A new age in tangible computational interfaces for learning

Tangible computational technologies for education have evolved from research prototypes to the mainstream, led by the wide adoption of commercial kits such as the Lego Mindstorms platform. Despite their success, researchers have pointed out four main issues that have limited their adoption. First, most toolkits were marketed for a particular gender and age group. Second, they had standardized parts and proprietary connectors, which limited the types of projects that users could build. Third, they had programming environments with limited features. Lastly, they were difficulty to connect with school curricula in science and mathematics, which segregated robotics to after-school activities. In this symposium, we will: (a) investigate these limitations in light of current research in the field; (b) showcase several new designs for tangible computational artifacts for education which try to overcome these limitations; (c) discuss possible implications of the widespread use of these new computational artifacts.