Archives of Design Research

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Technology has become pervasive in our lives. For example, 37.7% of the world population owned smartphones in 2014, a figure is expected to grow to 52.5% by 2019 (eMarketer, 2015). The use of other smart devices such as tablets is also increasing. By 2019, 20.0% of the world population will own tablets (eMarketer, 2015). Children are no exception. In the US, threequarters (75%) of all children aged 8 and under had access to some type of smart device such as a smartphone, an iPad, or similar devices, in their homes (Common Sense Media, 2013). Besides smart devices, the numbers of apps and computer programs have increased explosively. Apple announced that more than 2 million apps are available on the App Store. These apps have been downloaded 130 billion times since the App Store was launched in 2008 (Golson, 2016). Apple’s Kids App Store, which launched in 2013, provides about 80,000 apps, and 60% of the apps are in the “education” category (Adjust, 2014). More than half of parents (58%) said they have downloaded apps for their children (Common Sense Media, 2013).

Obviously, children today spend a lot more time using technology than any other generation, from touchscreen smart devices to digital toys and wearable technology. Research has shown that children spend more time playing with touchscreen devices than with traditional toys such as dolls and action figures (Michael Cohen Group, 2014). Technology from devices to digital content is everywhere, and children are exposed to it from when they are born and are closely affected by it as they grow up.

Although technology targeting children is a large and fast-growing industry, how it is designed for and affects children’s development has not been tested or verified thoroughly. Hirsh-Pasek et al. (2015) pointed out that only a handful of apps are designed with an eye toward how children actually learn. Given that technology can significantly influence the ways in which our children learn and think, we need a better way to ensure that technology is designed to support children’s development. One way to achieve this is by designing based on a well-grounded theoretical foundation, not just based on designers’ assumptions, own experiences, or intuition. There has been shared awareness that we need a closer link between design practice and theories from other fields, including psychology and pedagogy (Read & Markopoulos, 2012).

This study was conducted to link development theories and design practice better, so that designers, researchers, and educators can apply them in practice. In this article, I will 1) briefly give an overview of the field of child-computer interaction and then 2) describe how we can benefit from the theory-based design approach and review the key concepts of the constructivist theories of Piaget, Papert, and Vygotsky under two categories; cognitive constructivism and social constructivism. The theories will give us insights into how children think and learn, and what roles design should play to support this process. 3) Lastly, I will draw design implications for design practice and illustrate real-world examples to help in understanding and applying each theoretical approach.

As a discipline, designing technology for children is called as “child–computer interaction (CCI)” as a subfield of human–computer interaction (HCI) (Read & Markopoulos, 2012) or as “interaction design and children”. As a separate discipline, CCI has been developed through its own conferences and journals as well as special sessions and programs within larger communities, such as HCI conferences. CCI, like HCI, is multidisciplinary. It is an interrelated field of psychology, education, learning science, computer science, art and design, etc. Each field has developed its own perspective and way to approach CCI.

Educators and child psychologists began discussing CCI in the late 1960s. Early studies mainly focused on the impact of new technology on children as learners as well as educational theories, as a theoretical foundation from which to start. In the interaction design and HCI field, Seymour Papert at MIT conducted the early seminal work in the 1980s. Children started to receive more attention as a user group in the 1990s (Druin, 2002; Read & Markopoulos, 2012).

There has been a growing trend to link education, psychology theories, and design practice, and use the theories as tools and frameworks to understand children better (Yarosh et al., 2011). The next chapter will review the theories of three philosophers and practitioners. Each of these theories sees children as active agents and can help us understand children’s perspectives better.

Why do we need a theory-based approach? Theories can provide designers with a wide range of perspectives and approaches through which to understand design areas. A theory-based approach does not offer designers explicit prescriptions but powerful heuristics to guide design processes and procedures (Hannafin et al., 1997). Hannafin et al. (1997) proposed the concept of “grounded design” and defined it as “a process that involves linking the practices of learning systems design with related theory and research.” Grounded design approaches can ensure that the methods used are consistent with given theoretical foundations and assumptions.

