine which device is better suited for a specific task. In our study, we have checked learning outcomes and other aspects such as ease of use and satisfaction using the device to try to determine which device is better suited for learning. In a review of previous work, we have found studies that compare devices or different visualization methods to determine the most suitable device/visualization for facilitating the learning process (Fassbender, Richards, Bilgin, Thompson, & Heiden, 2012; Hamidi, Kharamideh, & Ghorbandordinejad, 2011; Ketamo, 2003a, 2003b; Klatzky, Wu, Shelton, & Stetten, 2008; Schönborn, Bivall, & Tibell, 2011). Following this trend, we compared two different devices. Ketamo (2003b) developed xTask, which is an adaptive learning environment whose purpose was to provide services for (web-based and mobile) teaching, studying, and learning processes. Ketamo compared the use of the xTask environment in PCs and mobile phones to see how it affected the quality and quantity of work. The results showed that mobile technologies might bring some added value to network-based learning, but they could not replace conventional computers. As described in Section 2.1, Ketamo (2003a) also presented two geometry-learning games for a laptop PC and an adaptive geometry-learning game for a Compaq iPaq PDA. The results showed that the PDA version of the game achieved a learning effect in the low-skilled group that was two times better than the laptop PC. Klatzky et al. (2008) examined the impact of their augmented-reality visualization device (called “sonic flashlight” (SF)) on the learning of ultrasound-guided needle insertion, and compared it to conventional ultrasound (CUS). The results showed that the SF users learned more because the SF had higher accuracy and lower variability in aiming and endpoint placements than CUS. Hamidi et al. (2011) compared the training effects of interactive multimedia devices (interactive CDs) and non-interactive media ones (films) to see if learners learned faster when instructed through interactive multimedia in comparison with non-interactive media. They also studied whether learners learned with greater accuracy when instructed using interactive CDs rather than films. Their results showed that there was a significant difference between the two groups in learning speed (in favor of the interactive CD group) but there was not any significant difference between the two groups in learning accuracy and in the amount of material memorized. Fassbender et al. (2012) presented a study of a virtual history lesson with different background stimuli (music or no music) to determine the effect of music on how much players remembered from the presented information. Two different display systems were used: three monitors set side by side, and three semi-cylindrical big screens on which the images were projected. The children were split into four groups combining music or no music and the two types of visualization. The results of the experiment showed that the participants using the monitors remembered a significantly higher number of facts, particularly if no background music was played in the second half of the history lesson. However, the participants using the three big screens had a significantly higher recall of facts when they listened to music in the second half of the history lesson. Schönborn et al. (2011) explored students’ interaction and learning with a haptic or no-haptic virtual model, representing the specific binding of two biomolecules. The results showed that the students in the haptic group obtained higher learning gains since they tended to engage fewer visual representational switches.

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Based on the developments and studies mentioned in this section, we consider that the selection of a device depends on the learning tasks that the users are going to perform. In our study, we developed an m-learning game that uses AR technology, and we compared two mobile devices that are capable of running applications with high graphic demand like games, but with different characteristics (screen size and weight) that could inﬂuence the motivation and, consequently, the learning outcomes and knowledge improvements. 3. Theoretical background The game that we have developed is based on two learning theories of education in anattempt of providing a comprehensive learning experience to the children. This two learning theories are: 1) Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences (MI) (Gardner, 1983). The theory of multiple intelligences has become a catalyst and framework for many current educational strategies. According to Gardner, intelligence is not a unitary element, but it includes different and speciﬁc capacities. There are eight types of intelligence through which individuals approach problems and develop solutions. According to the MI theory, every person has at least eight forms of intelligence (linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalistic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal), and technologies can help students to use several of them (Gardner, 2000). In Table 1, we detail the activities proposed in our game for seven of these forms of intelligences: 2) The second theory, Kolb’s theory (1984) was also taken into consideration to design our game. Kolb formulated a model of experiential learning, which conceives learning as an ongoing process. Kolb outlines this process through a model called “the wheel of Kolb’s learning”. This learning model is developed in 4 stages, as shown in Fig. 2.

Our game was designed to initiate the learning wheel through a concrete experience. In the reﬂecting phase, the students think about what the have experienced (what have been seen, heard, or manipulated) and integrate this with their prior knowledge about the water cycle. These previous phases allow abstraction and generalization, adding meaning to the experience. The acquired concepts can be used actively in new situations (e.g. daily life). 4. Method 4.1. Design issues The subject of the game that was chosen was the water cycle. We selected this theme for multiple reasons. The ﬁrst reason why we chose the water cycle was due to a former study. Professionals in education participated in that study to determine the subject preferences for educational computer games and their type for children (Furió, González-Gancedo, Juan, Seguí, & Costa, 2013). From the survey, we observed that “Nature” was one of the most preferred subjects. The second reason why we chose the water cycle theme was because this topic is covered in the Spanish law for primary education. The law establishes as an objective: “To know and value their natural, social, and cultural environment as well as the possibilities for caring for and preserving it”. The law also establishes that the water cycle be included in the contents to be learned by children. It explicitly states that children have to know that water exists in different states and can be changed from one state to another by means of an increase or decrease in temperature. It also states that children have to learn to respect, defend and improve the environment. Table 1 Activities proposed in our game for seven forms of Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences. Forms of intelligences

Activities included

Linguistic This is the competence to use words in an effective way, both oral and written expressions. It assumes having skill in the use of the syntax, phonetics, semantics and pragmatic uses of the language.

The children have to hear and, in some cases, read the directions that the guide character gives during the game, which allow the children to gradually understand the dynamics of the activity. It is a linguistic activity, like reading a book, listening to a story, ... The children have to use their language skills to get through the game. Seven different problems arise that the children have to solve using logical thinking in order to progress in the game. One of the activities in the game helps the children to identify the chemical formula of water and asks them to take atoms in order (two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom) to form molecules of water. We propose solving spatial problems through observation and perceptual stimulation of objects from different angles. To do this, four Augmented Reality games were used that allow playing with the physical space and virtual objects using 3D in concepts related to the water cycle. While the children play, they can visualize objects from different angles. Augmented Reality allows virtual objects in to be inserted in the real space so that children can play with the augmented space created. One of the learning objectives is to bring the water cycle game to children in the second cycle of primary education in a fun and attractive way. The learning contents are designed to help the children understand the water cycle. The media and development of the game have been proposed for a single use in order to respect the times for personal learning, individual working knowledge construction and individual self-esteem. In our game, music and sound effects have been introduced to allow the children to get into the gameplay and to reinforce feelings of accomplishment and self-esteem related to the upcoming game stages.

Logical-mathematical This is to have skill in solving logical-mathematical problems.

Visual-spatial This includes the ability to perceive and represent the visual-spatial world accurately and to form and manipulate mental images.

Naturalistic This consists of understanding the natural world. Intrapersonal This develops individual and personal knowledge, identity construction and self-esteem. Musical This is composed of different skills: perception, performance and production. Music perception allows different meaning within a musical composition to be discerned. Bodily-kinesthetic This is linked to the ability to control our body.

The game is conceived as an exploration of space, where the children have to move in order to locate objects (augmented reality games).

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41

Fig. 2. The wheel of Kolb’s learning.

Several design characteristics were identified for virtual learning environments (Mueller & Strohmeier, 2010). Although they referred to virtual environments, we consider that they could also be applied to AR environments. Since “Interaction” was one of the highest rated characteristics, we took into account several design suggestions from different authors to improve the learner-system communication. Liarokapis and Newman (2007), suggested to combine multiple interaction forms. We used accelerometers, a touch screen, and tangible interaction. The accelerometers and the touch screen were used to move characters on the screen or to pick up objects during the game in order to complete certain tasks. There was tangible interaction because markers could be manipulated, for example, by rotating them or translating them with the hands. We also took into account studies that had provided other design principles and suggestions to enhance interaction (Koh, Duh, & Gu, 2010). Sandor suggested mixing several input and output channels. Our game had camera, accelerometers, and a tactile screen as input channels, and videos, sounds, and graphics as output channels (Sandor & Klinker, 2005). In 2007, Henrysson and Billinghurst considered that the device camera could be used for a 6 Degrees of Freedom input by tracking real objects (Henrysson & Billinghurst, 2007). We used the iPhone and Tablet PC cameras for tracking markers, and children could select the virtual objects that appeared on them. We also tried to keep interaction techniques as user friendly as possible (Zhou, Duh, & Billinghurst, 2008) since it is an important factor to take into account in order to provide an engaging gaming experience (Koh et al., 2010). We also tried to achieve a high degree of naturalness in interaction (Aliakseyeu, Subramanian, Martens, & Rauterberg, 2002) by using two-handed interaction instead of one-handed interaction, since children use two hands when playing the mini-games. These mini-games had visual feedback: every action the children took was reflected on the screen. And we only used wireless mobile devices, so there were no other instruments that could cause annoyance to children. Another important characteristic that obtained a high score in Mueller and Strohmeier’s study was “Learning-process supportive” (Mueller & Strohmeier, 2010). In our game, the children are guided through a series of episodes that conform the water cycle in a structured order and the children are always aware of the episode that they are currently playing, and can understand the workflow of the whole experience. Education cannot be improved with only having technology (Fisch, 2005; Veenema & Gardner, 1996). Technologies that include a variety of media can help students to understand and learn concepts (Veenema & Gardner, 1996). Another design aspect that we incorporated was the feedback from wrong answers. We did not reveal the correct answers after the children responded incorrectly (Fisch, 2005). Instead, the game told them the answer was not correct and the guide character reminded them of the task to perform. Other feedback that was added in order to help the children to complete the tasks was, for example, images of the objects they had to look for. It is important to note that, in our game, the children used the camera in AR mini-games whose perspective was similar to a first-person perspective, making the children embedded agents, becoming part of the game (Dickey, 2005).

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Fig. 3. Flowchart of the AR and non-AR mini-games.

4.2. General description of the game The game was aimed at reinforcing the learning of children about the subject of water. In this game, children could learn about the water cycle, water composition, and water pollution in a way similar to the way they studied it in school. They saw the major processes of the water cycle. They began viewing the evaporation phase, which was when the sun heated up water and turns it into vapor or steam. Then, this water vapor or steam lifted into the air. Next, they saw the condensation phase, which was produced when water vapor in the air got cold and changed back into liquid, forming clouds. The third water cycle phase they saw was precipitation, which occurred when the small drops that form the clouds got cold. The last water cycle phase was collection, which occurred when water fell back to earth as precipitation. Apart from the water cycle, the children also learned what objects could pollute the water and what elements made up water. Using AR, the children explored a room looking for the objects requested by the guide character, which in the game was a drop of water. To search for the objects, the children focused the device’s camera on the different markers distributed around the room. Ten different AR markers were used and placed in the activity room, which was decorated with wall posters and images throughout the room for a more immersive experience, as showed in Fig. 4. When the children selected an object, a message was displayed telling them whether the object picked up was the right one. Figs. 5 and 6 show children playing the game. Non-AR mini-games (which in our application were virtual reality games) appeared in combination with some AR mini-games. The non-AR mini-games did not use AR, but they used tactile or accelerometer capabilities. The non-AR mini-games usually consisted of children having to collect a certain number of objects to get to the next screen. Between each mini-game (AR and non-AR), video and audio explanations were displayed, describing the rules and goals to complete the next mini-game. They also served as a reward for the children when they had completed a mini-game, showing what they had achieved. This way, we could link all the mini-games together in a continuous story thread. There were seven mini-games in total, which are shown graphically in the flowchart in Fig. 3. The game started with a video, which introduced the children to it. Next, they searched the room looking for the guide character, a drop of water. This activity served as a tutorial and was the first contact with our AR system. The children learned to focus and to select objects in the AR mini-games. After the guide character had been found, the first task required the children to form water drops from oxygen and hydrogen atoms. The atoms were represented as characters (different colored drops of water) with the letter ‘H’ or ‘O’ on their backs. The children first had to select two hydrogen atoms and then an oxygen atom. Then, a drop of water was formed. Once the children made three drops of water, they went to the

Fig. 4. Activity room decoration.

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Fig. 5. Two children playing the game with the iPhone.

first non-AR mini-game. Here, they had to collect twenty suns to evaporate the drops of water they had made before. This mini-game corresponds to the evaporation phase in the water cycle. The suns fell from the top of the screen and the children had to move a water drop that was at the bottom of the screen from left to right using the tactile screen capabilities of the devices. Next, in the second non-AR mini-game, the children had to place ten clouds over a mountain peak tilting the device to use the accelerometer capabilities. The third AR mini-game, which corresponded to the condensation phase of the water cycle, asked the children to find thermometers with low temperatures, which were blue in color. There were also thermometers with high temperatures, which were red in color. This way, they could cool the clouds and produce precipitation. Then, in the collection phase, the children had to collect the drops of water that were falling from the mountain peak (Fig. 7). In order to complete the task, the children had to collect twenty drops of water by touching them. Finally, the water cycle was completed, but the guide character discovered a problem. A river was filled with objects that could be pollutants, so another request was made to the children. They needed to find and pick up the pollutant objects using the AR capabilities of the devices. All the mini-games contained a head-up display that showed the current status. For a complete understanding of the functionality of the game, there is a video component available that accompanies the electronic version of this manuscript. To access this video component, simply click on the image below (online version only). Supplementary video related to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2012.12.015. 4.3. Hardware and software An iPhone 3 GS with iOS version 4.3 and an HP Slate 500 Tablet PC with Windows 7 were used during the evaluation. Both devices had a built-in camera that allowed the real world to be recorded and displayed on the screen as well as an accelerometer. The dimensions of the iPhone were 11.55 6.21 1.23 cm. Its weight was 135 g. The dimension of the screen was 3.500 . The dimensions of the Tablet PC were 23.40 15.00 1.47 cm. Its weight was 680 g. The dimension of the screen was 8.900 .

Fig. 6. Child ﬁnding an oxygen drop.

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Fig. 7. Non-AR game with the Tablet PC.

To develop and run the iPhone game, we used the Xcode 4 IDE and the iPhone SDK 4.3. The software used to include AR capabilities on the iPhone was ARToolKitPlus 2.1.1. We used SIO2 1.4 version, a 2D/3D game engine with OpenGL-ES 1.1 capabilities designed for mobile devices (http://www.sio2interactive.com). The engine also provided the necessary functions, methods, and scripts to import, load, and animate 3D scenes created in Blender, which was used in our game to create 3D objects. To develop the game on the Tablet PC, we used the OpenSceneGraph (OSG) toolkit –version 2.9.5 with the FFmpeg plugin–. OpenSceneGraph let us import, animate, and render 3D objects with high performance in Cþþ language. This allowed us to create the 3D models in Blender and load them in our program. The FMOD sound library provided sound support. To include AR capabilities, we used the OSG plugin osgART 2.0 RC 3, which used the ARToolKit library (Kato & Billinghurst, 1999) version 2.72.1. To protect both devices from shocks and falls, an external case was made (Fig. 8). The dimension of the external case for the iPhone was 20.60 11.70 1.75 cm. Its weight was 127 g. The dimension of the external case for the Tablet PC was 32.80 22.00 2.10 cm. Its weight with the accelerometer included was 268 g. This external case means that the iPhone/Tablet PC are no longer common devices. They are modified devices, and hereafter they will be referred to as M_iPhone and M_Tablet PC. It also had a ribbon that children could put around their neck in order to provide more stability when holding the devices. 4.4. Participants Seventy-nine children from 8 to 10 years old – with a mean age of 8.70 0.70 – took part in the study: 42 boys (53%) and 37 girls (47%). These children were attending the summer school of the Technical University of Valencia (Escola d’Estiu). 4.5. Measurements Three questionnaires were used for the validation. The first one was the pretest, and the other two were filled out after playing the first game and the second game. Table 5 in Appendix shows the relation of questions for each questionnaire. While most of the answers to the questions followed a Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, others had categorical answers and, in some cases, hand-written answers.

Fig. 8. External case of the Tablet PC.

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41

Fig. 9. Study procedure. Two games and three questionnaires were used.

The pretest (Q1) was composed of 6 questions designed to evaluate how much the children knew or remembered about water from school (composition (Questions #1, #2), cycle (Questions #3, #4, #6), and pollutants (Question #5)). An example of the questions was: Do you remember what comprises water? a) Hydrogen and Oxygen; b) Potassium and sodium; c) The water is made up of nothing; d) I do not know/I do not remember. These six questions about acquired knowledge were established by the pedagogues that participate in the project. These six questions were also ratified by a team of fifteen 3rd-grade teachers in order to adapt our assessment to the assessment that is carried out in the classroom on the subject. In order not to prolong the test phase the number of questions was limited to the minimum number of questions that the teachers agreed upon. The rest of the questions followed the same structure, with the exception of question 5, which was: Check every object you think is a pollutant. Then the participants had to check every object they believed to be a pollutant from a list of nine items. To make it friendlier to the children, an image accompanied every object. For the data analysis, this question was considered to be correct if all the objects were correctly checked. Apart from the knowledge questions, we also gathered gender, grade, and age from the participants. The second questionnaire (Q2) was composed of 19 questions. The first 6 questions were the same ones the participants answered in Q1. This way we could observe if they had learned something about the water cycle they did not know before. The rest of the questions were about participant satisfaction and interaction with the game. One of the questions was: Did you have fun playing the game? a) Very much; b) Quite a lot; c) Moderate; d) Not much; e) None. Other questions were related to the AR part of the game, such as: Did you like to see how objects appeared above the black squares (patterns)? a) Very much; b) Quite a lot; c) Somewhat; d) Not much; e) None. In question 19, the participants had a chance to give a global score to the game. The third questionnaire (Q3) was composed of 8 questions. Some of the questions were the same as in Q2, which allowed us to compare the two devices. In question 6, the children had to select which device they preferred to play the game: What device did you like the best? a) iPhone; b) Tablet PC. In question 7, the participants explained why they preferred one device over the other. In the last question, children described what they liked the most of the whole experience.

