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This thesis is about a design process for creating educationally relevant tools. I submit that the key to creating tools that are educationally relevant is to focus on ensuring a high degree of alignment between the designed tool and the broader educational context into which the tool will be integrated. The thesis presents methods and processes for creating a tool that is both well aligned and relevant. The design domain of the thesis is described by a set of tools I refer to as “Configurable Embodied Interfaces”. Configurable embodied interfaces have a number of key features, they: Can sense their local surroundings through the detection of such environmental and physical parameters as light, sound, imagery, device acceleration, etc. Act on their local environment by outputting sound, light, imagery, motion of the device, etc. Are configurable in such a way as to link these inputs and outputs in a nearly unlimited number of ways. Contain active ways for users to either directly create new programs linking input and output, or to easily re-configure them by running different programs on them. Are user focused; they assume that a human being is manipulating them in some way, through affecting input and observing output of the interface. Spurred by the growth of cheap computation and sensing, a large number of educational programs have been built around use of configurable embodied interfaces in the last three decades. These programs exist in both formal and informal educational settings and are in use from early childhood through adult and community education. Typically, configurable embodied interfaces are used as tools in three major and sometimes overlapping areas: computer Science education, creative and engineering design education, and traditional science and math education. This work details three examples of collaborations between technologists and educators that led to the creation of educationally successful tools; these three examples share a focus on creating a configurable embodied interface to tackle a specific cognitive and affective set of learning goals, but differ completely in the location of the learning environment, the age and interests of the learners, and the nature of the learning goals. Through the exploration of the methods used, an analysis of the general and context-specific features of the design processes of the three accounts, and a comparison of the process used in this thesis to a conventional engineering design process, this work provides case studies and a set of guidelines that can inform technologists interested in designing educationally relevant embodied interfaces

We present CSbots, an ongoing project to use robots as educational tools in the Introduction to Computer Science (CS1) course. Enrollments in Computer Science have dropped significantly, and part of the blame rests on an introductory course that has not kept pace with the progress of computational technology. We aim to use robotics to motivate students, provide a sense of relevance to the course work, and improve learning.

Robot Diaries is a technology program for middle school girls. This report provides a summary of the first and second years of the Robot Diaries project and a description of how the lessons learned from these two years are guiding the third year of the project.

We present TeRK, a new contribution to the field of educational robotics. TeRK combines a highly functional, low cost controller, the Qwerk, with an extensive software infrastructure and lively web community to lower the barrier to entry for students, hobbyists, artists and researchers interested in using robotic technologies. We further describe our experiences in applying TeRK to engage and excite two audiences; middle school girls and students taking the introductory computer science course.

Less than 3% of the 145 million blind people living in developing countries are literate. This low literacy rate is in part due to the lack of trained teachers and the challenges associated with learning to write Braille on a traditional slate and stylus. These challenges include writing from right to left, writing mirrored images of letters, and receiving significantly delayed feedback. Extensive conversations with the Mathru School for the Blind in Bangalore, India, revealed the need for a robust, low-power, low-cost Braille writing tutor. In this paper, we present the design and deployment of our writing tutor system that uses a novel input device to capture students activity on a slate and stylus and uses a range of scaffolding techniques and Artificial Intelligence to teach writing skills to both beginner and the advanced students. The paper also reports lessons learned in the implementation of this project and from a six-week pilot study at the Mathru school and outlines future directions for improvement.