An interactive, cyber-physical read-aloud environment: results and lessons from an evaluation activity with children and their teachers

As we come to live, work and play in an increasingly digital society, the future of interactive systems research, design, and practice will be shaped partly by larger-scale, cyber-physical systems. The cyber-physical LIT KIT enhances children's picturebook reading, both during and after interactive read-alouds, creating a multi-media, mixed-reality experience that transforms everyday environments into an environment evocative of the picturebook being read. The room-filled audio-visual-spatial effects of the LIT KIT contextualize language and provide feedback to the participants. The LIT KIT also acts as a story-extension tool, allowing children to customize environmental effects towards interpreting picturebooks for themselves. This paper offers a scenario of the child-computer interaction afforded by the LIT KIT, elucidates the motivations for its design, and focuses on an evaluation activity and its results. Particularly for DIS researchers in the educational domain, the LIT KIT represents a design exemplar that supports children's enjoyment of learning and meaning-making.

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