4.6. Procedure The children who participated in this study were randomly assigned to one of two groups: A. The group that played the iPhone game ﬁrst and then the Tablet PC game. B. The group that played the Tablet PC game ﬁrst and then the iPhone game.

Both groups had a similar number of subjects: 41 children were assigned to group A, and 38 to group B. Fig. 9 shows the procedure of both groups graphically. As can be observed, before playing any game, each child filled out the Q1 entry questionnaire and some instructions were given to the children about how to play the game. Then, the first group played the iPhone game. After completing the game, they answered the post-game questionnaire Q2. Then, these children played the Tablet PC game and filled out the ending questionnaire, Q3, when they had finished playing. The second group played the Tablet PC game first. After completing the game, they also filled out Q2 questionnaire. Then, these children played the iPhone game and also answered the Q3 questionnaire when they had finished playing. In our study, the content evaluation protocol was established in a way similar to the one applied to assess the contents in the classroom. In classrooms of the second cycle of the Spanish primary education, the usual established dynamic is to teach a subject and then evaluate the level of learning of the content.

Post−test − Q2

Pretest − Q1

3 4 Knowledge score

Fig. 10. Box plots of the scores of the knowledge questions in the pretest (Q1) and the posttest (Q2) for the M_Tablet PC and the M_iPhone devices. The mean and standard deviation are represented in solid gray lines.

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41

Table 2 Mixed design ANOVA for the knowledge scores. Signiﬁcance: **p < 0.05, ***p < 0.01. N ¼ 79. Factor

d.f.

Effect size (h2G )

Grade Gender Device Questionnaire Grade:questionnaire Other interactions

1 1 1 1 1 1

7.43 0.63 0.70 124.68 5.15 <1.04

<0.01*** 0.43 0.41 <0.01*** 0.03** >0.31

0.06 <0.01 <0.01 0.38 0.03 <0.01

The evaluations took place in two mirrored rooms. Each room had two identical playing areas where two children (from each group) could play simultaneously and individually. The two playing areas had the same set of markers placed in the same positions. There was no interaction between the two children, and there was also a person with each child to guide them and to clarify the possible doubts during the whole activity. The questionnaires were filled out in the same room where the activities took place. To avoid the influences of answering the pretest on the results of the posttest, the children were encouraged to answer all questions without any pressure; if they did not know the answer it was considered to be completely normal, the children were not informed whether or not their answers on the pretest were correct or not. Thus, the children did not acquire any knowledge by answering the pretest; they only learned during the game. 5. Analysis The statistical analysis that follows uses parametric tests, such as t-test and ANOVA, which are robust to violations of equality of variances if the ratio between the largest variance and the smallest variance is not larger than 4:1. Our analysis is within this margin with a ratio lower than 2:1. Moreover, the sample sizes have been balanced as described in Section 4.3, which also reinforces the validity of the tests. We also provide effect sizes (Cohen’s d, generalized eta-squared, and Cramer’s V) in order to have a measure that is independent from the sample sizes and to have a magnitude of the significant differences found, which is not measured by p-values. The time that the children took to finish a game was an average of 14.62 2.03 min for the Tablet PC, and 13.3 1.96 min for the iPhone. Although the differences in the time of play were not perceived during the evaluations, we found that, surprisingly, there were significant differences between the two devices, with a medium effect size (t[124] ¼ 3.67, p < 0.01, Cohen’s d ¼ 0.65). It is very reasonable that the bigger screens took more time, since the children had a bigger area to interact with and the movements had more amplitude, while with the smaller screen, the children had to focus their attention on a more limited area. Relating these times to the preferred device of the children (Question #20 in Appendix), there were no significant differences in the time of those who preferred the M_Tablet PC and those who preferred the M_iPhone (t[54] ¼ 1.18, p ¼ 0.24, Cohen’s d ¼ 0.32). The variable of knowledge was created to condense the six knowledge questions (Questions #1 to #6 in Table 5 in Appendix) by counting the number of correct answers. Fig. 10 shows the box plot for the pretest and posttest scores indicating the high dominance of correct answers after playing the first game (posttest). In order to have a complete understanding of the knowledge variable, we performed several statistical tests. To compare the effect of the game on this variable, a t-test was performed, which revealed that the scores in the posttest (mean 5.58 0.70) were significantly higher than in the pretest (mean 3.90 1.33) (t[78] ¼ 11.21, p < 0.01, Cohen’s d ¼ 1.26). Another t-test was performed to see the differences of knowledge between the iPhone game (group A, mean 5.63 0.65) and the Tablet PC game (group B, mean 5.53 0.75). No significant differences were found between the two devices (t[77] ¼ 0.67, p ¼ 0.50, Cohen’s d ¼ 0.15). We also performed a mixed design ANOVA test in order to take into consideration several factors simultaneously. The factors of grade and gender were between subjects because they were observed, but the factor of questionnaire (Q1-pretest or Q2-posttest) was within subjects because it contained repeated measures (first when children filled Q1 and second when the same children filled Q2). The factor of device used to play (M_iPhone, M_Tablet PC) was also taken into consideration as between subjects because children from the two groups were different. The effect size used was the generalized Eta-squared (h2G ) (Olejnik & Algina, 2003), which has been proven to be very suitable for mixed design analyses because it takes into account the repeated measures and the observed and manipulated factors (Bakeman, 2005). The result of the analysis in Table 2 showed that there were very significant differences in the grade and the questionnaire factors. The p-values in these cases were below 0.01, and the effect sizes revealed that the most influential factor was the questionnaire with an exceptionally large size, followed by the grade, which had a small-medium size. There was also some interaction between the grade and questionnaire factors, but it had a small effect size and we do not consider it relevant. It should be also noted that no significant differences were found between the devices. Also, the perceived acquired knowledge by the children fitted the previous result. On a scale from 1 to 5, the score given to how much they thought they had learned (Question #12) was high after using the M_iPhone (mean 4.42 0.86) and after using the M_Tablet PC (mean 4.42 0.78), and there was no significant difference between the devices (t[76] ¼ 0.02, p ¼ 0.98, Cohen’s d < 0.01). Table 3 Multifactorial ANOVA for the variable of satisfaction. N ¼ 79. Factor

d.f.

Effect size (h2G )

Grade Gender Device Grade:gender Other interactions

1 1 1 1 1

2.14 0.02 1.05 2.05 <0.09

0.15 0.83 0.31 0.16 >0.36

0.03 <0.01 0.01 0.03 <0.01

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41

Table 4 T-tests of several questions (#7, #8, #16, #17, #18, #19). The symbol * indicates signiﬁcant differences; df ¼ 77. Questions

#16

#17

#18

#19

M_iPhone (mean sd) M_Tablet PC mean sd) t p Cohen’s d

4.85 0.42 4.89 0.31 0.49 0.63 0.11

4.84 0.36 4.87 0.34 0.34 0.73 0.08

4.52 0.74 4.29 0.77 1.38 0.17 0.31

4.76 0.54 4.61 0.59 1.18 0.24 0.27

4.87 0.34 4.87 0.34 0.03 0.97 0.01

9.88 0.31 9.62 0.75 2.04 0.04* 0.46

Another way to study the knowledge variable is to use the average normal gain (Hake, 1998). The average normal gain was created to evaluate the effectiveness of a course based on a pretest and a posttest. It allows measuring the degree of learning obtained through a particular mode of instruction (Mayo, 2007). It is deﬁned as the ratio of the actual average gain to the maximum possible average gain (Savinainen & Scott, 2002):

hgi ¼

%hposttesti %hpretesti hGaini ¼ ; hGainimax 100 %hpretesti

where %hpretesti is the percentage of correct answers in the pretest and %hposttesti is the percentage of correct answers in the posttest. The values of hgi can vary from 0 (null learning gain) to 1 (maximum learning gain), and Hake established three types of courses depending on this value: a) “High-g” courses (hgi 0.7, b) “Medium-g” courses (0.3 hgi < 0.7), and c) “Low-g” courses (hgi<0.3). In our case %hpretesti ¼ 63.6% and %hposttesti ¼ 92.1%, and therefore the average normal gain in our game was hgi ¼ 0.78. This measure is an indicator of the high effectiveness our system had during the evaluation. Apart from the knowledge variable, another variable of satisfaction was created to combine the answers of several questions (the mean of answers to Question #7, #8, #9, #16, #17, #18, and #19), giving us a measure of the degree of engagement and enjoyment with the game. The overall rating was very high (mean 4.77 0.23), indicating that the children were highly satisfied with the game. The variable was analyzed using a multifactorial ANOVA with the gender, grade and the device factors (Table 3). The high p-values and small effect sizes showed that there were no significant differences for any of the factors, including the device used. We could deduce that since the game was very appreciated and enjoyed very similarly by all the groups studied motivation to learn was increased by using the game. We also analyzed several questions (#7, #8, #16, #17, #18, #19) individually. We used t-tests in order to observe if there were statistical differences between the M_iPhone and the M_Tablet PC. As Table 4 shows, for the questions analyzed, the results of the two devices were similar with the exception of Question #19. The M_Tablet PC obtained a marginally higher result in engagement questions (Questions #7, #8, #9). In contrast, the M_iPhone obtained marginally higher results in ease-of-use questions (Questions #16, #17). The only statistical difference between the two devices was found in Question #19, where the children scored the M_iPhone game significantly higher than the M_Tablet PC game. Another hint that determines if the game was satisfying for the children is their desire to continue playing the game (Question #13). A total of 97.37% of the children who played with the M_Tablet PC and 95.12% of the children who played with the M_iPhone would like to play the game again to learn about new subjects. Only one child did not want to play the game on the M_Tablet PC again, while only two children were undecided with regard to playing the game again on the M_iPhone. Multiple t-tests were performed in order to study the AR experience that the children had while playing the game (Questions #9, #10, #14). As Table 5 shows, no statistically significant differences were found between the two devices for the first time the children played the game. Similar results were obtained for the second time they played the game (Table 6). This would indicate that the children who used the M_Tablet PC had a similar AR experience to the children who used the M_iPhone. We also performed ANOVA tests in order to see if other factors affected the AR questions. With regard to the engagement of AR in the game (Questions #9 and #10), the overall rate for the enjoyment of AR was very high (Question #9: 4.85 0.43; Question #10: 4.85 0.39). For Question #9, the ANOVA test showed that all the groups studied appreciated the fact that the objects appeared on the black squares in a similar manner in both devices. There were no significant differences for: grade (F[1,71] ¼ 0.22, p ¼ 0.64, h2G < 0.01), gender (F[1,71] ¼ 0.05, p ¼ 0.82, h2G ¼ 0.01), and device (F[1,71] ¼ 0.76, p ¼ 0.38, h2G < 0.01). An ANOVA test of Question #10 showed similar results: grade (F[1,71] ¼ 0.09, p ¼ 0.77, h2G < 0.01), gender (F[1,71] ¼ 0.90, p ¼ 0.35, h2G ¼ 0.01), and device (F[1,71] ¼ 0.58, p ¼ 0.45, h2G < 0.01). This result is very positive because it means that the use of AR can be spread over all of the factors studied without any restriction. For the AR ease of use (Question #14), the children found it easy to play AR games, and all the groups experienced AR gameplay similarly, since no significant differences were found in the grade, gender, group, the order in which the devices were used, or the device used. The results of the mixed design analysis are shown in Table 7, where the order and device factors were within subjects and the rest were between subjects. According to the p-values and the effect sizes, none of the factors had significant differences. Similarly to the previous result, this result is very appreciated by the authors because it means that the introduction of AR was very positive for all the children and all the devices homogeneously.

Table 5 T-tests of the AR questions in Q2 between the iPhone and Tablet PC devices. The symbol * indicates signiﬁcant differences; df ¼ 77.

M_iPhone (mean sd) M_Tablet PC (mean sd) t p Cohen’s d

#10

#14

4.80 0.46 4.89 0.39 0.94 0.35 0.21

4.88 0.33 4.82 0.46 0.70 0.49 0.16

4.39 0.77 4.03 0.88 1.95 0.05 0.44

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41 Table 6 T-tests of the AR questions in Q3 between the iPhone and Tablet PC devices; df ¼ 77.

M_iPhone (mean sd) M_Tablet PC (mean sd) t p Cohen’s d

#14

4.79 0.47 4.68 0.52 0.95 0.35 0.21

4.29 0.77 4.43 0.86 0.75 0.46 0.17

A Chi-squared test for Question #20 revealed that the preference for the M_iPhone or the M_Tablet PC significantly differed between children who finished playing with one of the devices (X2[1, N ¼ 79] ¼ 12.08, p < 0.01, Cramer’s V ¼ 0.42). After analyzing the results, we could see that children tended to choose the device they had used the last time. This difference is shown graphically in Fig. 11, where 71.43% of the children in group A chose the M_Tablet PC, and 70.27% of the children in group B chose the M_iPhone. Another test revealed that there were not significant differences in this tendency for the devices (X2[1, N ¼ 79] ¼ 0.05, p ¼ 0.83, Cramer’s V ¼ 0.05). Therefore, we could conclude that there was a bias toward preferring the last device used, but the effect of that bias was equivalent for the M_Tablet PC and the M_iPhone. Thus, we could conclude that there was no significant difference in the preferences for the M_Tablet PC and the M_iPhone, and that the differences were due to the order of playing. To interact with the device, the children thought that it was easier to use the accelerometer rather than to touch the tactile screen (Question #15), as Fig. 12 shows. There were no significant differences in the proportions of the preferred interaction on the two devices (X2[1, N ¼ 79] ¼ 1.69, p ¼ 0.19, Cramer’s V ¼ 0.12). However, we believe that the higher weight of the Tablet PC could have influenced this result decreasing the tactile rates because some children had some difficulties holding the device while touching the screen. Question #11 evaluated the preferences of different types of technologies in the mini-games: AR, tactile screen, and accelerometers (Fig. 13). There were no significant differences found in these three types of interaction when people used the M_Tablet PC and the M_iPhone (X2[2, N ¼ 79] ¼ 0.51, p ¼ 0.77, Cramer’s V ¼ 0.08). In spite of the differences in the proportions, there were no significant differences in the proportions for the M_iPhone (X2[2, N ¼ 79] ¼ 3.59, p ¼ 0.17) or the M_Tablet PC (X2[2, N ¼ 79] ¼ 2.21, p ¼ 0.33). 6. Discussion and implications Educational games have been proven to be useful learning tools. Video games produce chemical changes in the brain that promote learning, and some studies have demonstrated that video games are better than a lecture (Mayo, 2007). Video games also have some advantages over other learning techniques or even traditional games. Video games have massive reach, and they appeal to children and adults and to men and women. They are effective learning paradigms. Data can be obtained from them in order to improve the games or collect information about the children. Although there are empirical studies that have already shown evidence of children’s learning from educational computer games (Fisch, 2005), there are not many AR mobile games that have studies that corroborate it, and not all educational games are equally effective in transmitting knowledge. In order to maximize the effectiveness of the game, we have followed multiple design patterns from various authors. The theories by Kolb (1984) and Gardner (1983) were used for the learning design part. For the interaction and other game aspects, several suggestions and design principles from various authors were used. We have also taken into account the Spanish curriculain the design of our game. 6.1. Device comparison We performed a study to find out which device was better suited as an educational game, the M_iPhone or the M_Tablet PC. We would like to point out that an iPhone and a Tablet PC were adapted adding an external case. These external cases protect the two devices from shocks and falls. However, at the same time, the addition of these external cases implies that the two devices are significantly modified. Therefore, our conclusions are related to these modified devices. From our point of view, these conclusions can be extrapolated to the original devices. However, a specific study on this topic should be carried out to corroborate this possible extrapolation. We compared the devices regarding several aspect such as learning outcomes, satisfaction, engagement, interaction, and AR experience. No significant differences were found between the two devices, and they provided a similarly good experience. In this study, no evidence was found to say that the large screen of the M_Tablet PC (where children could see the virtual objects in greater detail) or the better handling of the M_iPhone were determinant factors. This could also be due to the fact that the two devices had a similar degree of naturalness (Aliakseyeu et al., 2002), with neither device being intrusive, making them both very easy to use. The study indicated that, despite

Table 7 Mixed design ANOVA for the ease of use of the AR system. N ¼ 79. Factor

d.f.

