CyberPLAYce, A Cyber-Physical-Spatial Storytelling Tool: Results from an empirical study with 8-10-year-old storytellers

Abstract

The product of a multidisciplinary and iterative process, Cyber‐ PLAYce is an interactive, portable learning tool for children enhancing personal and computational expression, and particularly, playful storytelling. Cyber‐ PLAYce finds inspiration in the concept of embodied child-computer interaction, where meaning is constructed through spatially reconfiguring the physical environment. This paper briefly outlines the motivations for CyberPLAYce, and focuses on an iterative design, mixed-methodology and usability studies involving 8-10-year-old storytellers. The kinds of digital-physical-spatial activity afforded by CyberPLAYce promise to scaffold thinking, imagining, creating, and sharing in children. Lessons learned from this research-through-design case will aid members of the HCI International community as they design and test tools for our youngest learners.