Symbolic Relations in Collaborative Coding: How Children and Parents Map across Symbol Systems while Coding Robots

Naomi Polinsky; Brian Andrus; Michael Horn; David Uttal

doi:10.1145/3459990.3460713

Symbolic Relations in Collaborative Coding: How Children and Parents Map across Symbol Systems while Coding Robots

Naomi Polinsky^*, Brian Andrus, Michael Horn, David Uttal

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper explores how parents and children collaborate during a playful computational activity with a codable robot. We conducted interaction analysis of moments from two cases in which a parent and their daughter worked together to choose and input numerical values in their codes that would send the robot in a desired direction. Our analyses reveal how parents and children decide on this value through a process of mapping across symbol systems. We suggest that a shared understanding of these symbols' meaning is critical for the mapping process, and that the process is impacted by the affordances of the representational tools the pair employs. The paper concludes with a discussion of design implications for supporting parent-child collaboration during play with a codable robot.

Original language	English (US)
Title of host publication	Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021
Publisher	Association for Computing Machinery, Inc
Pages	294-304
Number of pages	11
ISBN (Electronic)	9781450384520
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1145/3459990.3460713
State	Published - Jun 24 2021
Event	2021 ACM Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021 - Virtual, Online, Greece Duration: Jun 24 2021 → Jun 30 2021

Publication series

Name	Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021

Conference

Conference	2021 ACM Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021
Country/Territory	Greece
City	Virtual, Online
Period	6/24/21 → 6/30/21

Funding

This work was supported by a graduate research grant from The Graduate School at Northwestern University. We thank the families who welcomed us (virtually) into their homes for this research, reviewers, Anjelique Bomar, Stephanie McCarty, and Paige Smith for research assistance, and the fellow students in our lab for their thoughtful insights.

Keywords

codable robots
interaction analysis
multimodality
parents and children
symbol systems

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Education
Human-Computer Interaction
Developmental and Educational Psychology

Access to Document

10.1145/3459990.3460713

Cite this

Polinsky, N., Andrus, B., Horn, M., & Uttal, D. (2021). Symbolic Relations in Collaborative Coding: How Children and Parents Map across Symbol Systems while Coding Robots. In Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021 (pp. 294-304). (Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021). Association for Computing Machinery, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1145/3459990.3460713

@inproceedings{5ec9a6888a144b6385c92a165ba3d549,

title = "Symbolic Relations in Collaborative Coding: How Children and Parents Map across Symbol Systems while Coding Robots",

abstract = "This paper explores how parents and children collaborate during a playful computational activity with a codable robot. We conducted interaction analysis of moments from two cases in which a parent and their daughter worked together to choose and input numerical values in their codes that would send the robot in a desired direction. Our analyses reveal how parents and children decide on this value through a process of mapping across symbol systems. We suggest that a shared understanding of these symbols' meaning is critical for the mapping process, and that the process is impacted by the affordances of the representational tools the pair employs. The paper concludes with a discussion of design implications for supporting parent-child collaboration during play with a codable robot.",

keywords = "codable robots, interaction analysis, multimodality, parents and children, symbol systems",

author = "Naomi Polinsky and Brian Andrus and Michael Horn and David Uttal",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2021 ACM.; 2021 ACM Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021 ; Conference date: 24-06-2021 Through 30-06-2021",

year = "2021",

month = jun,

day = "24",

doi = "10.1145/3459990.3460713",

language = "English (US)",

series = "Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021",

publisher = "Association for Computing Machinery, Inc",

pages = "294--304",

booktitle = "Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021",

}

Polinsky, N, Andrus, B, Horn, M & Uttal, D 2021, Symbolic Relations in Collaborative Coding: How Children and Parents Map across Symbol Systems while Coding Robots. in Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021. Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, pp. 294-304, 2021 ACM Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021, Virtual, Online, Greece, 6/24/21. https://doi.org/10.1145/3459990.3460713

Symbolic Relations in Collaborative Coding: How Children and Parents Map across Symbol Systems while Coding Robots. / Polinsky, Naomi; Andrus, Brian; Horn, Michael et al.
Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021. Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, 2021. p. 294-304 (Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

TY - GEN

T1 - Symbolic Relations in Collaborative Coding

T2 - 2021 ACM Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021

AU - Polinsky, Naomi

AU - Andrus, Brian

AU - Horn, Michael

AU - Uttal, David

PY - 2021/6/24

Y1 - 2021/6/24

N2 - This paper explores how parents and children collaborate during a playful computational activity with a codable robot. We conducted interaction analysis of moments from two cases in which a parent and their daughter worked together to choose and input numerical values in their codes that would send the robot in a desired direction. Our analyses reveal how parents and children decide on this value through a process of mapping across symbol systems. We suggest that a shared understanding of these symbols' meaning is critical for the mapping process, and that the process is impacted by the affordances of the representational tools the pair employs. The paper concludes with a discussion of design implications for supporting parent-child collaboration during play with a codable robot.

AB - This paper explores how parents and children collaborate during a playful computational activity with a codable robot. We conducted interaction analysis of moments from two cases in which a parent and their daughter worked together to choose and input numerical values in their codes that would send the robot in a desired direction. Our analyses reveal how parents and children decide on this value through a process of mapping across symbol systems. We suggest that a shared understanding of these symbols' meaning is critical for the mapping process, and that the process is impacted by the affordances of the representational tools the pair employs. The paper concludes with a discussion of design implications for supporting parent-child collaboration during play with a codable robot.

KW - codable robots

KW - interaction analysis

KW - multimodality

KW - parents and children

KW - symbol systems

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85110055519&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85110055519&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1145/3459990.3460713

DO - 10.1145/3459990.3460713

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85110055519

T3 - Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021

SP - 294

EP - 304

BT - Proceedings of Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2021

PB - Association for Computing Machinery, Inc

Y2 - 24 June 2021 through 30 June 2021

ER -

Symbolic Relations in Collaborative Coding: How Children and Parents Map across Symbol Systems while Coding Robots

Abstract

Publication series

Conference

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this