Effect size (h2G )

Grade Gender Group Order Device Interactions

1 1 1 1 1 1

2.52 0.77 2.25 2.24 1.22 <1.81

0.12 0.38 0.14 0.14 0.27 >0.15

0.03 <0.01 0.02 <0.01 <0.01 <0.02

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41

4.5

5.0

Q2 Q1

4.0

mean of knowledge

5.5

Questionnaire

4 Grade

Fig. 11. Preferences for the favorite device in groups A and B.

the fact that the M_iPhone and the M_Tablet PC had different characteristics (screen size and weight), both devices were well suited for educational games. As to what kind of interaction was considered to be easier, participants said that the accelerometer was easier to use than touching the tactile screen on both devices. Although there were no statistically significant differences between the devices, the preference for the accelerometer was higher with the M_Tablet PC. We believe that this was due to the fact that it was heavier than the M_iPhone and some children had some difficulties touching the screen with one hand while holding it with the other hand. Most of them rapidly found strategies to make the experience more comfortable by grabbing the M_Tablet PC with the whole arm, but some of them did not find it intuitive. This problem did not affect the M_iPhone, which was lighter than the M_Tablet PC. There was not a clear preference of technology for the games that used the accelerometer, the tactile screen and AR; the children appreciated it similarly. As a consequence, we could conclude that there was a good balance in the use of AR games and non-AR games, which achieved an excellent level of satisfaction to the children when combined. In the questionnaires, the participants showed a clear preference for the last device they had used. After analyzing this bias, we showed that it had a very similar magnitude in the case of the M_iPhone and the M_Tablet PC. Therefore, we concluded that by eliminating the effect of the order in which children played the game, they had no significant preference for either device. The children spent more time using the M_Tablet PC than the M_iPhone due to the difference in the size of the area they had to focus on. However, although there are statistical significant differences in the time to play, we believe they are not meaningful, since it did not affect the device they preferred. 6.2. Use of the devices

100

With regard to the manipulation of the device, some 8-year-old children have a little trouble holding the Tablet PC since it was too big or too heavy for them. In some cases, they needed external help to point with the device in the AR mini-games. However, the vast majority of them managed to interact with the display properly within the ﬁrst minute of use, ﬁnding a comfortable way to hold it (using the hands and the arms). At the other end of the age range, hardly any of the 10-year-old children had trouble using the device. Our recommendation is that applications with a Tablet PC should be carefully designed to have some pauses in order to allow the children to rest the device on a table or on their laps if they are sitting. While they are resting, children are shown a video explanation for the next game. In our game about the water cycle, there were non-AR games in between the AR games, such as the games of the sun, clouds and rain, where the children could lay

60 40 0

Preference (%)

iPhone Tablet PC

Group A

Group B

Fig. 12. Preferences for the easiest technology for each device.

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41 100

60 40 0

Preference (%)

Accelerometer Tactile

Tablet PC

iPhone

Fig. 13. Preferences for the interaction type for each device.

the device on a table in order to avoid a prolonged use of AR games with the M_Tablet PC. This recommendation is still true for older ages, but the resting pauses could probably be shorter. We tested the M_iPhone with both younger and older children, and we did not find any of these problems; this makes the M_iPhone more suitable for a wider range of ages. However, as children grow up, they usually become acquainted with more gaming devices and they expect more difficult challenges and more complex scenarios and advanced graphics. These requirements are more easily met on an M_Tablet PC, which has more capabilities. With regard to the content that is the most suitable for AR educational games, we conducted a study to determine the subject preferences for an educational computer game for children ranging in age from 8 to 10 years old, but not limited to mobile devices (Furió et al., 2013). A total of 150 professionals participated in this study. The results indicated that ’nature and living organisms’ and ’multiculturalism, solidarity and tolerance’ were the two most preferred subjects. As mentioned in Section 4.1., this was one of the reasons why we developed the game for learning the water cycle. This study could be used as a first recommendation for choosing the most suitable subject for an AR educational game. Apart from being useful to researchers, we consider that this study could also be valuable and useful for companies and training institutions. In general, children playing AR games with handheld devices is metaphorically similar to children exploring the world and discovering new elements with a magnifying glass. In our game, the children discovered things in the world of nature. However, more studies should be carried out to help educators determine the best learning situations for using a mobile phone or a Tablet PC to improve student learning. 6.3. Acquired knowledge We performed a study to determine if children acquired new knowledge after playing the game with the devices. The children answered questions in pretest and posttest questionnaires. The results showed significant differences in both devices regarding the acquired knowledge, and we could state that playing with the game very positively affected the learning outcomes of the participants. These results revealed a high level of learning. This indicates that children remembered a lot of the knowledge transmitted in the game. For this reason, we can say that our game has been effective when it comes to transmitting knowledge in the short-term. From our point of view, having significant differences regarding the acquired knowledge is a very good result. This implies that the children had indeed learned new concepts after playing the game with the devices. This could imply that these kinds of games could be used as a way to reinforce the knowledge learned in school with the advantage that these games can be used in any place and at anytime (Jones & Jo, 2004). We also studied if there were differences in the acquired knowledge regarding the gender, grade and device used. No significant differences were found. This was an unexpected result because our first hypothesis was that children would prefer the Tablet PC mainly for its larger screen size. Although unexpected, it is an excellent result because it means that the game is well suited for these factors and the system can be used in more situations without many restrictions. We also used the average normal gain (Hake, 1998) to have a measure of the degree of learning obtained. Our system achieved a “High-g” result, which indicates that interactive engaging systems like our game could be effective in enhancing concepts (Hake, 2002). Comparing our study to other studies like (Freitas & Campos, 2008), where they used SMART system (Section 2), we find that despite the fact that they obtained good results like 34%, 62% and 33% of average normal gain, our study obtained a higher hgi (78%). This reinforces the idea that our game has been proven to transmit the knowledge to the children successfully. 7. Conclusions Following the design principles of various authors regarding learning theories and game design patterns, we have developed a game for iPhone and Tablet PC for learning about the water cycle. The game included multiple interaction forms (touch-screen interaction and accelerometer) and combined AR mini-games with non-AR mini-games. We added an external case to the devices with the objective of facilitating manipulation. We performed a study to check how the size and weight of the devices affect several aspects. Nowadays, children are used to playing with consoles and mobile devices (Beck & Wade, 2004, 2006; Prensky, 2001; Tapscott, 1998) such as their parents’ mobile phones; in many cases the interaction of the devices was not new. While most of the children found it easy to manipulate the two devices, we found that, in order to improve the experience, different factors should be addressed, such as the weight or the touch screen sensitivity. Despite these small problems related to the ease of use, the results showed that both devices were equally suited for educational games. The different characteristics of the devices did not affect the variables analyzed. This is encouraging because it shows that children could adapt perfectly to

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41

different devices without major problems. In our opinion, the fact that there is no apparent difference between large and small size screens represents the most important finding of our study. We believe it is potentially important for educators to think about how best to provide the technology needed to support learning in schools. The results showed that the game was really fun. The children scored the fun experienced with a mean of about 4.8 (on a scale from 1 to 5) for the two devices. For the AR experience, the analysis revealed that the children appreciated the AR experience scoring very high, means of over 4 (on a scale of 1–5) for all the related questions and for the two devices. For learning in the short-term, the results were very positive, showing that the children acquired new knowledge. With regard to the desire for learning new things at school using these devices, the means were very high with a mean of 4.87 for the two devices (on a scale from 1 to 5). This implies that the two devices would be well received for use in the class for learning purposes, and they could probably be helpful as a reinforcement in learning environments like classrooms. In our opinion, the designed game can be an important educational resource in the classroom because of its close relationship with the content of school curriculum and its highly motivational component as a tool to introduce or reinforce classroom content. Moreover, games of this kind can be used outside school because they only need a minimum setup with some markers printed on paper and the handheld device. The features of the game and its minimal requirements position it as a pervasive educational game with great potential. However, the use of this technology at school presents several drawbacks. First, there is a cost issue because each student has to use a device. Second, the markers should be distributed in the room. In current school rooms, it is not possible for 20 students to play the game at the same time in the same room. With regard to future work, the game could be enhanced by adding other play modes such as multiplayer. With the multiplayer mode, we could make collaborative and competitive gameplay. Our game could also be improved graphically with the introduction of more advanced animations in the AR mini-games. From this experience and previous experiences with different types of devices, we firmly believe that the added external cases help children’s manipulation. However, a formal study should be carried out to determine their benefits and drawbacks. Since the evaluation was made by filling out some questionnaires, making these more interactive by using the same devices in which they played the games would make the children more willing to fill them out. In this paper, we have compared two devices, but other comparisons are also possible; for example, using a control group in which the children learn the water cycle using traditional learning or carrying out practical experiments with heating and cooling water. Comparing the results of different comparative studies could bring interesting conclusions (e.g. the children perform/do not perform differently in two different comparatives). In another study that is in progress, we are currently comparing learning the water cycle using one of the devices and traditional learning in a classroom. Another possible future work is to consider long-term learning. To do this, two groups (with or without rehearsal) could be considered. With the work and ideas presented here, we hope to benefit the educational community that is technologically supported, especially with regards to m-learning, and new developments and validations. Acknowledgments This work was funded by the Spanish APRENDRA project (TIN2009-14319-C02). We would like to thank the following for their contributions: The “Escola d’Estiu” and especially Juan Cano, Miguelón Giménez, and Javier Irimia. This work would not have been possible without their collaboration. Noemí Rando, Encarna Torres, Severino González, M. José Vicent, Patricia Limiñana, Tamara Aguilar, Alfonso López, Yolanda Martínez, Enrique Daunis, M. José Martínez, and Eloy Hurtado for their help. The children’s parents who signed the agreement to allow their children to participate in the study. The children who participated in the study. The ETSInf for letting us use its facilities during the testing phase. Appendix. Questions used in the evaluations Table 5 Numbered questions and their appearance in each questionnaire. The first six questions have custom answers. The last two questions are hand-written. Answers in brackets are a summary of the possible choices (categorical data). The rest of answers follow a Likert scale. #

Question Do you remember what comprises the water?

a) b) c) d) 2

Of the components that you are going to read, which ones do not belong to water?

a) b) c) d) 3

Hydrogen Potassium Oxygen I do not know/I do not remember

Do you remember what helps water to evaporate?

a) b) c) d) 4

Hydrogen and Oxygen Potassium and Sodium The water is made up of nothing I do not know/I do not remember

Cold Hot Movement I do not know/I do not remember

Once water drops are in the clouds, what do they need in order to go back down to the land or to the sea? a) Cold

b) Hot c) Movement d) I do not know/I do not remember (continued on next page)

D. Furió et al. / Computers & Education 64 (2013) 24–41

Table 5 (continued ) #

Question Check every object you think is a pollutant.

a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h)

Oil can Tree Food can Fuel barrel Flower Wine bottle Water lily Deteriorated ball

(An image accompanied each object) 6

Could you tell us how the water cycle is?

a) First, water is liquid, then it evaporates, then it cools, and then it precipitates as rain or snow. b) First, it is in the clouds, then it cools and then it becomes liquid. c) First, it falls as snow, then it evaporates and then it goes to the sea. d) I do not know/I do not remember 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

x x x x x x x x x x x x x

x x

x x x

Did you have fun? Did you like that the main character guided you during the game? Did you like to see how objects appeared on the black squares? Did you like playing to the games that use what you found on the black squares? What did you like the most? [AR/Tactile/Accelerometer] Do you think you have learned new things? Would you like to play again to learn about new subjects? [Yes/No/Maybe] Was it easy for you to find objects on the black squares? What did you find the easiest? [Tactile/Accelerometer] How easy did you find the game to play? Did you understand the rules of the game? Would you like to learn new things at school with this system? Please, rate the game. What did you like the most? [iPhone/Tablet PC] Why? (referring to #20)

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F., & Poelman, R. (2010). A survey of augmented reality technologies, applications and Limitations. The International Journal of Virtual Reality, 2(9), 1–20. Veenema, S., & Gardner, H. (1996). Multimedia and multiple intelligences. The American Prospect, 7(29). Zhou, F., Duh, H. B. L., & Billinghurst, M. (2008). Trends in Augmented Reality Tracking, Interaction and Display: A Review of Ten Years of ISMAR. In 7th IEEE/ACM International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality(ISMAR’08). (pp 193–202).

A Tablet Computer for Young Children? Exploring Its Viability for Early Childhood Education Leslie J. Couse and Dora W. Chen University of New Hampshire

Abstract This study explored the viability of tablet computers in early education by investigating preschool children’s ease in acclimating to tablet technology and its effectiveness in engaging them to draw. A total of 41 three- to six-yearold children were videotaped while they used the tablets. The study found significant differences in level of tablet use between sessions, and engagement increased with age. Teachers reported high child interest and drawings as typical to above expectation. Children quickly developed ease with the stylus for drawing. Although technical issues in learning this new technology were encountered, children were interested and persisted without frustration. What seems to matter for children’s learning is the ways teachers choose to implement this technology. (Keywords: technology and young children, tablet computers, computers and early education, pentop computing)

echnology is increasingly recognized as an integral learning tool for promoting the social, linguistic, and cognitive development of young children (Gimbert & Cristol, 2004; Information Society for Technology in Education [ISTE], 2007; National Association for the Education of Young Children [NAEYC], 1996). Today, the question that educators ask is no longer about whether and to what extent technology should be used with young children in the classroom, but rather how it should be used (Clements & Sarama, 2003). Keeping up with new technologies for the classroom presents an ongoing challenge for educators (Clements & Sarama, 2002) as they recognize the ever developing potential of technologies to enhance the ability of children to learn, problem solve, and convey their ideas. One of the key questions for teachers to consider is the role of new technology in the curriculum (Swaminathan & Wright, 2003). We explored the question: Can stylus-interfaced technology in tablet computers be used with young children to implement preschool curriculum? The Context of Technology in Early Childhood Early childhood is the period of life from birth through age 8 years (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009), when growth and development is rapid. During that Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 75

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time, many children attend preschool, where they have access to technology as a learning tool. Accrediting bodies in teacher education (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education [NCATE], 2008), as well as researchers and educators in the field of early childhood education (ISTE, 2007; NAEYC, 1996), highlight the importance of the children’s active use of technology in making decisions, technology resources in writing and drawing, and logical thinking programs to solve problems and illustrate ideas. Children’s active use of computers in the classroom means that they must not be in control only of the operation of the computer, but also of the software they are using. Swaminathan and Wright (2003) indicate that a key question in evaluating technology is: Who does the thinking? Technology that encourages children’s thinking affords them opportunities for active control and problem solving while providing teachers with a window into children’s development. In their review of the literature, Vernadakis, Avgerinos, Tsitskari, and Zachopoulou (2005) indicated that computer-assisted instruction (CAI) in preschool holds much promise as the technology becomes more accessible. CAI offers pictures and sounds to support the natural ways that young children learn. Engagement in the learning process is directly linked to motivation, as illustrated in Haugland’s study (1999), which found the motivation of kindergarten and primary-aged children increased when academic instruction was paired with the use of computers. Handwriting, an early academic task, can be a challenging and often arduous process for children due to developing fine-motor skills. For this reason, motivation is a crucial factor to engaging children in the writing process. Further, Arrowood and Overall (2004) found that using computers improved the motivation of young elementary children in the writing process. Guthrie and Richardson (1995) as well as Talley, Lance, and Lee (1997) found that children were intrinsically motivated to use computers, as evidenced by the fact that they spent a longer time and had more focused sessions at the computer compared with noncomputer-related activities. Other studies reach similar conclusions, reporting that the motivation and engagement of kindergarten and primary-aged children in learning increased through the use of computers compared with non-computer-related learning activities (Chung & Walsh, 2006; Sandholtz, Ringstaff, & Dwyer, 1997; Schmid, Miodrag, & DiFrancesco, 2008). Although some have argued against the use of computer technology for young children’s learning (Cordes & Miller, 2000), the effects of technology in educational settings on the development of young children have been widely documented and strongly positive. For example, children who use computers have been found to show greater gains in intelligence, structural knowledge, problem solving, and language skills compared with those who do not use technology in their learning (Clements & Samara, 2003; Haugland, 1999; Swaminathan & Wright, 2003; Vernadakis et al., 2005). The challenge in early education then becomes discovering new ways to more fully 76 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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integrate technology into the curriculum to encourage the active engagement and thinking of young children. Active learning in preschool. In the preschool classroom, children draw and paint using a variety of traditional tools, such as pencils, crayons, markers, paints, and paintbrushes. With development and experience, young children gain increasing control over these tools, thereby producing increasingly more accurate representations of their thinking. These active learning activities enhance children’s eye-hand coordination, motor and cognitive development, and emergent literacy skills (Copple & Bredekamp, 2009), paving the way for later academic learning, including writing. Drawing and painting, precursors to formal writing, are representational forms of communication. As such, freehand drawing is a common activity through which preschoolers represent their thoughts and knowledge (Lancaster, 2007; Matthews, 1984). One way teachers assess young children’s development and learning is through careful examination of documentation of their work, including photographs, video clips, anecdotal records of children’s experiences, and authentic work samples, such as drawings and paintings. Children’s drawing of self-portraits is a common closely related activity that teachers in early education use as an indicator of developmental progress. This practice is consistent with formal assessment tools, which include the Draw-a-Man Test as a marker of development (Ter Laack, de Goede, & Aleva, 2005). Technology and children’s drawing. The use of computers for drawing with preschool children is not new. Matthews and Jessel’s (1993) study of the development of graphic representation in preschoolers 22–46 months using a computer paintbox (a mouse-driven computer program for electronic painting) revealed that children used similar techniques and went through a similar process for producing drawings, regardless of whether they were using electronic or traditional media. Much like when children are learning to use a marker or pencil for the first time, their initial challenge with the paintbox was to understand the movement and resultant manipulation of the mouse in relation to the product on the screen. They not only required instruction from adults, but also time and opportunity to explore the properties and potential of the new drawing medium. Therefore, computers provided another medium for preschool children to represent their thinking. The use of computers in preschool has also been found to increase children’s interest and engagement in drawing. Trepanier-Street, Hong, and Bauer (2001) reported that children’s self-portrait drawings were sometimes more detailed and had a higher level of representation when constructed on the computer. They hypothesized that this may be because the computer requires different fine-motor skills than does drawing freehand. Certainly, the most common forms of computer software involve the use of a mouse and a different set of visual-spatial skills than writing on paper with pencil or markers. They also suggested that, for some children, the computer could be Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 77

