research-article

Designing visible engineering: supporting tinkering performances in museums

Authors:

Michael Tissenbaum,

Matthew Berland,

Lauren Wielgus,

Adam MechtleyAuthors Info & Claims

IDC '15: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

Pages 49 - 58

https://doi.org/10.1145/2771839.2771845

Published: 21 June 2015 Publication History

Abstract

Interactive technologies like multi-touch tables enable museum exhibit designers to support visitors' learning with a wide range of resources (from multimedia to dynamic feedback to the presence of other visitors). Designers must decide, though, how best to align the affordances of these resources with the learning activities they are trying to support [23]. This work examines a multi-touch table exhibit designed to support an activity, tinkering, which has been identified as a form of interaction that may offer special benefits to novices learning about engineering [e.g., 4]. When a learner is tinkering, he or she is engaged in a process of iterative adjustment to a constructed artifact, making use of "just in time" resources and feedback to guide the next steps in their exploration of the problem space. The exhibit studied in this work provided several resources for supporting tinkering, and this paper presents a detailed case showing how these different resources (some technical, some social, and some sociotechnical) were or were not used by learners. A key design goal we identified was the need to transform the tacit engineering practices of visitors into visible engineering performances, such that those performances could serve as "cultural tools" [35] for mediating the learning of other visitors.

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Cited By

Mihura-López RPiñeiro-Otero THernández-Ibáñez L(2024)Interactividad digital en museos: desarrollo de un guion de evaluación para profesionales del patrimonio culturalDigital interactivity in museums: development of an evaluation script for cultural heritage professionalsEuropean Public & Social Innovation Review10.31637/epsir-2024-6029(1-17)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2024-602
Kumar VAli SWorsley M(2023)PaintBall – Coding Sports Into Art for Cross-Interest Computational ConnectionsProceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3585088.3594492(713-715)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3585088.3594492
Tseng TKing Chen JAbdelrahman MKery MHohman FHilliard AShapiro R(2023)Collaborative Machine Learning Model Building with Families Using Co-MLProceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3585088.3589356(40-51)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3585088.3589356
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Index Terms

Designing visible engineering: supporting tinkering performances in museums
1. Applied computing
  1. Education
    1. Collaborative learning
2. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)

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cover image ACM Conferences

IDC '15: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children

June 2015

488 pages

ISBN:9781450335904

DOI:10.1145/2771839

Conference Chairs:
Marina Umaschi Bers
Tufts University
,
Glenda Revelle
University of Arkansas

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

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Published: 21 June 2015

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IDC '15: Interaction Design and Children

June 21 - 24, 2015

Massachusetts, Boston

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IDC '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 24 of 103 submissions, 23%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 172 of 578 submissions, 30%

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Cited By

Mihura-López RPiñeiro-Otero THernández-Ibáñez L(2024)Interactividad digital en museos: desarrollo de un guion de evaluación para profesionales del patrimonio culturalDigital interactivity in museums: development of an evaluation script for cultural heritage professionalsEuropean Public & Social Innovation Review10.31637/epsir-2024-6029(1-17)Online publication date: 3-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.31637/epsir-2024-602
Kumar VAli SWorsley M(2023)PaintBall – Coding Sports Into Art for Cross-Interest Computational ConnectionsProceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3585088.3594492(713-715)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3585088.3594492
Tseng TKing Chen JAbdelrahman MKery MHohman FHilliard AShapiro R(2023)Collaborative Machine Learning Model Building with Families Using Co-MLProceedings of the 22nd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3585088.3589356(40-51)Online publication date: 19-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3585088.3589356
Berland MKumar VHilliger IKhosravi HRienties BDawson S(2023)Joint Choice Time: A Metric for Better Understanding Collaboration in Interactive Museum ExhibitsLAK23: 13th International Learning Analytics and Knowledge Conference10.1145/3576050.3576088(626-629)Online publication date: 13-Mar-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3576050.3576088
Yun SOlsen SQuigley KCannady MHartry A(2022)A Review of Augmented Reality for Informal Science Learning: Supporting Design of Intergenerational Group LearningVisitor Studies10.1080/10645578.2022.2075205(1-23)Online publication date: 7-Jul-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/10645578.2022.2075205
Kumar VBerland MLyons LPinzur B(2022)SCAMP: an analytical framework for examining flexible social playfulness around interactive museum exhibitsInteractive Learning Environments10.1080/10494820.2022.2153148(1-16)Online publication date: 11-Dec-2022
https://doi.org/10.1080/10494820.2022.2153148
Lochtefeld MBille Milthers AMerritt T(2021)Staging Constructionist Learning about Energy for Children with Electrochromic Displays and Low-Cost MaterialsProceedings of the 20th International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia10.1145/3490632.3490654(73-83)Online publication date: 5-Dec-2021
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Horn MBanerjee ABar-El DWallace IRubegni EVasalou AParés NSawhney N(2020)Engaging families around museum exhibitsProceedings of the Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3392063.3394443(556-566)Online publication date: 21-Jun-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3392063.3394443
Hornecker ECiolfi L(2019)Human-Computer Interactions in MuseumsSynthesis Lectures on Human-Centered Informatics10.2200/S00901ED1V01Y201902HCI04212:2(i-153)Online publication date: 11-Apr-2019
https://doi.org/10.2200/S00901ED1V01Y201902HCI042
Pellicone ALyons LKumar VZhang EBerland MArnedo JNacke LVanden Abeele VToups Dugas P(2019)Rainbow Agents: A Collaborative Game For Computational LiteracyExtended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play Companion Extended Abstracts10.1145/3341215.3356312(597-604)Online publication date: 17-Oct-2019
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