journal :: Eglash, R., Bennett, A. (2009). Teaching with hidden capital: Agency in children's computational explorations of cornrow hairstyles. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 58-74.

Bourdieu and Passeron (1973) famously defined cultural capital as the accumulated cultural knowledge that confers power and status. Their original work explained many of the intangible advantages that allowed the upper class to obtain better status jobs, education, etc. Here we extend this concept to include "computational capital" -- the concep...

Tags: culture, design, perception, technology

journal :: Druin, A., Bederson, B., Rose, A., Weeks, A. (2009). From New Zealand to Mongolia: Co-designing and deploying a digital library for the world's children. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 34-57.

There has been an explosion of Internet users throughout the world. Low-cost computing options are now emerging for developing countries that are changing the world's educational landscape. Given these conditions, there is a critical need to understand the obstacles and opportunities in designing and deploying technologies for children worldwide...

Tags: library, online, web, internet, database

journal :: Kanda, T., Nishio, S., Ishiguro, H., Hagita, N. (2009). Interactive humanoid robots and androids in children's lives. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 12-33.

This paper provides insight into how recent progress in robotics could affect children's lives in the not-so-distant future. We describe two studies in which robots were presented to children in the context of their daily lives. The results of the first study, which was conducted in an elementary school with a mechanical-looking humanoid robot, ...

Tags: robot, children, youth, technology, mechanics, engineering, humanoid, adaptation

journal :: Harrington, M. C. (2009). An ethnographic comparison of real and virtual reality field trips to Trillium Trail: The salamander find as a salient event. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 75-102.

Reported are ethnographic observations comparing and contrasting real and virtual reality field trips. The content was from a fourth grade elementary science and ecology curriculum of the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania. Ecology education is an area of enormous importance, especially now in the period of climate change. Technology may...

Tags: virtual reality, field trip, education, learning, human-computer interaction, design

journal :: Chavez, D. J. (2009). Youth Day in Los Angeles: Evaluating the role of technology in children's nature activities. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 103-125.

Youth Day, held in Griffith Park in Los Angeles, California, was an exploratory study to determine whether technology attracts kids to outdoor activities. Four activities were offered -- two were dependent on technology and two were not. The two technology-dependent activities were a camera safari and geocaching for treasure. The activities not ...

Tags: outdoors, youth, education, technology, nature

journal :: Harmon, L. K., Gleason, M. (2009). Underwater explorers: Using remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) to engage youth with underwater environments. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 126-144.

In 2007, 270 youth (10-15 years of age) participated in our study designed to assess kids' perceptions about using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to explore underwater habitats and how the ROV could facilitate engagement with the environment. The three programs we conducted were vessel-based and integrated an ROV component into existing envi...

Tags: technology, outdoors, nature, marine, environment, education, water

journal :: Freier, N. G. (2009). Accounting for the child in the design of technological environments: A review of constructivist theory. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 145-170.

Technology designers are faced with the challenge of accounting for the breadth of children's experiences in their interactions with technology, even as the field of human-computer interaction has maintained a primary focus on "use" as the main interaction paradigm. To address this challenge, I propose that designers account for children's rela...

Tags: interaction, technology, design, development, constructivism

journal :: Henning, A., Brenick, A., Killen, M., O'Connor, A., Collins, M. J. (2009). Do stereotypic images in video games affect attitudes and behavior? Adolescent perspectives. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 171-197.

This study examined adolescents' attitudes about video games along with their self- reported play frequency. Ninth and eleventh grade students (N = 361), approximately evenly divided by grade and gender, were surveyed about whether video games have stereotypic images, involve harmful consequences or affect one's attitudes, whether game playing s...

Tags: video games, perception, development, stereotype, gender, media, society, role, attitude

journal :: Donovan, G. T., Katz, C. (2009). Cookie monsters: Seeing young people's hacking as creative practice. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 198-223.

This paper examines the benefits and obstacles to young people's open-ended and unrestricted access to technological environments. While children and youth are frequently seen as threatened or threatening in this realm, their playful engagements suggest that they are self-possessed social actors, able to negotiate most of its challenges effecti...

Tags: creativity, technology, internet, learning, youth, interaction, security

journal :: Holt, N. A., Kleiber, D. A. (2009). The sirens' song of multiplayer online games. Children, Youth and Environments, 19(1), 224-245.

Multiplayer online games are engineered to be highly engaging. Their success is reflected in the nearly 20 million participants, including roughly 5 million adolescents and children, who often play as much as 20 hours per week. A central question for this paper is whether players are deeply engaged in the positive sense of "flow" and optimal exp...

Tags: MMOG, video games, motivation, perception, addiction, engagement