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a more interesting tool and therefore might be able to maintain their interest longer and lead to the inclusion of more details in their drawings. However, these studies used mouse-driven programs for drawing, whereas the current interface with technology has evolved to include the use of a stylus, which is more similar to traditional writing and drawing experiences. Evolving Technology for Classrooms Technology found in K–12 schools is changing. In her review of technology, Garland (2006) indicated that portable computers are becoming increasingly common in schools. The inclusion of laptops, tablet PCs, Alpha Smarts, and Palm Pilots, which make up a larger share of school technology, is estimated at upwards of 48% (McLester, 2003), and a full 72% of elementary students have online access (Gray & Lewis, 2009). Computer-based technologies have evolved substantially over the past two decades, from point-and-click software designed to reinforce rote learning of concepts and skills to current multimedia authoring software (e.g., Kid Pix, Hyper Studio, and Kidspiration) that encourages children to represent ideas through both image selection and drawing with a keyboard or mouse control functions. More recently, new forms of stylus-interfaced or pentop technology that have become common in gaming systems are now available in laptop computers, known as tablet computers (van Mantgem, 2008). Although pentop computing may seem foreign to adults, Payton (2008) noted, “For younger students, the pen may be a much more comfortable and familiar input device than a keyboard. Indeed, introducing tablet PC pen functionality at the lowest grades can establish pen input as a normal part of the computing experience” (p. 50). Potential of tablet computers in the classroom. The introduction of tablet computers in educational settings has been primarily limited to middle and senior high school students. Barton and Collura (2003) found that tablets have advantages for improving the writing and organizational skills of high school students, because they are able to type or handwrite stories, and handwritten notes can also be converted to typed text. A case study by Borse and Sloan (2005) focusing on the fourth and eighth graders’ use of stylusinterfaced technology reported benefits such as high levels of student engagement, improved writing process, higher rates of homework completion, and fewer absences. Further, Schroeder (2004) found anecdotal support for improved student engagement with high school students due to the highly interactive nature of tablet computers. More limited support for stylus-interfaced technology in education has also been reported for early elementary students. For example, the integration of technology into the 100 days of school curriculum for children in kindergarten through grade two resulted in increased student motivation in math, reading, and writing (Mouza, 2005). Teachers reported that this was particularly true for students who were not typically motivated by these 78 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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activities. Chang, Mullen, and Stuve (2005) also reported that kindergartners using PDA technology exhibited high engagement and were easily able to manipulate the stylus for writing and drawing. We found one small descriptive study involving very young children with tablet computers. Matthews and Seow (2007) looked at the symbolic representation of 12 children ages 2–11 years using electronic paint on tablet computers. The researchers videotaped children drawing with both tablet computers and traditional media (pencil, markers, paint, and paper) in naturalistic settings. Although they reported similarities in the children’s drawings using both types of media, they found that the stylus-interfaced technology was a superior tool for drawing when compared with the results of the earlier study by Matthews and Jessel (1993), which used mouse-driven electronic paint. However, this study did not provide specific information about the participants (e.g., how many within an age group, such as preschoolers) or a descriptive methodology, which limits our generalized knowledge about the viability of tablet technology with very young children. Consequently, although a few studies provide anecdotal support, the question remains of whether stylus-interfaced technology aligns with curriculum standards for early education. Technology standards and tablets for young children. An examination of the National Educational Technology Standards (ISTE, 2007) reveals that stylus-interfaced technology holds potential as a learning tool and as a means to implement technology standards in early education. The relevant standards include: Creativity and Innovation, Communication and Collaboration, Critical Thinking, Problem-Solving and Decision-Making, as well as Technology Operations and Concepts (see Table 1, page 80). For example, Matthews and Seow (2007), in their study of children using tablet computers, found the stylus was superior to the mouse for children’s drawing. The stylus responded to pressure children applied, thereby yielding thicker lines and texture in their drawings. This allowed children to employ expressive action in their drawings to create dashes, dots, blobs, and spots, resulting in drawing expressions that they were unable to achieve with mouse-driven electronic paint (Matthews & Jessel, 1993). The tablet computer allowed children to create original works as a means of personal expression. Potentially the tablet will allow opportunities for children to collaborate with peers using digital media and transform their current knowledge to learning a new technology. Although Berque (2008) asserts that education provides a natural forum for pen computing, and the future of stylus-interfaced computing looks bright, few empirical studies in the literature examine the use of stylus-interfaced technology, particularly with very young children. The studies we found that were conducted with tablet computers involved older students, were primarily based on observation or teacher-child reports, and lack strong empirical findings. Further, evidence of applying pentop technology with preschool-aged children is scant. Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 79

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Table 1. National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS•S)

Creativity and Innovation: Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Communication and Collaboration: Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others. Research and Information Fluency: Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making: Students use critical thinking skills to plan and conduct research, manage projects, solve problems, and make informed decisions using appropriate digital tools and resources. Digital Citizenship: Students understand human, cultural, and societal issues related to technology and practice legal and ethical behavior. Technology Operations and Concepts: Students demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems, and operations. Note: From “National Educational Technology Standards for Students: The Next Generation,” by ISTE, 2007. Retrieved January 8, 2008, from http://www.iste.org/inhouse/nets/cnets/students/pdf/NETS_for_Students_2007.pdf

Although the available studies provided anecdotal support and guidance for the use of technology in early elementary settings, the potential of stylusinterfaced technology in early education settings with preschoolers has not yet been explored. Given that tablet computer technology allows a unique opportunity for children to be in control of their thinking and learning in a way that is more closely aligned with traditional paper and pencil media, investigation is warranted. The question remains of whether stylus-interfaced technology is a viable tool, and how it aligns with standards in early education. Thus, the purpose of this study was to answer two research questions: 1. Is stylus-interfaced technology a viable tool for early education? 2. How can stylus-interfaced technology align with technology curriculum standards for early education? We first investigated the ease with which preschool children become acclimated to the tablet technology. Next, we examined this technology’ effectiveness in keeping children engaged and motivated to draw as a means to implementing curriculum standards. Method This explanatory research study used a mixed-method approach. We gathered both quantitative and qualitative data to assess the viability of the tablet computer as a learning tool with preschool children. The quantitative component used a multiple single-subject research design (Creswell, 2002). The unit of analysis was the child; we examined individual interaction with the computer both during and after instruction. Next, we looked across classroom groups 80 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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Table 2. Demographic Information of Subjects by Age Group Age Group

Age

Gender

Ethnicity

Home Computer Use

M(SD)

3- to 4-year-olds

3.8 (0.5)

4- to 5-year-olds

5.0 (0.3)

Home Touch Screen Use

M(SD)

1A, 1B, 11C

23.91 (20.15)

3A, 1AA, 10C

21.67 (18.51)

5- to 6-year-olds

5.9 (0.3)

1A, 1B, 11C, 1H

22.54 (17.55)

Total

4.9 (1.0)

5A, 1AA, 2B, 32C, 1H

22.67 (18.17)

Note: Ethnicity: A = Asian, AA = African-American, B = Biracial, C = Caucasian, H = Hispanic

to determine if there were differences by age in the ways children worked with the computer. We used grounded theory in the qualitative research design to more deeply understand, through the experiences of the children and teachers, the process of using the tablet computer in a preschool setting (Bogdan & Biklen 2007). To address concerns of internal validity, the data collection for each child occurred within a six-week timeframe to negate concerns of maturation. In addition, we confined child interaction with stylus-interfaced technology at school to the research study to limit concerns about the effect of outside learning on children’s response. Early Childhood Setting A university-based early childhood center located in the northeastern United States served as the setting. The second author had an administrative role for curriculum development at the school in addition to familiarity with children and teachers, and the first author had university affiliation but no direct relationship with the school. Children and teachers from three preschool classrooms serving children 3–6 years old participated in this study. The integration of technology was a feature of children’s daily learning experience in these classrooms. In addition to everyday access to computers, the light table, CD player, tape recorder, and overhead projector were also common parts of the classroom equipment. Digital photography and video were common techniques teachers used to document children’s learning. Tablet computers, however, were not a part of the classroom. Six out of seven teachers from the three classrooms indicated that they were daily users of computers, both for personal and teaching purposes. Although all teachers indicated that incorporating technology into young children’s learning experiences had high importance, there was variability among the teachers as to the age at which they felt computer technology should be introduced. In this preschool, as in many others, teachers assess children’s developmental progress through analysis of work samples, including freehand drawings, writing samples, and self-portraits. Children draw self-portraits at three points during each year. The timing of this study coincided with the second round of self-portrait drawings that was occurring in their classrooms. Thus we explored the viability of the tablet computer as a technological tool for young Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 81

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Figure 1. Three-year-old children draw on tablet computers.

children by engaging them in freehand drawing and self-portraits on the tablet to determine if it could be used as a medium for representing their thoughts and knowledge. Subjects Forty-one children between 3.1 and 6.3 years (mean = 4.9 years) enrolled in three classrooms participated in this study. Most (75.6%) were Caucasians; 12.2% were Asian; 4.9% were biracial; and 2.4% were Hispanic and AfricanAmerican respectively (see Table 2, page 81). The overall consent rate from parents for participation was 89.1%. The researchers distributed a background survey to parents (adapted from Chung & Walsh, 2006) soliciting information about demographics, the types of technology available in the home, and the patterns of children’s home computer use. The survey comprised 16 items that focused on the types of technology available in the home, children’s patterns of usage, and adult facilitation in computer use. The question formats included check-off and open-response items for length of time and frequency of use. The survey return rate was 88% (36 out of 41). Most children were from two-parent families with family incomes of $50,000 and above. On average, they spent 22.67 minutes (SD = 18.12 minutes, ranging from 0 to 60 minutes) per session at home playing games or using educational software. Although every family had a computer at home, only 30 of the children (73.2%) used them at home; 12 children (29.2%) have used touchscreen 82 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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Figure 2. Child drawing on tablet computer wtih access to rebus cards.

and stylus technologies such as Leap Pad and Game Boy. Even though two children (5%) had a tablet computer in the home, they were very infrequent, non-independent users of this equipment. Procedure We invited children in pairs to a quiet room outside the classroom equipped with child-sized tables and chairs to use the tablet computer with us. This was a familiar space, as children frequently use it with their teachers for small-group work. The tablet computers were equipped with Microsoft Word software, and the number of icons on the menu bar were limited and enlarged for ease of selection by the children (see Figures 1 and 2). The clocking of each session began when the child picked up the stylus and ended when the child put it down to indicate that s/he was finished. Each child received a hard copy of his or her drawing at the end of each session. Data collection entailed four distinct phases: introductory and subsequent warm-up sessions focused on learning how the tablet works with each child; a final self-portrait drawing session with each child; and two separate interviews, one with each child for delayed memory recall, and one focused group interview session with each classroom group of teachers. To address potential concerns with internal validity, Phase 2 followed immediately after Phase 1 for individual children, frequently on consecutive days. When this was not possible due to unforeseen events (e.g., absence), in all cases, we collected data in these two phases within a 2-week time frame. These phases are summarized below: Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 83

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Figure 3. Rebus card for teaching how to use tablet computer.

Phase 1: Introductory and warm-up sessions. Following the recommendations of Clements and Samara (2003), children from the same classroom worked side by side at a child-sized table, each on their own Gateway tablet, and a researcher who acted as instructor (see Figure 1). At the introductory session, a researcher first gave direct instruction about the tablet’s inking feature, beginning with drawing, then erasing, followed by the pen selection features. As natural opportunities occurred in their drawing process, the researcher gave additional instruction in how to use the color pallet, how to scroll down for more drawing space, and how to change the drawing using “undo.” Rebus cards picturing screens, menus, and tools were available to both the children and adults for instructional support throughout all sessions (see Figure 3). The researchers, both experienced preschool teachers, took on the instructor role, guiding children through each session and encouraging them to explore and problem solve using think-aloud statements (e.g., “I wonder what would happen if you tapped the picture of a blue pen”), peer modeling (e.g., “See what happens when Alex draws with red on top of blue”), and peer teaching (e.g., “Looks like Alex is using a different color on this picture. Ask Alex how he got that color”). As part of a socio-constructivist approach to teaching young children (Bodrova & Leong, 2006), the order of the instruction and the length of the sessions varied according to each child’s level of interest and attention span, although the protocol for instructional content was consistent. 84 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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Our initial protocol called for children to have up to four warm-up sessions to allow them to develop sufficient ease with this technology to draw a self-portrait. But as children began to work on the tablet, we quickly realized the children were ready to draw a self-portrait. Thus, this protocol was modified by week 2: Those who displayed comfort with the inking features after the introductory session moved on to Phase 2 to draw a self-portrait by their second session. Ultimately, most of the children (n = 31) engaged in only the introductory session before moving on to Phase 2; the 10 children from the first week of the study engaged in one to three warm-up sessions following the introductory session. For all cases, only the first introductory session was used in the data set for analysis presented here. Phase 2: Final self-portrait drawing session. In this session, we prompted each child to draw a self-portrait. As they entered the room, they were encouraged to look in a full-length mirror and notice their hair, eyes, facial features, and clothing before proceeding to the tablet. A tabletop mirror was placed by each tablet to allow children to look at themselves as they drew. Phase 3: Child interviews to elicit recall. Exposure to the tablet at school ended once children completed their self-portraits. To ascertain the extent of their semantic memory (content) of the information introduced during previous tablet sessions, we invited the children back individually to the same setting to interview them using a semi-structured format that involved asking them to recall how to use the tablet, what they liked or disliked, and what was difficult about using it, as they freely drew on the tablet. Finally, we asked the children to indicate their preference for a drawing tool among the tablet and traditional materials (paper with pens, pencils, markers, and paintbrushes). To ensure that childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s event trace memory of the tablet was decayed but that some memory aspects of the tablet events remained, we conducted these delayed memory recall interviews after a 3- to 4-week lapse from the final self-portrait drawing sessions in Phase 2 (see Leichtman, Pillemer, Wang, Koreishi, & Han, 2000). To address concerns of internal validity, interviews took place within one month of the initial data collection, and children had no further interaction with the tablet at school. To encourage expression of what they remembered, children were asked to pretend that the interviewer was a new friend who had recently joined their classroom and had never used a tablet, and to show and tell this new friend how to use it. The researcher noted what the children remembered as they drew and probed using questions from the Child Interview Protocol (see Table 3, page 86). Finally, the researched asked the children to indicate their preference for a drawing tool among the tablet and traditional materials (paper with pens, pencils, markers, and paintbrushes). Phase 4: Focus group teacher interviews. We interviewed seven teachers in classroom focus groups of two to three for one hour, using a semi-structured interview format. Teachers compared the free-choice drawings and self-portraits of children from their classrooms using traditional media with those Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 85

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Table 3. Child Interview Protocol Adult: “Good morning. It’s been a while since you came to work on the tablet computer to do some drawing and writing. Today we’re going to talk about the computer, and I’m going to have you show me what you remember. So we won’t be doing a lot of drawing today, mostly talking and showing.” “If you had a new friend at school who didn’t know how the tablet computer works, what would you say/do to teach them how it works? Pretend I’m the new friend. Teach me how this works. How do you get it to draw? What do you have to do first? Second? Show me how it works.” If child is unsure of what is being asked, prompt with: “How do you tell the computer you want to draw?” “How do you change colors? Do you remember how to find lots of colors?” “My paper is full. How do I find more room to draw?” “What if the computer doesn’t hear or understand what you want to do? What do you do?” “What if you make a mistake and want to change your drawing? How do you do that on the tablet? Did that work well for you?” “What do you think about using this tablet to write and draw pictures?” “Which parts do you like about it?” “Which parts do you not like about it?” “What else do you think you’d like to do with this tablet?” As the child shows you what they remember, allow him/her to instruct you for up to five minutes, then prompt with the last question. Move your tablet computer to the side and bring out paper and markers. Start the child with a new page on his/her tablet. “I have one more question for you, and then we will be done.” Show child markers and paper. “Do you think you’d rather draw/write with this tablet or with markers/pencils/pens? Why? What can the tablet/paper and markers (insert child choice) do that the tablet/paper and markers (insert opposite of child choice) can’t do?”

from their tablet sessions, for consistency in quality and detail, evaluating the tablet-created self-portraits as below expectation, typical, or above expectation. They also responded to questions about their perceptions of child’s interest and the potential of tablet computers as a technology for classroom use. Coding Training of the independent coder. An independent coder (a senior undergraduate student who was blind to the study) coded a total of 82 videotaped segments of the first and last drawing sessions of each child. We conducted training with the independent coder across multiple meetings. Fifteen (18.3%) of the 82 sessions (five from each of the three age groups) were randomly selected for review and coded as a part of the training using the following categories: 1. Levels of tablet use referred to whether children were simply exploring and experimenting with what they could do with this new technology to see how it works, investigating how to use it to produce a desired effect, or actually creating desired effects in their drawings. The highest level reached in each session was noted. 86 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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Table 4. Description of Measures and Kappa Scores Category

Definition

Levels of Tablet Use (Kappa = 1.0) Level 1: Explore/Experiment

Child tries to figure out what the tablet can do, clicking with the stylus pen on different options to see what will happen if….