In this chapter, the cognitive and social constructivist theories of Piaget, Papert, and Vygotsky will be reviewed. Constructivist theories were one of the main theoretical foundations of the CCI field. Constructivists saw children as active learners as opposed to the behaviorists like John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner, who saw children as rather passive and reactive to external stimuli. The constructivists supported a learner-centered approach over teacher-centered approach and believed that objects and events have no absolute meaning; rather, the individual interprets each and constructs meaning based on individual experiences and evolved beliefs (Hanafin et al., 1997). Alimisis (2013) insisted that the constructivist approach can contribute strongly to the development of the skills that the 21st century requires, including scientific reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, teamwork, and communication skills.

In this chapter, I will suggest the implications for designing technology for children’s development based on the theories reviewed and show how these cognitive and social constructivist approaches have been applied to real-world design projects.

4. 2. Application of Cognitive Constructivism: Computationally Enhanced Toolkits for Children

Ever since Papert worked on the Logo programming language and Lego Mindstorm, computationally enhanced toolkits have been developed in robotics, environmental sensing, scientific experimentation, and interactive art, and have provided children with handson experiences based on constructivism. Blikstein (2013) insisted that such toolkits and technologies “showed it was possible to engage children in complex uses of technology . . . [as] children could actively construct with technology rather than just consume technological products.”

littleBits and KIBO are great examples of computationally enhanced toolkits for children. littleBits is a platform of electronic building blocks that are easy to use for everyone, including children aged 8 and up (Figure 1). The blocks are color-coded and do not require soldering or wiring as they contain magnetic connectors. Children can combine them with traditional materials, such as paper, and create anything they want.

Figure 1 littleBits (http://littlebits.cc/)

Also, littleBits provides an open-source library that currently offers more than 60 modules, so that children can easily build a running system without programming knowledge.

KIBO is designed for younger audience aged 4 to 7. It is a robotic kit with which children can build a robot they want with wooden blocks (Figure 2). Children can easily create a sequence of instructions by simply scanning wooden KIBO blocks and then decorate the robot. As it targets young children, screen time using PCs, tablets, or smartphones is not required. According to the KIBO team, even young children can learn programming and engineering if they are provided with developmentally appropriate tools, and KIBO can let young children learn how technology works by playing with physical objects (KinderLab Robotics, n.d.).

Figure 2 KIBO (http://kinderlabrobotics.com/)

4. 4. Application of Social Constructivism: Interactive Tabletops

Social constructivism has influenced instructional design for children widely, from distance learning to computer-supported collaborative learning. Interactive tabletops have also been developed under the influence of social constructivism. They are computer interfaces that resemble a table and are usually large enough to allow several users to interact simultaneously.

These tabletops are spreading quickly throughout schools and informal learning environments (Dillenbourg & Evans, 2011).

DigiTile is a collaborative multi-touch application for a tabletop for learning about math and art by designing colorful mosaic tiles (Figure 3). The original version of DigiTile, DigiQuilt, was designed based on the constructionist theory that people learn particularly well when designing personally meaningful public artifacts (Rick & Rogers, 2008). DigiTile is designed for two children sitting next to each other and encourages users to challenge and help each other to create a tile together. DigiTile researchers conducted a user study with pairs of children aged 9–11, and the results showed that interacting with the DigiTile system could facilitate collaborative learning and that the benefits of working together differ based on the group dynamics (Rick, Marshall, & Yuill, 2011).

Figure 3 DigiTile (Rick, Marshall, & Yuill, 2011; Rick, & Rogers, 2008)

Technology has become part of our lives, and children are growing up under its influence. To create technology that supports children’s development, designers should have a deep understanding of children and their development. To grow up into people with scientific reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, teamwork, and communication skills, which the 21st century requires, children should become active users and creators of technology, and not just passive recipients of it. To understand children and their development better, I reviewed the constructivist theories of three psychologists and practitioners who saw children as active human beings: Piaget, Papert, and Vygotsky. By reviewing their theories, I drew insights for design and suggested implications for designing technology 1) to support children’s developmental needs, 2) to be personalized to each child and to support children in becoming creators, and 3) to support social interactions.

This article presented the key ideas of cognitive and social constructivist theories, and showed how they can be applied to design products. Designers, students, researchers, and educators can benefit from understanding development theories when they design technology products for children, as the theories can guide them through the design process, help them to make design decisions, and offer a way to verify designs. This research is in a primary stage for linking developmental theories and design practice.

Future works will include how to evaluate whether and ensure that technology products support children’s development from various aspects as well as specific design methods that can be applied for each theoretical approach.