In recent years, educational technologists and designers have begun to explore a variety of ways in which physical and computational media can be integrated—for instance, through the design of “intelligent toys ” for children. This paper describes our ongoing efforts at exploring a different sort of physical-computational integration, focusing on children’s design activities, output devices, and the notion of “printing out ” more generally. We describe several representative systems under development in our group; each of these systems highlights particular possibilities for exploring and experimenting with output devices for children’s crafts. We also present a set of design heuristics—useful techniques for those educational designers interested in expanding the range and expressiveness of craft activities for children.

As I write this sentence, I am glancing over at the color printer sitting beside my screen. In the popular jargon of the computer industry, that printer is called a "peripheral"—which, upon reflection, is a rather odd way to describe it. What, precisely, is it peripheral to? If the ultimate