Level 2: Investigate

Child tries to figure out how to use the tablet to create a desired effect (e.g., How can I get this color? What do I need to do to make a thick, translucent/highlighter line?)

Level 3: Create

Child produces desired effects in drawing even if the drawing is not a realistic representation of real life objects that have been described. The child is content with, and is clear about what is being drawn

Incidence of technical issues (Kappa = 1.0)

Child perceived technical difficulty or glitch that that interrupts or hinders work on tablet

Affective Response (Kappa = 0.94; range from 0.89 to 1.0) Frustrated

Verbal or non-verbal expressions: pouting, frowning, putting down the stylus, … saying WHY is it doing…. and, I don’t want to do this anymore.

Not frustrated

Verbal or non-verbal expressions: smiling, laughing, raised brows, … saying with a smile, Hey, what’s happening? … or WOW!

2. Technical incidents referred to computer-related interruptions to children’s work on the tablet, coded as technical incidents (TI). These were assigned to two categories, computer-based and non-computer-based technical incidents. Non-computer-based TI arose when children asked for help and instruction was given, whereas computer-based TI were the result of a “glitch” the child experienced in using the technology (see Table 4 for further explanation). The number and type of technical issues encountered were coded for each session. 3. Affective response of the children to the technical incidents encountered was examined by looking at whether they were frustrated or not with each incident. 4. Time spent per session was determined by beginning the clocking (to the nearest minute) when children picked up the stylus and ending it when children put it down. Table 4 reports the details of these coding categories and the corresponding Kappa scores. Establishing intercoder reliability. To establish the reliability of coding by the independent coder, an additional 25 (30.5%) of the 82 sessions were randomly selected for coding by both the second researcher and the coder. These sessions represent 18 (43.9%) of the 41 children in this study and 83 (23.0%) of the 361 technical incidents across the first and last sessions. Intercoder reliability was first conducted on 11 of these 25 sessions representing eight children. A second round was conducted on the remaining 14 sessions. Table 4 reports the intercoder agreement and Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 87

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Kappa scores for each measure with the descriptions of the coding categories. Kappa for each measure ranged from .89 to 1.0 with an overall Kappa of .94 to 1.0. Dependent Variables Ease of use. We examined the ease of use by first looking at the highest level of use each child reached by the final session when prompted to draw a self-portrait. Levels of tablet use were coded as: 1 = Explore/Experiment, 2 = Investigate, 3 = Create (see Table 4 for definitions). Second, we asked children’s classroom teachers (N = 7) to compare the quality of drawings produced on the tablet with those produced using traditional drawing tools. Nature of tablet engagement. To examine how children used the tablet, we looked at the following measures: time spent in each session and persistence. Time spent was measured from the time the child picked up the writing stylus until s/he set it down. Three components were used to determine children’s persistence with using the tablet in spite of the technical issues encountered: the proportion of technical issues encountered in each session (total number of technical issues divided by the total number of minutes in session), children’s affective response as indicated by proportion of frustration exhibited to computer-based interruptions to their work, and their expressed choice of drawing tool as indicated in the delayed memory recall interviews. Our approach was to analyze the data using mixed-methods. We conducted quantitative analysis of videotapes and parent surveys by obtaining descriptive statistics, along with an examination of the mean and percent agreement across groups and sessions. Further, we used a chi-square analysis to compare the percentages of children in categorical groups, such as the level of drawing attained by children drawing on the tablet. To determine the relationship between the variables time spent and persistence, we compared means using an ANOVA. For example, we were interested in whether the mean scores for the amount of time spent in a session differed across age groups and across sessions. We analyzed child and teacher interviews using qualitative methods (Bogden & Biklen, 2007). A research assistant blind to the study’s purpose transcribed the interviews. The two authors independently read the transcriptions for evidence of child motivation for tablet use, teacher ideas regarding viability of the technology, and ratings of child drawings. To assure credibility of the data (Golafshani, 2003), the authors then compared their results and did a member check with teachers to confirm interpretations. For the child interviews, we compared the transcription results with the videos for evidence of confirmation between what children said and did. Finally, we triangulated findings from teacher interviews with quantitative results. 88 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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Results Ease of Use Highest level of tablet use. Although we found no significant differences between children’s access to computers at home and the level of tablet use, we found significant differences between the children’s highest level of tablet use at the introductory and final sessions (x2 = 8.50, df = 1, p < .01). At the introductory session in Phase 1, 31 (75.6%) children reached the highest level (Create), and 10 children (24.4%) reached the second level (Investigate), in which they tried to figure out how to produce desired effects in their drawings. By the Phase 2 session, most children (98%) had reached the highest level, with only one child (2%) still operating at the Investigation level. Teacher qualitative assessment of drawings. Overall, teachers rated 66% (27 of 41) of drawings as typical, whereas 20% of children’s drawings (8 of 41) were above expectations for what they usually produced in the classroom with traditional drawing tools. The distribution of teacher ratings was fairly consistent across the three age groups, with the older preschoolers performing most consistently between the tablet computer and traditional media. Figure 4 (page 90) depicts the self-portraits of a 3-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy drawn on the tablet. Figure 5 (page 91) contains self-portraits of the same children completed in traditional media, as part of their regular classroom curricula during the same month. The qualities of the electronically drawn self-portraits are comparable to those drawn in traditional media. Nature of Tablet Engagement Time spent in sessions. In the first session children spent an average of 24.05 minutes (SD = 10.72) engaged in their drawing (range: 12–47 minutes), and an average of 20.32 minutes (SD = 10.15) in the last session (range: 5–46 minutes). No significant differences were found between the average amount of time children spent across the two tablet sessions and in the amount of time spent on home computers. However, significant differences were found among the age groups for the average time spent in the final session (F (2, 38) = 6.24, p < .01): 3-year-olds spent significantly less time (M = 13 minutes) than 4- and 5-year-olds (M = 23.64 minutes and 23.79 minutes, respectively). Table 5 (page 92) provides greater detail of time spent by age group across sessions. Persistence. Even though most children experienced multiple occurrences of technical incidents, the vast majority showed little to no frustration. Of the 76 sessions with technical incidents, 47 (57.3%) resulted in no frustration at all. Additionally, 73 sessions (96.1%) involved three or fewer incidents of frustration. No significant differences were found in children’s affective response to the technical incidents they encountered between the two sessions Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 89

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Self-Portrait of 3-year-old girl completed on tablet computer

Self-Portrait of 4-year old boy completed on tablet computer

Figure 4. Self-portraits completed on tablet computers.

or in the affective response among the three age groups. Thus, in spite of the technical issues encountered, children showed little frustration in using this technology, and older children tended to spend significantly longer time working on the tablet as they developed familiarity with it. Overall, children encountered 0–13 incidents (M = 4.4, SD = 3.35) per session. There were no significant differences in technical incidents as measured by the proportion of technical incidents that children encountered across the first and last sessions and across the three age groups. However, we found significant difference in the proportion of computer-based incidents encountered across the two sessions (F (1, 74) = 7.15, p < .01). The mean proportion of computer-based TI for the first session (N = 40 sessions) was 0.49 (SD = 0.31), whereas the mean proportion for the last session (N = 36 sessions) was 0.68 (SD = 0.31). Thus, although the frequency of encounters with technical incidents in general remained the same across the sessions, children encountered more computer-based TI than non-computerbased TI in their last session. This was due to the fact that in the last session, children showed more independence and asked for less adult assistance, resulting in a decrease of non-computer-based TI. Although the proportion of computer-based TI was significantly higher in the last session, children persisted in their drawing, as the time they spent in session did not significantly change. Child interviews. We interviewed 40 children (one was absent), one of whom gave no response. Of the 39 responses, 25 children (64.10%) indicated that they preferred to use the tablet rather than traditional writing materials, 13 (33.33%) preferred traditional materials, and one (2.56%) indicated no preference. The majority of the oldest and youngest children (83.33% and 75%, respectively) indicated a preference for the tablet, whereas only 42.87% of the 4-year-olds indicated the same preference. Although some children’s reasons for choosing the tablet were often, “I just like it,” or “I want to,” others were able to be very specific: 90 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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Figure 5. Self-portraits in traditional media.

“There are lots of bright colors.” “It can erase better.” “You can just change something up here [indicating the tool bar] and it actually happens.” “You can draw on it, and on other computer games you don’t often get to draw.” “You can run out of ink with markers and pen, but on the tablet, it doesn’t run out.” “It is easier to draw on.” “You can print out things and you can make the whole background one color.” “It is much easier, and you don’t have to rinse off your brush.” Children indicated that they liked the tablet in spite of the technical issues they frequently encountered. One child’s comment accurately describes what we have observed time after time with children on the tablet: “Sometimes the computer doesn’t hear you.… I just keep trying and trying until it [the computer] gets it right.” Teacher Perceptions of Child Interest and Tablet Viability In the focus group interviews, teachers provided qualitative descriptions of evidence of children’s interest and the viability of the tablet as a tool for use with young children in early education settings. In addition, all teachers perceived the children’s interest in tablet use as very high. One teacher reported about children’s excitement upon returning to the classroom from a tablet session: Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 91

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Table 5. Time Spent in Minutes by First and Last Sessions and Age Groups Item

Range

M (SD)

F (df)

First Session

3.10 (2, 38)

p > .05

6.24 (2, 38)

p < .01

12–47

24.05 (10.72)

3-year-olds

12–29

18.54 (5.09)

4-year-olds

12–44

25.07 (11.36)

5-year-olds

13–47

28.14 (12.29)

Last Session

5–46

20.32 (10.15)

3-year-olds

7–25

13.00 (4.90)

4-year-olds

17–37

23.64 (6.08)

5-year-olds

5–46

23.79 (13.40)

Significance

They seem very excited to show their picture. So they seemed to have fun with it. It was a way for them to tell stories, to create, and to be creative and explore technology. I think that is so great for children to explore because that is just … where we are heading [toward using technology]. Another teacher talked about her observations concerning the value of this new technology in motivating children who do not usually choose to draw: It was just a new media for them to use. There are some children that are very capable of using pen and paper and showing a lot of their work and their development of writing and letters and drawing. And there are some children who work very well with paint or construction paper. I feel like this is just another tool for children to show their abilities to us. Where Phillip does not often draw but he was willing to go with you and draw and show some of his work. And so that might be more inviting for him … than maybe a pen and a piece of paper would be. When queried about whether the children’s excitement for using the technology may be due to being invited to leave the room for a novel activity, the group of teachers responded: Children were constantly asking, “Can I go now, can I go now?” And sometimes it was hard to figure out, if they were excited to work on the tablet, or if they were excited just to go do work other children are getting to do. [Were they] simply motivated that they are getting to go do something that other children are not getting to do? I think that could play a part, but a small part, because [when] they came in [to a tablet session] they did not want to come out. To follow up on the possible “novelty effect” as a threat to the validity of children’s interest in using the tablet, two tablet computers were brought in to one of the classrooms as a part of a regular learning center for the remaining two months of school. Interest in using the tablets remained very high. A sign-up sheet was necessary to monitor turn-taking in the learning center throughout this time. This extended interest that children displayed is consistent with teachers’ observation during formal 92 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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data collection. Nevertheless, given the overall limited exposure children had to the tablet, this finding should be considered with caution. Discussion and Implications Young children between the ages of 3 and 6 years old were able to quickly learn to use the tablet computer as a medium for representing their ideas and learning. The children in this study were able to become comfortable using the tablet for drawing when given some adult instruction and peer modeling for a total exposure of one hour or less. All but one child was able to use the tablet to create a self-portrait by the second session. Children were able to select from a wide palette of colors and pen options. The quality of the drawing and writing that children were able to attain was comparable with traditional media. Finally, the use of computers in the home did not influence the ease with which children became acclimated to this new technology. Consistent with Haugland’s (1999) finding that the motivation of kindergarten and primary-aged children toward handwriting increased with the use of computers, in this study, children’s interest for using the tablet was also high. However, we interpret our finding of interest cautiously, as our measure of interest was qualitative in nature and may not translate to other settings. We did find that the amount of time children spent on the computer varied by age, with the youngest children spending significantly less time. This finding is consistent with that of McBride and Austin (2001), who found cognitive maturity increased engagement with technology. However, our finding is in direct contradiction with Buckleitner (2006), who found that younger children (younger than 50 months of age) stayed engaged with the computer for longer periods of time. In our study, we found that children who were 53 months and older were the ones who persisted longer. This difference in findings may be relative to the difference in technology interface between the two studies. In the Buckleitner (2006) study, children used a mouse, whereas this study used a stylus computer interface. Children older than 50 months of age have more refined motor skills and are more familiar with paper-and-pencil tasks than younger children. Therefore, this difference could be more a factor of fine-motor development and maturity rather than of intrinsic preference. As the children gained familiarity with the tablet, they became more independent, asking for less instruction and assistance from the adults. Their independence was coupled with an increase in the number of computerbased technical incidents. This is to be expected, as independence leads to more exploration and fuller utilization of the technology to productively represent ideas (ISTE, 2007), resulting in encountering more new situations. What is particularly encouraging is that children were seldom frustrated and persisted in their work even when the number of technical incidents increased. Further, in the last session, when children experienced more computer-based technical instances, they attained a significantly higher level Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 93

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of tablet use. Thus the technology does not seem to inhibit children’s persistence or ability to use it. Similarly, previous research found software that allows children more control results in children experimenting more and completing more tasks. Buckleitner (2006) reported that while the number of errors children experienced increased, because they experimented more, the resultant number of correct responses was significantly greater. Likewise, in this study, as children developed ease with the tablet, their independence with the technology increased, resulting in more experimentation, an increase in technical incidents, and increased ability to use it to create/represent their thinking. Therefore, children’s engagement with technology does not appear to be a simple function of age, but rather a more complex relationship between technology characteristics and child development that warrants further study. As technology continues to change and evolve, educators need to explore new tools, such as the tablet computer, to use with their students in order to effectively integrate technology in the early childhood curriculum (Buldu, 2002; Franklin, 2007). One teacher described the potential of this stylusinterfaced technology in this way: I think it adds a different dimension. Some children showed up to do their work, but they did above what we would have expected in the classroom with a regular drawing tool. So I think it offers them a different language tool. The more languages you can offer to them, the more likely they are to show what their true abilities are. So certainly it would be beneficial [in the classroom] in that sense. A criticism of technology as a tool to support learning is the lack of empirical research (Evans Schmidt & Vandewater, 2008). We set out to begin to develop an empirical basis for the viability of the tablet computer as a learning tool in early childhood settings. Yet this study was descriptive in nature, and data are limited to the children in this sample, who were from one university-based early childhood program, which limits the empirical validation of the benefits of this technology for young children’s learning. Future research should include a larger sample in a variety of early-childhood settings to better represent the diverse experience of children, including the digital divide (Subrahmanyam, Kraut, Greenfield, & Gross, 2000) that is experienced by many children who lack access to technology in their homes. Although not all children in this sample were regular users of technology, all children in this study did have access to a computer in their home. Further, future research should consider a comparison of children’s work created using traditional drawing media, general technology (keyboard/mouse), and tablet computers, to determine what, if any, empirical evidence there is for using interactive technology tools, such as the tablet, to increase the quality of children’s drawing and engagement along with general support for children’s learning. 94 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | Volume 43 Number 1

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The tablet computer appears to be a viable tool to offer young children for representing their ideas in the early-childhood classroom. We found children readily became at ease with using the stylus and the inking features. Although they encountered glitches associated with learning this new technology, children were able to persist without becoming frustrated. Giving children language for what is happening (e.g., “the computer is thinking,” or “the computer didn’t hear you, try again”) supported their interface with the new technology. This is consistent with Mathews and Seow’s (2007) findings that the role of adults in supporting children’s learning of new technology is crucial and that responsive scaffolding strategies adapted to the specific needs of the situation are important. Further, although it was not a focus of this study, we found having children work in pairs offered an opportunity for peer modeling and peer teaching (Clements & Sarama, 2002), along with opportunities for less dependence on adults. In addition, the majority of the children indicated a preference for the tablet computer over traditional drawing media. Children not only indicated a preference for drawing with the tablet, but the explanations they offered were consistent with the research literature. Children indicated that the “colors were brighter,” “you don’t run out of ink,” and “you don’t have to rinse off your brush.” These are the same explanations offered by Matthews and Jessel (1993) as advantages for the use of electronic paint with young children. Electronic painting is actually painting with light, so the colors are more vivid. When children mix colors, the colors stay true and do not become muddy, as they can with traditional media (Matthews & Seow, 2007). We found several incidents where children mixed colors both intentionally and unintentionally. Given the ease with which the children in this study were able to acclimate to using this new technology, along with the high level of interest and engagement they demonstrated, the tablet computer appears to be a potential learning tool for young children. Finally, what seemed to matter in regard to technology and learning are the ways that teachers choose to use the technology (Evans et al., 2008). When teachers provide social facilitation for children using computers in the form of scaffolding (Schmid et al., 2008) and scripting the environment, positive peer interaction significantly increases (Lau, Higgins, Gelfer, Hong, & Miller, 2005). Future research should examine the ways that teachers of young children are able to integrate the tablet into the curriculum to enhance children’s learning. The use of tablet computers with young children warrants further research to more fully understand the potential of this new technology to support learning and assessment in early-childhood settings. The tablet computer appears to be a viable tool for use with preschool children. It provides early-childhood teachers with another tool for implementing technology standards and curriculum to prepare children to be digital citizens who are technologically literate. As the expectations of formal education and the capability of technology evolve, a careful examination Volume 43 Number 1 | Journal of Research on Technology in Education | 95

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of their interface for very young children is needed. Continued inquiry to advance our knowledge of technology and how it facilitates learning will support increased efficacy of new technology in early education. Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the University of New Hampshire: Teaching Technology in Liberal Arts, Education Department Small Project Research Grants for Faculty, Family Studies Department Rand Stearns Endowment Fund, and the Faculty Instructional Technology Institute.

