Mobile Collaboration for
Young Children
Jerry Alan Fails, Allison Druin, Mona Leigh Guha
May 28, 2009
HCIL Symposium
Mobile
Collaboration
To work together,
especially in a joint
intellectual effort.
(www.dictionary.com)
Spatial
Co-located
Temporal
Young ChildrenSame Place &
Synchronous
Ages
6-10
Time
Asynchronous
Same Place,
Different
Time
Distributed
Different
Place,
Same Time
Different
Place & Time
Move Beyond …

Summary of current status
– Devices for consumption/entertainment/collection
– Limited range of interactions
– Mobile device limitations

Need to make:
Video
Games
MP3
– Mobility part of purpose,
Playersnot just a feature
– Mobile devices more:
 Collaborative
 Child-appropriate
Cameras
 Creative, generative, Cell
constructive
Educational
Phones
Toys/Games
Design Approach

Children in the design process

Kidsteam

Cooperative Inquiry
(Druin, CHI 1999; Guha et al., IDC 2004)
Face-to-Face Collaboration
Collaborative Configurations
Disconnected
Connected (Two Devices)
View
Independent
Content Splitting
Story
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8
1 2 3 1 2 3
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7 8
7 8
1
1 1
Previous/
Next
Page
1
Page Part
1
Space Sharing
Collaborative Configurations
Disconnected
Connected (Two Devices)
View
Independent
Content Splitting
Space Sharing
Story
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8
1 2 3 1 2 3
4 5 6 4 5 6
7 8
7 8
1 2 3 4
1 2
Previous/
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Page
Page Part
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1
1 1
1
1
1
1
Collaborative Configurations
Disconnected
Connected (Two Devices)
View
Independent
Content Splitting
Space Sharing
Story
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8
1 2 3 1 2 3
4 5 6 4 5 6
7 8
7 8
1 2 3 4
1 2
Previous/
Next
Page
Page Part
5 6 7 8
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
Mobile Stories 3.0: Development

Primary goals:
– Story collaboration
– Collocated collaboration
Peer-to-Peer (P2P)
 Implementation

Data
Interactions
Data
– Mobile phone version
(Windows Mobile 6.0)
Changing:
Picture or Words
– Desktop versions for viewing stories and history
– Program: C#, Interactions
~24K lines of code (some inherited)
Navigation:
Zoom in/out
Changing Page
Changing Role/Position
Collaborative Story Study

Collaborative reading

– Within-subject
– Alternating order
 Content splitting
 Space sharing

Collaborative creation
– Ability to change
collaborative modes

Collaborative sharing
Users
– 26 children
– Ages 8-9

Data
–
–
–
–
–
Interviews
Field notes
Collaborative stories
Technology logs
Video
Reading Trends
Disconnected
View
Story
Previous/
Next
Page
Page Part
Independent
Connected (Two Devices)
Content Splitting
Space Sharing
Reading Trends

Content splitting

Boy/girl proximity
– “Easier” to use
– Only picture or words

Space sharing
–
–
–
–
Both pictures and words
“Harder” to use
Previous/next page
Thought sharing
words/pictures cool,
but hard to read story
1 2

Everyone had fun!
Reflecting on Differences
When would you want to read with someone with the
words and the picture split [splitting the content]?
I’d prefer it that way if I was reading to my little brother,
because he can’t read that well yet. And so, I could give
him the picture phone and I could have the word phone.
 When would you want to read with someone [sharing the
space]?
Probably when I was reading, by myself … probably with
someone who reads just as well as me or better.
 How would you prefer to read together with someone?
I think it depends … on my audience … like if my
audience was my little brother, then I’d want to read
[using content splitting], but if it was [my friend who
reads as well as I do], I’d want to read [sharing the
space].

(9-year old girl)
Things to Consider

Supporting collaboration is important
– But also need independence
Different collaborative configurations may
be more appropriate for certain scenarios
 Gender makes a difference
 Hardware needs to support user needs

Summary



Mobile devices need new interfaces and
interactions to support collaboration
Content splitting and space sharing are
promising interfaces for different situations
Need toMobile
make: Collaboration for
– Mobility part of purpose, not just a feature
Young Children
– Mobile devices more:
 Collaborative
 Child-appropriate
 Creative, generative, constructive
Educational learning
The way mobile devices are used
Acknowledgments
Questions
Kidsteam, Dissertation Committee
Gene Chipman, Kevin McGehee, Shaili
Desai, Evan Golub, Bobby Owolabi,
Juliette Taillandier
National Park Service, Microsoft
www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/mobilestories/
fails@cs.umd.edu
Collaborative Stories
Digital
Paper
Collaborative Stories
Digital
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Day 1
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Collocated Collaboration Concepts

Space sharing

Content splitting
Ciconia Ciconia (White Stork) by Andrea Petrlik published 2003,
Kašmir Promet – Croatia, Available in the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL)
Collaborative Configurations
Disconnected
Connected (Two Devices)
View
Independent
Content Splitting
Space Sharing
Story
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8
1 2 3 1 2 3
4 5 6 4 5 6
7 8
7 8
1 2 3 4
1 2
Previous/
Next
Page
Page Part
5 6 7 8
1
1 1
1
1
1
1
Collaborative Configurations
Disconnected
View
Story
Previous/
Next
Page
Page Part
Independent
Connected (Two Devices)
Content Splitting
Space Sharing
Collaborative Configurations
Disconnected
View
Independent
Story
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8
Previous/
Next
Page
1
1
Page Part
1
Connected (Two Devices)
Content Splitting
Space Sharing