Bits and Pieces: Potential Future Scenarios for Children’s Mobile Technology

Michael Eisenberg, Leah Buechley and Nwanua Elumeze
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Michael Eisenberg: University of Colorado, USA
Leah Buechley: MIT Media Lab, USA
Nwanua Elumeze: University of Colorado, USA

International Journal of Mobile Human Computer Interaction (IJMHCI), 2010, vol. 2, issue 2, 37-52

Abstract: The reigning portrait of mobile technology for children has, by and large, been founded on a portrait of computing derived from an earlier generation of desktop devices. That is, the recurring image of “mobile computing” employs a full-scale personal computer shrunk down to handheld size (as in a PDA or iPhone). While this image suggests avenues for innovation, it nevertheless reflects a highly constrained view of computing that fails to do justice to the educational possibilities of children’s informal day-to-day activities. This article seeks to challenge the “PDA-centric” view of children’s mobile technology by discussing two major design themes that lead in alternative directions: namely, material computing (endowing physical substrates of various kinds with computational capabilities) and piecewise computing (enhancing mobility through the dissociation of various functional capabilities of traditional computers). In discussing these themes, the authors draw on design projects.

Date: 2010
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