Author Notes

Leslie J. Couse, PhD, is associate professor and coordinator of the graduate program in earlychildhood education at the University of New Hampshire, where she researches teacher preparation and inclusive early education focused on collaboration among teachers, parents, and service providers, along with technology for young children. Correspondence regarding this article should be addressed to Leslie J. Couse, Education Department, Morrill Hall, 62 College Road, University of New Hampshire, Durham, New Hampshire 03824. E-mail: Leslie.Couse@unh.edu Dora W. Chen, PhD, is associate director of inquiry and pedagogy at the Child Study and Development Center and assistant professor in family studies at the University of New Hampshire. With a PhD in curriculum and instruction, her research and teaching focuses on translating the principles of developmentally appropriate practice into classroom practice, ranging from general curriculum design and implementation to exploring the role of educational technologies and antibias curriculum in early education. E-mail: Dora.Chen@unh.edu

References

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Zero to Eight

Childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Media Use in America

A Common Sense Media Research Study

FALL 2 011

Table of Contents Introduction.......................................7 Key Findings.....................................9 Methodology...................................15 Results.............................................17 Amount and Frequency of Media Use...............................17 Media in the Home.............................................................19 Computer Access and Use................................................20 Mobile Media Access and Use..........................................21 Educational Content and Platforms...................................22 Children Under 2................................................................23 Gender, Race, and Socio-Economic Status.......................25 Media Multitasking.............................................................27 Media as a Babysitter........................................................27

Conclusion..................................... 29 Toplines.......................................... 33 Appendix........................................ 43

Table of Tables Amount and Frequency of Media Use Table 1: Time Spent with Media............................................................................................................ 17 Table 2: Time Spent with Media, by Age.............................................................................................. 18 Table 3: Daily Media Activities, by Age................................................................................................ 18 Table 4: Screen Media Use by Platform, by Age.................................................................................. 18 Table 5: Media Activities Ever Engaged in, by Age.............................................................................. 18 Media in the Home Table 6: Media in the Home.................................................................................................................. 19 Table 7: Bedroom Media....................................................................................................................... 19 Table 8: Parents and Cell Phones......................................................................................................... 19 Table 9: Personal Media Ownership..................................................................................................... 19 The Digital Divide Table 10: Computers and Internet Access at Home............................................................................. 20 The App Gap Table 11 : Mobile Media Ownership..................................................................................................... 21 Table 12: Use of Mobile Media............................................................................................................. 21 Table 13 : Time Spent with Mobile Media............................................................................................. 22 Table 14: The App Gap: Mobile Media Access, by Income................................................................. 22 Educational Content and Platforms Table 15: Television Platforms in the Home, by Income........................................................................ 23 Table 16: The App Gap, Continued: Use of Educational Apps, by Income.......................................... 23 Children Under 2 Table 17: Media Use Among 6- to 23-Month-Olds, Over Time............................................................ 24 Gender, Race and Socio-Economic Status Table 18: Time Spent with Media, by Race.......................................................................................... 25 Table 19: Time Spent with Media, by Income....................................................................................... 26 Table 20: Time Spent with Media, by Parent Education....................................................................... 26 Table 21: Bedroom Television, by Race and Socio-Economic Status................................................... 27 Media as a Babysitter Table 22: Media as a Babysitter........................................................................................................... 27 Appendix Table A: Time Spent With Media Among Children Ages 6 Months to 6 Years Old, Over Time............. 44 Table B: Screen Media Use by Platform Among Children Ages 6 Months to 6 Years Old, Over Time..... 44 Table C: Bedroom Media Among Children Ages 6 Months to 6 Years Old, Over Time........................ 44

Introduction Today — 20 years after the birth of the World Wide Web, 13 years after the launch of Google Search, eight years after the start of the first social networking site, six years after the first YouTube video, four years after the introduction of the first touch-screen smartphone, three years after the opening of the first “app” store, and a little over a year after the first iPad sale — the media world that children are growing up in is changing at lightning speed. Nine-month-olds spend nearly an hour a day watching television or DVDs, 5-year-olds are begging to play with their parents’ iPhones, and 7-year-olds are sitting down in front of a computer several times a week to play games, do homework, or check out how their avatars are doing in their favorite virtual worlds. Television is still as popular as ever, but reading may be beginning to trend downward. Having an accurate understanding of the role of media in children’s lives is essential for all of those concerned about promoting healthy child development: parents, educators, pediatricians, public health advocates, and policymakers, to name just a few. The purpose of this study is to provide publicly accessible, reliable data about media use among children ages 0 to 8, to help inform the efforts of all of those who are working to improve children’s lives. This report continues and expands upon a series of studies originated by the Kaiser Family Foundation in 2003 and conducted again in 2005. The original studies focused on children ages 0 to 6; at the request of content providers and others, the current study has been expanded to cover ages 0 to 8. Because the ages and the methodology have changed, it is not possible to directly compare most findings, but in some cases (for example, media use among children under 2), we have provided relevant data from the earlier study. (See the Methodology and

Appendix sections for a further discussion of comparisons with the earlier studies.) The current study will be repeated every few years, and will serve as a baseline for documenting future trends.

Among the questions we try to answer are: »» How much time do children spend with television, music, computers, video games, and apps? »» How many children have access to the newest mobile media platforms, such as smartphones and iPads? What do they do with them, and how often do they use them? »» At what age do children usually start using each medium? »» Which educational media platforms are most popular among children, especially those from lower-income families? »» Are there differences in children’s media use habits by gender, race, or socio-economic status? »» Is TV viewing among babies and toddlers going up or down? What about reading? »» What is the media environment in children’s homes and bedrooms?

At Common Sense Media, we believe that every debate about kids and media should be grounded in data: whether it’s about babies and toddlers using screen media, the value of educational media for preschoolers, the nature of gender or ethnic role depictions, the impact of multi-tasking, or the amount of food advertising to children. We offer these data as a contribution to those important discussions and to help inform the work of all of those who are creating quality entertainment and educational media for children.

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Key Findings

Even very young children are frequent digital media users. TOTAL DIGITAL MEDIA USE. Today a substantial proportion of the time that young children spend with screen media is spent with digital media — including computers, handheld and console video game players, and other interactive mobile devices such as cell phones, video iPods, and iPad-style tablet devices. Among 0- to 8-year-olds as a whole, a quarter (27%) of all screen time is spent with these digital devices. MOBILE MEDIA. Half (52%) of all children now have access to one of the newer mobile devices at home: either a smartphone (41%), a video iPod (21%), or an iPad or other tablet device (8%). More than a quarter (29%) of all parents have downloaded “apps” (applications used on mobile devices) for their children to use. And more than a third (38%) of children have ever used one of these newer mobile devices, including 10% of 0- to 1-year-olds, 39% of 2- to 4-year-olds, and 52% of 5- to 8-year-olds. In a typical day, 11% of all 0- to 8-year olds use a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device for media consumption, and those who do spend an average of :43 doing so. COMPUTERS. Computer use is pervasive among very young children, with half (53%) of all 2- to 4-yearolds having ever used a computer, and nine out of ten (90%) 5- to 8-year-olds having done so. For many of these children, computer use is a regular occurrence: 22% of 5- to 8-year-olds use a computer at least once a day, and another 46% use it at least once a week. Even among 2- to 4-year-olds, 12% use a computer every day, with another 24% doing so at least once a week. Among all children who have

used a computer, the average age at first use was just 3 ½ years old. VIDEO GAMES. Playing console video games is also popular among these young children: Half (51%) of all 0- to 8-year-olds have ever played a console video game, including 44% of 2- to 4-year-olds and 81% of 5- to 8-year-olds. Among those who have played console video games, the average age at first use was just under 4 years old (3 years and 11 months). Among 5- to 8-year-olds, 17% play console video games at least once a day, and another 36% play them at least once a week. Computer Use Among 5-8 Year-Olds Among 5-8 year-olds, percent who use a computer:

10% 10% several times a day once a day several times a week once a week < once a week never

12%

22%

29%

17%

Mobile Media Use Percent of children who have ever used a smartphone, video iPod, iPad, or similar device to play games, watch videos, or use other apps:

0- to 1-year-olds 2- to 4-year-olds 5- to 8-year-olds

39%

52%

10%

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There continues to be a substantial digital divide, including both computers and mobile devices. HOME COMPUTER ACCESS. There is a large digital divide in home computer access among young children. Nearly three out of four (72%) 0- to 8-yearolds have a computer at home, but access ranges from 48% among those from low-income families (less than $30,000 a year) to 91% among higher-income families (more than $75,000 a year). THE NEW “APP GAP.” In addition to the traditional digital divide, a new “app gap” has developed among young children. Among lower-income children, 27% have a parent with a smartphone, compared to 57% for higher-income children. One in 10 (10%) lower-income children has a video iPod or similar device in the home, compared to one in three (34%) upper-income children. And just 2% of lower-income children have a tablet device such as an iPad at home, compared to 17% of higher-income children. Thirty-eight percent of lower-income parents say they don’t even know what an app is, compared to just 3% of higher-income parents. Only 14% of lower-income parents have ever downloaded apps for their children to use, compared to 47% of higher-income parents. This disparity in access has led to a disparity in use: while 55% of children from higher-income families have used a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device for playing games, watching videos, or using apps, just 22% from lower-income families have done so.

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Home Computer Access, by Income Among children ages 0-8, percent with a laptop or desktop computer at home: 80%

91%

48%

<30,000 30-75,000 >75,000

Mobile Media Access, by Income Among children ages 0-8, percent with mobile media devices in their household: <30,000 30-75,000 >75,000

Smartphone

27%

41%

Video iPod/ similar

57% 10%

20%

iPad/ similar

34% 2%

17%

Downloading Apps, by Income Among children ages 0-8, percent whose parents have downloaded any apps for their children to use:

<30,000 30-75,000 >75,000

14%

28%

47%

Using New Mobile Media, by Income Among children ages 0-8, percent who have ever used a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device for playing games, watching videos, or using apps:

<30,000 30-75,000 >75,000

22%

40%

55%

Children under 2 spend twice as much time watching TV and videos as they do reading books. In a typical day, 47% of babies and toddlers ages 0 through 1 watch TV or DVDs, and those who do watch spend an average of nearly two hours (1:54) doing so. This is an average of :53 among all children in this age group, compared to an average of :23 a day reading or being read to. Nearly one in three (30%) has a TV in their bedroom. In 2005, among children ages 6-23 months, 19% had a TV in their bedroom. Looking just at 6- to 23-month-olds in the current study, 29% have a TV in their bedroom. Bedroom TV, by Age Among 0-8 year-olds, percent with a TV in their bedroom:

0- to 1-year-olds 2- to 4-year-olds 5- to 8-year-olds

30%

44% 47%

TV continues to dominate children’s media use. Two-thirds (65%) of 0- to 8-year-olds watch TV at least once every day (ranging from 37% of 0-1 yearolds, to 73% of 2- to 4-year-olds and 72% of 5- to 8-year-olds). Forty-two percent have a TV in their bedroom, and 39% live in a home where the TV is left on all (10%) or most (29%) of the time, whether anyone is watching it or not. Children this age spend an average of 1:44 watching TV or videos in a typical day, compared to :29 reading, :29 listening to music, and :25 playing computer or video games. Time spent with new mobile media, while gaining, lags far behind larger screen media among this age group. Children 0-8 spend a total of just five minutes a day using cell phones, iPods, iPads, or similar devices to play games, watch videos, or use other “apps.” Screen Media Diet Among 0- to 8-year-olds, percent of total screen media time by platform:

4% 10%

13% 74%

TV set Computer Video game players Cell/iPod/iPad

Time Spent with Media Among 0- to 8-year-olds, time spent in each activity in a typical day: 1:44

:29 TV/videos Reading/being read to Listening to music

:29

:25

:06

Computer or video games Other computer activities

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Broadcast television is the most accessible and widely used platform for educational content among lower-income children. Among lower-income children, 26% “often” watch educational TV shows, compared to 5% who often use educational computer games or software and 2% who often use educational games or apps on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device. Almost all (98%) lower-income children have a TV, but far fewer (just 53%) have access to cable or satellite programming. Educational TV is the one type of educational content that lower-income children are more likely to consume than higher-income children are (26% often watch vs. 17% among higher-income families). Use of Educational Media Among 0- to 8-year-olds, percent who often: Watch educational TV shows Use educational games/ programs on the computer

Play educational games on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device

23%

Use of Educational Media, by Income Among 0- to 8-year-olds, the percent who “often”: <30,000 30-75,000 >75,000

Media use varies significantly by race and socio-economic status, but not much by gender. RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS. AfricanAmerican children spend an average of 4:27 a day with media (including music, reading, and screen media), compared to 2:51 among white children and 3:28 among Hispanics. Children from higherincome families or with more highly educated parents spend less time with media than other children do (for example, 2:47 a day among higher-income children vs. 3:34 among lower-income youth). Twenty percent of children in upper income homes have a TV in their bedroom, compared to 64% of those from lowerincome homes. GENDER. The only substantial difference between boys’ and girls’ media use is in console video games. Boys are more likely to have ever played a console video game than girls are (56% vs. 46%), to have a video game player in their bedroom (14% vs. 7%), and to play console video games every day (14% vs. 5%). Boys average :16 a day playing console games, compared to an average of :04 a day for girls. Media Use by Race and Income Among 0- to 8-year-olds, average time spent with all media in a typical day: 4:27

Watch educational TV shows

26% 25%

17%

Use educational games/programs on the computer

Play educational games on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device

10% 8% 5%

11%

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2:51

White Black Hispanic

3:28

3:34 3:15

2:47

<30,000 30-75,000 >75,000

Even some young children are media multi-taskers. Overall, 16% of 0- to 8-year-olds use more than one media “most” or “some” of the time; among 5- to 8year-olds, 23% do. Among the 79% of 5- to 8-yearolds who have homework, 21% “usually” or “sometimes” have the TV on while they do it. Media Multitasking Among 5- to 8-Year-Olds Percent of 5- to 8-year-olds who like to use more than one medium at a time:

3% 20% 48% Most of the time Some of the time Once in a while Never

28%

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Methodology This report is based on a survey of 1,384 parents of children ages 0 to 8 years old, including an oversample of African-American and Hispanic parents. The survey was conducted for Common Sense Media by Knowledge Networks from May 27-June 15, 2011. Knowledge Networks uses a probability-based online panel designed to be representative of the United States. Panel members were randomly recruited using address-based sampling and random-digitdial telephone surveys. Households that did not have computers or Internet access were given a notebook computer and dial-up Internet access for the purpose of completing their online surveys. For this survey, questions about computer ownership asked respondents about computers other than the one they were provided by Knowledge Networks. Unlike Internet “convenience” panels that include only individuals with Internet access who volunteer to be part of research, the Knowledge Networks methodology uses dual sampling frames that include both listed and unlisted telephone numbers, cellphone-only households, telephone and non-telephone households, and households with and without Internet access.

out by age, among 0- to 8-year-olds, 2- to 4-yearolds, and 5- to 8-year-olds. In addition, findings are presented by race, gender, and socio-economic status. In tables where statistical significance has been calculated, the results are noted through a series of superscripts (a, b, or c). Items that share a common superscript do not differ significantly (p=<.05). This study builds on the Kaiser Family Foundation’s studies of media use among 0- to 6-year-olds. However, because of changes in methodology (the Kaiser studies were conducted by phone), comparisons over time should be made cautiously. In addition, since the current study explores media use among children from birth up to age 8, most findings can’t be directly compared to the Kaiser data, which included children from six months up to age 6. For a more complete discussion of the methodological differences and a side-by-side presentation of the results for children ages 6 and under, please see the Appendix to this report.

