Children, Writing, Digital Ink

Janet C Read,

Child Computer Interaction Group,

UCLAN, UK

www.chici.org

About me and ChiCI

• ChiCI within University of Central Lancashire, North West of England, 1hr drive Manchester

• New (old polytechnic) university - 36,000 students (15,000 full time)

• Teacher – HCI - pedagogy

• HR with children, Tablets for children, tablets in UG teaching

Previously……….

• PhD study of HR – WACOM based

• Tablet studies with children

• Digital paper with teenagers and children

• Tablets in HE classrooms (Microsoft UK)

Current Study

Context: Mad Evaluation Session with School Children

Belief: Interventions need to be accessible, available to all

Desire: Use DI for the understanding of the writing process

………..Details

• Voluntary involvement

• 19 children aged 6/9, 20 children aged 5/6

• Logitech pens and A5 digital paper notebooks used

• Copied phrases, counterbalanced for learning effects

• Quit when they got fed up

Analysis……..

PT: Sam was in the park with his dog, He played on the swings and the slide

TT: Sam was in with his dog He payed on the swings and the slide

RT: Sam was in with his dog He fayed on the Swings and the slide

Children do funny things….

• Little word swaps (a / the)

• Tails and sticks (descenders / ascenders)

• Spaced out (poor segmentation)

• Spelling……………..

Comparing recognition across age

Cut Price (Discount) recognition error metric

Comparing to other studies..

Children

Teens

No 8 11

Avg 0.181 0.072

SD 0.125 0.082

8 aged 7/8, 15 aged 13

..and some more..

16 children, 7 and 8

So what………

• Won’t work with younger children

• 70% with older children? Good Enough?