KidPad: A Design Collaboration Between Children, Technologists, and Educators

Allison Druin, Jason Stewart, David Proft, Ben Bederson, Jim Hollan
Computer Science Department/ College of Education
University of New Mexico
Farris Engineering Center
Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131
+1-505-277-3112
(allisond, jasons, proft, bederson, hollan)@cs.unm.edu

ABSTRACT

We established an interdisciplinary, intergenerational collaboration in the fall of 1995, between the University of New Mexico's Computer Science Department, the College of Education, and local Albuquerque elementary school children. The goal of this research was to develop an expressive digital medium with an intuitive zooming interface, to support a learning environment for children. In the process of this collaboration, design methodologies that support a child's role in the development of new technologies were explored. What follows is a summary of our iterative design experience, collaboration, and the results of the research to date.

Keywords

children, design techniques, cooperative design, educational applications, evaluation, participatory design, social issues, Pad++, KidPad.

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