For this report, the term “digital media” is used to refer to console video games, computers, cell phones, handheld video game players, video iPods, and iPads or other tablet devices. “Mobile media” includes cell phones, video iPods, and iPads or other tablet devices. All questions concerning iPods or iPads referred to those items “or similar-type devices.”

The survey was offered in both English and Spanish. Parents were asked about a particular child in their household. The margin of error for the full sample is +/- 2.6 percentage points. The completion rate for the survey was 59%. Unless otherwise noted, all findings refer to the full sample of 0- to 8-year-olds. Many findings are broken

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Results Amount and Frequency of Media Use Children age 8 and under spend an average of about three hours (3:14) a day with media, including screen media, reading, and music. Most of that time is spent with screen media: an average of 2:16 a day. Music and reading occupy an average of about a half-hour a day each (:29 for reading, :29 for music). Time spent with screen media ranges from under an hour a day (:53) among children under two to 2:18 among 2- to 4-year-olds and close to three hours (2:50) among children 5-8. Even with all of the new media options at their disposal, it is television that children continue to spend the most time with. Two-thirds (65%) of children ages 8 and under watch TV at least once a day or more often (58% read or are read to at least once a day). Children this age spend an average of 1:40 a day watching TV and DVDs. The average amount of time spent playing video, computer, or handheld games combined is :25 a day. TV viewing starts young (66% of children under two have watched), and among the 89% of the total sample who have watched TV, the average age of first viewing was 9 months. Other media activities start later, such as playing video games on either a handheld or console game player and using a computer. Close to half of all 2- to 4-year-olds have engaged in each of those activities (43% for handheld games, 44% for console games, and 53% for computers). By the time they are in the 5- to 8-yearold group, 60% have used handheld games, 81% have played console games, and 90% have used a computer.

Table 1: Time Spent With Media Among 0- to 8-year-olds, average amount of time spent in a typical day: Average Percent among who all used

Average among those who used

Watching TV, DVDs, or videos TV on a TV set

1:09

70%

1:52

DVDs

:31

38%

1:35

TV/Videos on a computer

:03

10%

:56

TV/Videos on a cell, iPod or iPad

:01

:40

Reading/being read to

:29

69%

:47

Listening to music

:29

51%

1:12

Console video games

:10

17%

1:15

Computer games

:08

17%

:57

Handheld game player

:04

10%

:59

Cell/iPod/iPad games

:03

12%

:30

Educational software

:03

10%

1:01

Homework

:02

1:20

Anything else

:01

:38

:01

:30

Using any screen media

2:16

75%

2:58

Using a cell phone, iPod, iPad for any media activity

:05

11%

:43

Playing media games

Other computer activities

Other apps on cell, iPod, or iPad

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Table 4: Screen Media Use by Platform, by Age Among 0- to 8-year-olds, average amount of time spent in a typical day using:

Table 2: Time Spent With Media, by Age Among 0- to 8-year-olds, average amount of time spent in a typical day: Total

0-1

2-4

5-8

1:44

:53

1:53b

2:02b

TV on a TV set

1:09

:37

1:11b

1:23b

DVDs

:31

:16a

:36b

:34b

TV/videos on a computer

:03

:04

TV/videos on a cell, iPod or iPad

:01

:02a

:01b

Reading/being read to

:29

:23a

:28ab

:33b

Listening to music

:29

:39a

:30a

:23b

Playing media games

:25

:17a

:40b

Console video games

:10

:05

:18

Computer games

:08

:06a

:13b

Handheld game player

:04

:03a

:06b

Cell/iPod/iPad games

:03

Other computer activities

:06

:07

Educational software

:03

:04

:03

Homework

:02

:01

:02

Anything else

:01

:02

:01

:02

:01

3:14

1:55a

3:16b

3:46b

Watching TV, DVDs, or videos

Other apps on cell, iPod, or iPad Total media time

Note: Statistical significance at the level of p<.05 is denoted in this table through a series of superscripts. Significance should be read across rows. Items that share a common superscript or that do not have superscripts do not differ significantly.

Table 3: Daily Media Activities, by Age Among 0-8 year-olds, percent who do each media activity every day or several times a day: Total

0-1

2-4

5-8

Watch TV

65%

37%

73%

72%

Read/be read to

58%

44%

60%

64%

Watch DVDs

25%

16%

36%

20%

Use a computer

14%

12%

22%

Play console video games

17%

Use handheld game player, cell, iPod, or iPad for games, apps, or video

11%

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Total

0-1

2-4

5-8

A TV set (watching TV or DVDs/videos)

1:40

:53a

1:47b

1:57b

A computer (playing games, doing homework, watching videos/TV, using educational software,other activities)

:17

:00a

:16b

:24b

A video game player (playing games on a console or handheld player)

:14

:00a

:08b

:24c

A cell phone, iPod, or iPad (playing games, :05 watching video, using apps)

:00a

:07b

:05b

Total screen media time

:53a

2:18b

2:50c

2:16

Table 5: Media Activities Ever Engaged In, by Age Among 0- to 8-year-olds, percent who have ever done each activity, and average age at first use: Total 0-1

2-4

5-8 Average age*

Watched TV

89% 66% 96% 96%

9 mos

Used a computer

59%

53% 90%

3.5 yrs

Played console video games

51%

44% 81%

3 yrs 11 mos

Used handheld game player, cell, iPod, iPad for games, apps or video

44% 10% 43% 60%

Handheld games

3 yrs 11 mos

Games/videos

4 yrs 2 mos

Other apps

4 yrs 5 mos

Read/been read to

90% 76% 91% 96%

Watched DVDs

85% 52% 92% 97% 11 mos

5 mos

*Among those who have done each activity

Media in the Home Almost all children (98%) have at least one TV set at home, 72% have a computer, and two-thirds (67%) have a video game player. Less than a majority have handheld game players (44%) or parents who own a smartphone (41%). Much smaller percentages have new media devices such as a video iPod or similar device (21%), and to date, very few have the newest platforms such as an iPad or other tablet device (8%). Forty-two percent of children 8 and under have a TV in their bedroom, a rate that ranges from 30% of 0- to 1-year-olds, up to 47% of 5- to 8-year-olds (44% of 2- to 4-year-olds). More than a third (39%) of children 8 and under live in homes where the television is left on all (10%) or most (29%) of the time, whether or not anyone is watching it. Not surprisingly, children who live in these “heavy TV households” tend to spend more time watching TV and are more likely to be media multitaskers than other children their age. In fact, on average, these children watch almost twice as much TV as other kids do (2:11 per day vs. 1:19), and are twice as likely to spend “most” or “some” of their time using more than one medium at a time (23% vs. 11%).

Table 6: Media in the Home Among all children 0-8, percent with each item in the home: TV 98% Cable 68% DVD player

80%

DVR 35% Computer 72% High-speed Internet

68%

Video game console

67%

Handheld video game player

44%

Smartphone 41% Video iPod or similar device

21%

Kindle, Nook or similar e-Reader

iPad or similar tablet device

Table 7: Bedroom Media Percent of children ages 0-8 who have each item in their bedroom: TV 42% DVD/VCR player 29% Video game console player 11% Computer 4% Table 8: Parents and Cell Phones Among parents of children ages 0-8, percent who have: A smartphone

41%

A regular cell phone

49%

No cell phone

10%

Table 9: Personal Media Ownership Percent of children ages 0-8 who have their own: Educational gaming device

29%

Handheld gaming device

24%

iPod (non video)

Video iPod or similar device

Cell phone

iPad or similar tablet device

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Computer Access and Use OVERVIEW

As mentioned above, 72% of all 0- to 8-year-olds have a computer in the home, and 59% have ever used one. Computer use starts young: About half (53%) of all 2- to 4-year-olds have used a computer, and by the time they are in the 5- to 8-year-old range, nine out of 10 (90%) children have used a computer at some point. Among those who have ever used a computer, the average age at which they first did so was 3½ years old. In a typical day, 0- to 8-year-olds average 17 minutes using a computer (:16 for 2- to 4-year-olds and :24 for 5- to 8-year-olds; computer use among 0- to 1-year-olds is virtually non-existent). Not surprisingly, playing games is the most popular computer activity. Of the 17 minutes spent on a computer each day, 8 are spent playing games, 3 watching videos, 3 using educational programs, 2 doing homework, and 1 minute doing other computer activities. In terms of specific computer activities, 59% have ever used educational games or software programs on a computer, 13% have ever gone to child-oriented virtual worlds or social networking sites such as Club Penguin or Togetherville (21% among 5- to 8-yearolds), and 5% have ever gone to mainstream social networking sites such as MySpace or Facebook (7% among 5- to 8-year-olds).

Using the computer isn’t something that happens every day for most children this age. Overall, only 14% of children age 8 and under use the computer every day (compared to 65% who watch TV at least once a day); 17% use it several times a week, and 11% about once a week. However, among 5- to 8-yearolds, 22% are daily computer users, and another 46% use the computer at least once a week.

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THE DIGITAL DIVIDE

There is still a substantial “divide” in home computer access among young children. In fact, the majority of lower-income children, children from less welleducated families, and Hispanic children do not have a computer at home. To the extent that early learning on computers is important for children’s later success in school, this divide could be important. It is also informative to those who are trying to reach young people with educational content, especially children who may be most in need of support for learning. Table 10: Computers and Internet Access at Home Among families with children ages 0-8, percent who have: A home computer

High-speed Internet access

All

72%

68%

<30,000

48%

42%a

30-75,000

80%b

73%b

>75,000

91%

92%c

White

83%a

80%a

Black

70%b

53%b

Hispanic

48%

44%b

High school or less

48%a

42%a

Some college

75%b

70%b

College degree or more

90%

88%c

Note: Statistical significance at the level of p<.05 is denoted in this table through a series of superscripts. Significance should be read vertically, within sections. Items that share a common superscript or that do not have superscripts do not differ significantly.

Mobile Media Access and Use OVERVIEW

Some young children have begun using newer mobile media such as smartphones, video iPods, and iPads or similar devices. But the time children spend with these devices is still very small compared to other media. About half (52%) of all children ages 0-8 live in homes where there is access to some type of new media device: In most cases it is a smartphone (41% of all 0- to 8-year-olds); about one in five have access to a video iPod or similar device (21%); and fewer than one in 10 have an iPad or similar tablet device at home (8%). More than a third (38%) of all children between the ages of 0-8 have ever used a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device to play games, use apps, or watch videos, TV shows, or movies; but by the time they’re in the 5- to 8-year-old age range, half (52%) have done so at one point or another. Overall, children ages 0-8 spend an average of just five minutes a day using a cell phone, video iPod, iPad, or similar device to play games, watch videos, or use any other type of app. In a typical day, 11% of all 0- to 8-year-olds use a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device for media consumption, and those who do spend an average of :43 doing so. Most parents (64%) of kids this age say they know what an app is, but a third (36%) either don’t know (18%) or say they have an idea what one is but aren’t totally sure (18%). About one in four (29%) parents of 0- to 8-year-olds say they have ever downloaded any apps for their children, a rate that doesn’t vary much by the age of the child.

THE “APP GAP”

At this point, there is a large new “app gap” between higher- and lower-income children, in terms of their access to and use of newer mobile devices.

For example, smartphone access (41% among all 0- to 8-year-olds) ranges from 27% of lower-income children to 57% of those from families earning $75,000 a year or more. And when it comes to the newest tablet devices such as iPads, access is even more limited, with just 2% of lower-income children having one in their home, compared to 17% of those in the higher-income group. This disparity is echoed in parents’ knowledge of and use of apps for their children. More than a third (38%) of lower-income parents don’t have any idea what an “app” is, compared to just 3% of higher-income parents. And just 14% of lower-income parents have ever downloaded any apps for their children to use, compared to 47% among the higher-income families. All of these disparities come together to contribute to a large gap in use of new mobile media devices: 22% of children from lower-income families have ever used a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device for playing games, watching video or using apps, compared to 55% of children from higher-income families. Table 11: Mobile Media Ownership Among families with children ages 0-8, percent who own: A smartphone

41%

A video iPod or similar device

21%

An iPad or similar tablet device

Any of the above

52%

Table 12: Use of Mobile Media Among 0- to 8-year-olds, percent who have ever used a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device to: Among all

0-1

2-4

Play games

33%

31% 49%

Watch videos

20%

20% 27%

Use apps

16%

16% 23%

Watch TV shows/movies

11%

15% 11%

Read books

Any of the above

38%

10% 39% 52%

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5-8

Table 13: Time Spent with Mobile Media Among 0- to 8-year-olds, average time spent in a typical day using cell phones, iPods, iPads, or similar devices to: Among all

0-1

2-4

5-8

Play games

:03

Use other types of apps

:01

:02

:01

Watch videos or TV shows

:01

:02

:01

Total

:05

:00

:07

:05

Note: An asterisk (*) indicates a value of < 30 seconds.

Table 14: The App Gap: Access to Mobile Media, by Income Among 0- to 8-year-olds, the percent: Among <30,000 30-75,000 >75,000 all Who have new media devices in their home Smartphone

41%

27%a

41%b

57%c

Video iPod/ similar device

21%

10%a

20%b

34%c

Kindle, Nook, other eReader

3%a

9%b

15%c

iPad/similar device

2%a

6%b

17%c

Whose parents say they don’t know what an “app” is

18%

38%a

12%b

3%b

Whose parents have downloaded any apps for their children

29%

14%a

28%b

47%c

Who have ever used a cell, iPod, or iPad for games, videos, or apps

38%

22%a

40%b

55%c

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Educational Content and Platforms Many educators and philanthropists have been devoting a great deal of time and energy to developing educational content for new mobile media platforms. This study indicates that, as of this point, there are many more privileged than lower-income children using educational content on these platforms and that there is still much work to be done to put the platforms for this content in the hands of those most in need. (See the “Mobile Media Access and Use” section for relevant data.) Among all children ages 0 to 8, about one in four (28%) has ever used educational gaming apps (such as puzzles, memory games, math, or reading programs) on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device. This includes 7% who use apps like that “often,” 15% who do so “sometimes,” and 6% who use them “hardly ever.” But there is a big difference when looked at by family income. For example, 41% of children from families that earn more than $75,000 a year have used educational apps, compared to just 16% of children from families earning under $30,000 a year. For those trying to reach children in need with educational content today, traditional media platforms are still the best bet: Television is the most popular platform for educational content among all children, especially those from lower-income families. Access to broadcast television is nearly universal, whatever income group children are in (98-99%). Access to DVD players, although lower, is also widespread (72-85%). But only about half of lowerincome families (53%) have cable TV; for the other half, the only way their children are going to receive educational content on TV is from public television or the commercial broadcast networks. At this point, most of these families are not able to pick and choose programming from across the TV landscape, recording it for future viewing on their TiVo: Only 12% of lower-income families have a digital video recorder

(either through their cable company or a TiVo-like device), compared to 59% of higher-income families. About one in four (23%) children in the 0-8 age range “often” watches educational shows on TV, compared to 8% who often use a computer to play educational games or use educational software, and 7% who often use educational games or apps on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device. Adding in the proportion who “sometimes” do these activities, the difference is still pronounced: 62% often or sometimes watch educational TV, 33% often or sometimes use educational games or software on a computer, and 22% often or sometimes use educational games or apps on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device. But among children from lower-income families, the difference is even starker: While 26% of children in families that earn less than $30,000 a year “often” watch educational TV shows, only 5% often use educational games or programs on the computer, and just 2% often play educational games or apps on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device. Table 15: Television Platforms in the Home, by Income Among families with 0- to 8-year-olds, percent who have each media platform at home: Among <30,000 30-75,000 >75,000 all 98%

99%

98%

Cable TV

68%

53%a

71%b

80%c

DVR

35%

12%a

37%b

59%c

DVD player

80%

72%a

85%b

84%b

Table 16: The App Gap Continued: Use of Educational Apps, by Income Among 0- 8-year-olds, the percent: Among <30,000 30-75,000 >75,000 all Who have ever Used educational game apps on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device

28%

16%a

29%b

41%c

Watch educational TV shows

23%

26%a

25%a

17%b

Use educational games/programs on the computer

5%a

10%b

8%ab

Use educational game apps on a cell phone, iPod, iPad or similar device

2%a

8%a

11%b

Who often

Children Under 2 For children under age 2, it’s all about TV, DVDs, music, and books. In a typical day, 47% of babies and toddlers ages 0 through 1 watch TV or DVDs, and those who do watch spend an average of nearly two hours (1:54) doing so. Among all children this age, that’s an average of :53 a day watching TV and DVDs (:37 TV, :16 DVDs), :39 a day listening to music, and :23 being read to. Two-thirds (66%) of children under 2 have ever watched TV, and slightly fewer (52%) have ever watched DVDs. Just over a third (37%) watch TV at least once a day, and 16% watch DVDs every day (40% watch either TV or DVDs at least once a day; a similar number (44%) are read to at least once a day).

