Basement Talks on Child-Computer Interaction
For the next edition of Basement Talks hosted by the Meaningful Interactions Lab (Mintlab, KU Leuven - imec), we’re welcoming two doctoral candidates who will speak about their innovative research in Child-Computer Interaction: Gökçe Elif Baykal (Koç University, Istanbul) and Yvonne Vezzoli (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice).
WHERE: Designroom, Mintlab (Parkstraat 45, 3000 Leuven)
WHEN: Thursday the 16th of March from 1:00 to 2:30 pm
Basement Talks are open to the public, but please confirm your attendance via email to maarten.vanmechelen[at]kuleuven.be before March 16.
Making use of Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) to facilitate preschoolers’ spatial learning: A child-centered and evidence-based design approach
Gökçe Elif Baykal is a PhD candidate and research assistant in the Design, Technology & Society Program at Koç University in Istanbul. Elif carries out research on evidence-based interaction design to facilitate preschoolers’ spatial skills (i.e., mental rotation). She investigates the scaffolding effects of storytelling on young children’s mental rotation skills while playing with manipulatives (i.e., physical geometrical objects).
In her talk, Elif will discuss the theoretical background of her PhD research for which she relied on learning theories such as constructionism. She will furthermore present empirical results of two user studies conducted with children between 26 and 43 months old. In both studies, children interacted with different types of manipulatives – tangram and Fröbel Gifts – to gain insight in their rotation action patterns, important for spatial learning. In the first study, children played freely with these manipulatives and in the second study they were guided by narratives. Elif will discuss the results and design implications for tangible system design and how such systems can scaffold children’s spatial learning.
Elif holds a BA in Sociology from Marmara University and an MA in Visual Arts from Sabancı University. Her interest in children’s media goes back to her experience in the children’s television industry. For six years, she worked as a freelance screenwriter for TRT Çocuk (National Broadcasting Channel in Turkey for children) television series for children such as Nane ile Limon (Mint and Lemon) and Bulmaca Kulesi (Riddle Tower). She is currently a member of Happern (Interactive Information Design Research Group), along with the Language and Cognition Lab at Koç University.
Re-designing educational technologies for young people with dyslexia: What can we learn from interactions with multimodal social network sites?
Yvonne Vezzoli is a PhD student in Educational Sciences (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice). Her research interests lie in the intersection among Educational Technologies, Human-Computer Interaction and Special Education. For her PhD, Yvonne studies dyslexic young people’s cognitive and learning potentials to re-design inclusive, digital multimodal educational materials, and assessments.
In her talk, Yvonne will present an exploratory study that she carried out in collaboration with UCL Knowledge Lab (University College London) during the past few months. She conducted a qualitative investigation of the practices employed by young people with literacy-based difficulties aged 14-16 on social network sites. The goal of the study is to understand if and how social network sites promote multimodal literacies, how these are spontaneously practiced through social network sites’ modalities of expression (e.g. images, videos), and if and how these practices provide new opportunities for inclusive participation. She will conclude her talk by discussing how young people’s visual thinking skills and perspectives on ‘disability’ and ‘literacy’ can provide a new lens to design Educational Technologies.
Yvonne holds a Bachelor in Linguistics and a Master of Science in Cognitive Sciences (University of Milan). For her master research, she developed an Artificial Intelligence model to predict Learning Disabilities and analyze reliability of neuropsychological tests. After her master degree, she worked in the Communication Design field for one year before moving to academia.