This paper describes follow-on studies focusing on how gender and grouping affects performance and attitudes of children playing a puzzle solving game called The Incredible Machine (TIM). We found that children playing together on one machine solved significantly more puzzles than children playing alone on one machine. Female/Female pairs playing together on one machine, on average, completed significantly more puzzles than Female/Female pairs playing side-by-side on two computers. In addition, the level of motivation to continue playing the game was affected by the opportunity to play with a partner, and success in the game. This paper describes follow-on studies focusing on how gender and grouping affects performance and attitudes of children playing a puzzle solving game called The Incredible Machine (TIM). We found that children playing together on one machine solved significantly more puzzles than children playing alone on one machine. Female/Female pairs playing together on one ...

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When two children work together on one computer, it is necessary for them to share the input devices. This study examines the effects of having multiple mice with two different control passing protocols: Give and Take. The results suggest that having two mice instead of a single mouse affects the performance of a pair of children playing on a shared computer. This result was gender dependent in that girls solved the most puzzles in the Give condition while boys solved the most puzzles in the Take condition. Moreover, boys in the Take condition exhibited a larger number of exchanges of control than all other experimental conditions.

Developing applications to support collaboration by two or more users involves special challenges. An application designer should anticipate the interaction between the user and the computer, as well as the interactions between the users. Secondly, there is a lack of system support for development of software that accepts simultaneous input from multiple users. The Colt system is designed to address both of these issues. The design of the Colt system is motivated by a model of computer-supported collaboration that measures communication and cooperation between the users during an activity. We present a definition and several examples of "Cooperatively Controlled Objects" that have been designed to support cooperative interactions. A user study is presented that illustrates the use of ...

The importance of play in young children’s lives cannot be minimized. From teddy bears to blocks, children’s experiences with the tools of play can impact their social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. Today, the tools of play include desktop computers and computerenhanced physical environments. In this paper, we consider the merits of desktop and physical environments for young children (4-6 years old), by comparing the same contentinfused game in both contexts. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used for data collection and analysis.

this report. This research was supported in part by the Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada (through a postgraduate scholarship and a Cooperative R&D project grant), TeleLearning Network of Centres of Excellence (through Projects 3.2 and 4.4), BC Advanced Systems Institute, Electronic Arts, and the Media and Graphics Interdisciplinary Centre (MAGIC) at the University of British Columbia. ii

This paper describes the authors' experiences in using classroom play of electronic games as a central component of a collaborative approach to mathematics learning in a grade four classroom. The authors form one of the pairings (computer scientist, elementary teacher) of university researchers with teachers, in the E-GEMS classroom study, an ongoing long-term qualitative study on the potential uses of electronic games and activities for enhancing mathematics learning in intermediate grade classrooms. We believe the experiences from this study can provide insight on issues of importance to research on computer-supported collaborative learning in the classroom and to mathematics education. Our experiences echo those of many others on the effectiveness of collaborative use of computers, where the collaboration occurs through small groups of learners working at each computer. We also note the positive impact of connecting the computer activities with related large and small group classroo...

Informal observations of children playing two versions of the same puzzle-solving educational computer game suggested that children had more difficulty operating a drag-and-drop type of interaction than a point-and-click interface. There was some evidence that this effect was more pronounced for girls than for boys. A formal study was performed to see if the interaction style affects performance. Girls using the point-and-click interaction style solved significantly more puzzles than did girls using the drag-and-drop interaction style. KEYWORDS: User interfaces, interaction styles, computers in education, children. INTRODUCTION Children today are exposed to computers at a very early age. Software developers are aware of this, as demonstrated by the plethora of children's software available. The software and hardware that children encounter is for the most part modeled after systems originally designed for the business community. This raises the question: Is it acceptable to assume ...

This paper will examine recent trends in the design of applications which meet the new NCTM standards for teaching. In particular, it will focus on computer support for cooperative 1

In this article, we concern ourselves with the learning potential of collaborative games. First, we introduce the problem of the competitive mindset and examine its origins. Then, we use game theory to create a framework for modeling interaction, from competition to cooperation and collaboration. Next, we use that framework to analyze a collaborative game in detail and show how some key design features lead to participants being able to overcome the competitive mindset in the context of a collaborative game. Finally, we reflect on the potentials that games can have for learning. Specifically, we are interested in what educational technology designers can learn from these microworlds from both a learning and enjoyment perspective. Introduction: Concerning Hobbits In J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic series of books, The Lord of the Rings, a magic ring of tremendous power and contagious evil is found in the possession of the unlikeliest of persons— a hobbit. The ring belongs to the dark lord Sauron who only needs to regain it to once more throw Middle Earth into darkness. Along with several companions, four hobbits