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Nearly one in three (30%) children under 2 has a TV in his or her bedroom. There are important methodological differences between this study and the 2005 Kaiser Family Foundation survey, primarily that the Kaiser study was conducted over the phone and the current study was conducted online. However, the two surveys are similar enough that it is interesting to look at them side by side, being cautious not to draw hard and fast conclusions. The Kaiser survey was among children ages 6-23 months old, whereas the current study also includes children from birth to 5 months old. So, for the following analyses, results from the current study were tabulated among 6- to 23-month-olds only, leaving out the 1- to 5-month-olds. Comparing the two studies on this basis, it appears that the amount of time spent watching TV and DVDs by infants and toddlers may have increased slightly (e.g., :34 for TV in 2005, and :42 in 2011). The percent who watch TV every day has remained the same (43%), while the percent who read or are read to on a daily basis today is 11 points below what was found in 2005 (58% in 2005, and 47% in 2011). Average time spent reading or being read to also appears to have gone down somewhat (from :33 to :25 a day). Other apparent differences seem to be that those who do watch TV spend more time doing so (about an hour a day in 2005, vs. an hour and a half in 2011), and that more children this age have a TV set in their bedroom (19% in 2005, 29% in 2011).

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Table 17: Media Use Among 6- to 23-Month-Olds, Over Time 2005+

2011

Have ever watched TV

79%

75%

Have ever watched DVDs/videos

65%

62%

Have a TV in their bedroom

19%

29%

Watch TV at least once a day

43%

Watch TV a few times a week

17%

15%

Watch DVDs at least once a day

18%

Watch DVDs a few times a week

26%

15%

Are read to at least once a day

58%

47%

Are read to a few times a week

25%

22%

Watching TV per day (among all)

:34

:42

Watching DVD/videos (among all)

:13

:19

Watching TV (among those who watched)

1:02

1:30

Watching DVDs/videos (among those who watched)

1:16

Reading or being read to (among all)

:33

:25

Reading or being read to (among those who read)

:44

:47

Percent who

Average time spent in a typical day

+ 2005 data are from the Kaiser Family Foundation’s report The Media Family, published in 2006. ++ Sample size too small for reliable results. Note: See Appendix for a discussion of important methodological differences between the two studies.

Gender, Race, and Socio-Economic Status There are very few differences in media use between boys and girls at these early ages, but there are substantial differences based on race, income, and parent education. The one medium that shows noticeable differences between boys and girls, even at young ages, is console video games. Boys are more likely to have ever played a console video game than girls are (56% vs. 46%), to have a video game player in their bedroom (14% vs. 7%), and to play console video games every day (14% vs. 5%). Boys average :16 a day playing console games, compared to an average of :04 a day for girls. African-American children ages 0-8 spend about an hour and a half more with media each day than white children do (4:27, compared to 2:51 among whites), and about an hour more than Hispanic youth (3:28). Children from higher-educated, upper-income families spend less time with media than other children do (for example, 2:47 a day among children from families earning at least $75,000 a year, compared to 3:34 among those earning under $30,000 a year). The biggest difference is in time spent watching TV, with African-American children averaging about 30 minutes a day more than white children. African-American children also spend more time reading each day: about 13 minutes more per day than whites.

Table 18: Time Spent With Media, by Race Among 0- to 8-year-olds, average time spent with media in a typical day: White

Black

Hispanic

1:31a

2:11b

2:00b

TV on a TV set

:57a

1:30b

1:22b

DVDs

:31

:33

:32

TV/videos on a computer

:02

:05

:04

TV/videos on a cell, iPod, or iPad

:01

:03

:02

Reading/being read to

:28b

:41a

:25b

Listening to music

:28

:39

:28

Playing media games

:20

:44

:24

Console video games

:09

:21

:09

Computer games

:06

:12

:08

Handheld game player

:03

:07

:05

Cell/iPod/iPad games

:02

:04

:02

:03a

:11b

:10

Educational software

:01

:06

:05

Homework

:01

:03

Anything else

:01

:02

:01

2:51a

4:27b

3:28c

Watching TV, DVDs, or videos

Other computer activities

Other apps on cell, iPod, or iPad Total media time

Similarly, children from minority or lower SES homes are much more likely to have a TV in their bedroom than other children are. For example, 20% of children in upper income homes (over $75,000 a year) have a TV in their room, compared to 64% of those from lower-income homes (under $30,000 a year).

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Table 19: Time Spent with Media, by Income Among 0- to 8-year-olds, average time spent with media in a typical day: <30,000

Watching TV, DVDs, or videos

Table 20: Time Spent With Media, by Parent Education Among 0- to 8-year-olds, average time spent with media in a typical day: High Some College school college degree or more or less

30>75,000 75,000

Watching TV, DVDs, or videos

2:14a

1:52a

1:15b

TV on a TV set

1:30a

1:15a

:48b

:19b

DVDs

:38a

:33a

:23b

:03

:04

TV/videos on a computer

:04

:03

:01

:03

:02

TV/videos on a cell, iPod, or iPad

:02

:01

Reading/being read to

:27

:29

:32

Reading/being read to

:28

:32

Listening to music

:35

:28

:23

Listening to music

:32

:31

:24

Playing media games

:27

:30

:18b

2:01a

1:47a

1:20b

TV on a TV set

1:17a

1:12a

:56b

DVDs

:40a

:31a

TV/videos on a computer

:03

TV/videos on a cell, iPod, or iPad

Playing media games

:25

:22

:26

Console video games

:13

:08

:09

Console video games

:13a

:05b

Computer games

:08

:07

Computer games

:08

:10a

:06b

Handheld game player

:03

:05

:04

Handheld game player

:04

:05

:03

Cell/iPod/iPad games

:01a

:02a

:05b

Cell/iPod/iPad games

:02a

:04b

:05

:08

:05

:06

:08a

:03b

Educational software

:02

:04

:02

Educational software

:02

:05a

:01b

Homework

:01

:03

:01

Homework

:03

:01

Anything else

:02

:01

:02

Anything else

:01

:02

:01

3:34a

3:15a

2:47b

3:48a

3:30a

2:33b

Other computer activities

Other apps on cell, iPod, or iPad Total media time

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Other computer activities

Other apps on cell, iPod, or iPad Total media time

Table 21: Bedroom Television, by Race and Socio-Economic Status Among 0- to 8-year-olds, percent with a TV in their bedroom: Race White 28%a Black 69%b Hispanic 66%b Income <30,000 64%a 30-75,000 20%b >75,000 20%c Parent Education High school or less Some college College degree or more

67%a 48%b 18%c

Note: Statistical significance at the level of p<.05 is denoted in this table through a series of superscripts. significance should be read vertically within sections. Items that share a common superscript or that do not have superscripts do not differ significantly.

Media as a Babysitter Most parents say they don’t often use media as a babysitter. Fifteen percent of parents say they “often” use media to keep their child occupied while they do chores (42% say they “sometimes” do that). Only 6% say they often let their child use their handheld video game player while they are out running errands (11% say “sometimes”), and 5% say they often give their child their cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device to keep them occupied while they are out running errands (16% say “sometimes”). Some parents use media to occupy themselves when they are supposed to be out playing with their kids: 4% say they “often” do that, and 15% say they “sometimes” do. Table 22: Media as a Babysitter Among parents of children ages 0-8, percent who say they often or sometimes: Often

Sometimes

Media Multitasking

Use media to keep their child occupied while they do chores

15%

42%

Even at these young ages, some children have begun multitasking with their media. Among 0- to 8-yearolds, 16% use more than one medium “most” or “some” of the time they are using media (far less than the 58% of 7th-12th graders that previous studies indicate multitask “most” of the time with at least one medium). African-American and Hispanic children are more likely to multi-task than White children are: 22% of African-American and 21% of Hispanic 0- to 8-yearolds use more than one medium most or some of the time, compared to 11% of white children this age.

Let their child play with a handheld game player while they are out doing errands

11%

Give their child their cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device to keep them occupied when they are out running errands

16%

Put headphones on their child to watch a video while they attend a meeting or class

Use media to occupy themselves while they are out with their child playing

15%

By the time they are in the 5- to 8-year-old age range, almost a quarter (23%) of all children engage in media multitasking most (3%) or some (20%) of the time they use media. Among the 79% of 5- to 8-year-olds who have homework, 21% have the TV on “usually” or “some of the time” they are doing their homework.

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Conclusion Media — even very new media — are a critical and growing presence in young children’s lives. Just three years after the development of the first digital “app,” nearly three out of 10 parents have downloaded apps for their kids to use, and one in four children have used educational gaming apps on a mobile device. Media use starts young and grows quickly. We hope the data in this report will serve to put a spotlight on the role of media in children’s lives and will help inform the many important discussions that are taking place about children and media today, including:

BABY VIDEOS

»» For parents, pediatricians, and child development experts concerned about screen media use among children under 2, this report indicates that a substantial number of infants and toddlers are watching TV and DVDs on a regular basis. Understanding the impact of early screen media use on infants’ developing minds and clarifying expert guidance for parents are critically important tasks.

BEDROOM TV

» » For children’s advocates who are concerned about the negative effects of young children having a TV in their bedroom (including on obesity, school grades, and time spent watching TV), these data are a wake-up call: Despite calls for parents to refrain from putting TVs in their children’s rooms, 42% of all 0- to 8-year-olds have a bedroom TV, including nearly one in three (30%) children under age 2.

EDUCATIONAL MEDIA

»» For educators, funders, and content creators who are eager to use media to deliver educational programming to children, this study indicates that educational TV is still the most popular platform, far outstripping use of educational content on other platforms, including computers and newer mobile devices.

HEALTH PROMOTION

»» For those who are trying to reach children in lowincome families, whether with educational content, public health messages, or on behalf of other pro-social causes, this report provides much-needed guidance about the enduring and substantial digital divide, in computers and in newer mobile devices such as smartphones and iPads.

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DIGITAL DIVIDE

»» For those who are excited about the potential of interactive media as an educational tool – because of the ability to pace and personalize the content and engage the child in active response – this study makes it clear that there must be ongoing work to address both the digital divide and the newer “app gap” to ensure that the benefits of this exciting new educational content reaches those most in need.

As a nation, we need to continue to think about, research, and debate the impact of media on young children. Media occupy such a substantial place in children’s lives that we ignore it — or take it for granted — at our peril.

QUALITY ENTERTAINMENT

»» For content providers striving to make high-quality entertainment media for young people, and for advocates concerned about the negative impact of content such as advertising, violence, or gender roles, paying attention to the messages on TV is still perhaps the most important challenge of all, as it continues to consume the largest share of children’s media diets.

READING

»» For teachers, parents, and literacy experts who are convinced of the importance of reading, the study may provide encouraging news in documenting an average of nearly a half-hour of reading a day; it may also raise alarms in indicating a possible drop-off in reading compared to earlier studies.

MULTITASKING

»» For neuroscientists and others concerned about the impact of media multitasking on developing minds, it will be interesting to see the very beginnings of these multitasking habits in the (relatively) small group of very young children who use more than one medium at a time, or who tend to do their homework with the TV on.

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Toplines Zero to Eight: Children’s Media Use in America Fieldwork conducted by Knowledge Networks N = 1,384 parents of children ages 0-8 years old Margin of error: Plus or minus 2.6 percentage points Interview dates: May 27-June 15, 2011 Notes: Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding, refused/don’t know responses, or because multiple responses were allowed. An asterisk (*) indicates a value of less than .5%.

Q.1 Which of the following, if any, do you have in your household? a. A TV set

b. A regular DVD player

c. A laptop or desktop computer

d. Cable or satellite TV

e. High-speed Internet access (cable, wireless, or DSL)

f. A video game player like an Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii

g. A handheld video game player like a GameBoy, PSP, or Nintendo DS

h. A portable DVD player

i. A digital video recorder like TiVo or through your cable company

j. An iTouch or other type of video iPod

(Please do NOT count the notebook computer you were given by Knowledge Networks for taking these surveys)

k. A Kindle, Nook or other e-reader

l. An iPad or similar tablet device

m. None of these

Q.2 What type of cell phone, if any, do you have: a. A “smartphone”

(in other words, you can send email, watch videos, or access the Internet on it)

b. A regular cell phone (just for talking or texting)

c. I don’t have a cell phone

Q.2A One thing people talk about when it comes to cell phones and iPods is “apps.” How confident are you that you know what an “app” is? a. I know what an app is.

b. I have an idea what an app is, but I’m not totally sure.

c. I don’t know what an app is.

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Q.2B Approximately how many apps, if any, have you downloaded onto your cell phone, iPod, or iPad type of device? Among all

Among those who know what an “app” is

a. None

b. Fewer than 5

c. 5-10

d. 10-20

e. 20-30

f. More than 30

Q.2C Approximately how many of the apps that you’ve downloaded were for your [child/children] to use? Among those who have downloaded any apps onto cell phone, iPad, or iPod a. Most of them

b. About half of them

c. Less than half of them

d. Only a few

e. None

Among all parents Percent who have downloaded any apps for their children (Combo Q.2A-C)

Q.3 Do you ever use your CELL PHONE for the following: Among those who have a smartphone or regular cell phone Yes

a. Texting

b. Listening to music

c. Playing games

d. Sending or receiving email

e. Using apps

f. Watching videos, such as YouTube videos

g. Watching TV shows

h. Using Facebook

i. Accessing the Internet for something other than email, Facebook, apps, or videos

j. Taking photos

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Q.4 When someone is at home in your household, how often is the TV on, even if no one is actually watching it? a. Always

b. Most of the time

c. Some of the time

d. Hardly ever

e. Never

For this next set of questions, please think about your [____year/month-old] [boy/girl] [INSERT CHILD’S NAME]. Some of these questions may be about things [CHILD] is too young to do. If that’s the case, just mark the correct response and move on. Q.5 Which of the following items, if any, does [CHILD] have in [his/her] bedroom: a. A television set

b. A DVD player or VCR

c. A video game player like Xbox, PlayStation, or Wii

d. A computer

e. Internet access

f. None of these

Q.6 Which of the following items does [CHILD] have, if any? His/Her own: a. Educational game device like a Leapster Explorer or a V-Smile

b. Handheld video game player like a GameBoy, PSP, or Nintendo DS

c. Non-video iPod or other MP3 player

d. iTouch or other video iPod

e. Cell phone

f. iPad or similar tablet device

•

g. Kindle, Nook or other e-reader

•

h. None of these

Q.7 Is [CHILD]’s cell phone a “smartphone” or not? (In other words, can he/she go online, use apps or watch videos on it, or not?) Note: Number of respondents whose child has a cell phone (n=32) was not sufficient for reliable results.

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Q.8 We’re interested in whether [CHILD] has ever used a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device to do any of the following activities. Please mark any of the activities [CHILD] has ever done: a. Watch videos on a phone, iPod, or iPad

b. Watch TV shows or movies on a phone, iPod, or iPad

c. Play games on a phone, iPod, or iPad

d. Use apps on a phone, iPod, or iPad

e. Read books on a phone, iPod, or iPad

f. None of these

Percent who have done ANY of these activities 38

Q.9 We’re interested in how often [CHILD] does various activities or whether [he/she] has never done these activities. How often does [CHILD]:

Once a week

Less often than once a week

Has never done this

Use the computer

Read books on a Kindle, Nook, or similar e-reader

Play video games on a console player like an X-Box, PlayStation, or Wii

Play games, use apps, or watch videos on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or handheld gaming device

Once a day

Several times a week

Watch DVDs or videotapes

Watch TV

Several times a day Read or be read to

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Q.10 We’re interested in how old [CHILD] was when [he/she] first did various activities. How old was [CHILD] when [he/she] first: Age

Percent who have ever done this

a. Was read to — Among those whose child reads or was read to

5 months

90%

b. Watched DVDs or videotapes — Among those whose child has watched DVDs or videotapes

11 months

85%

c. Watched TV — Among those whose child has watched TV

9 months

89%

d. Used a computer — Among those whose child has used a computer

3 yrs, 6 months

59%

e. Played video games on a console game player like an X-Box, Playstation or Wii. — Among those whose child has played video games on a console player

3 yrs, 11 months

51%

f. Played games on a handheld gaming device like a GameBoy, PSP or Nintendo DS — Among those whose child has played handheld games

3 yrs, 11 months

44%

g. Used a cell phone, iPod, or iPad-type device to play games or watch videos

h. Used apps on a cell phone, iPod, iPad, or similar device

+ Sample too small for reliable results

Q.11 We’re interested in how much time your [CHILD] spent doing various activities yesterday. Some of these may be things [CHILD] is too young to do. If that’s the case, just mark the correct response and move on. Thinking just about YESTERDAY, about how much TIME, if any, did [CHILD] spend…: Time (hours:min) a. Watching TV on a TV set (do NOT include time spent watching videos or DVDs)