Physical manipulation: Evaluating the potential for tangible designs

Manches, A.; O'Malley, C.; Benford, S.

Abstract

In order to design tangible technologies that are effective in supporting children's learning, it is important to understand what advantages or limitations are afforded by physical manipulation. This paper highlights some of the perceptual and manipulative properties of physical representations with respect to their effect on the problem space and describes how, for certain problem types, these may benefit children's strategies and learning. These arguments are discussed in relation to ongoing research into children's use of physical materials to solve numerical problems, and comparative performance using virtual materials. The paper uses this research to suggest ways in which tangible designs may support learning in this area by building on the advantages of physical manipulation whilst avoiding limiting exploration by constraining the range of actions and possible learning opportunities provided.

Citation

Manches, A., O'Malley, C., & Benford, S. (2009, December). Physical manipulation: Evaluating the potential for tangible designs. Presented at 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, TEI'09; Cambridge; United States

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction, TEI'09; Cambridge; United States
• Publication Date: 2009
• Deposit Date: Aug 15, 2018
• Publisher: Association for Computing Machinery (ACM)
• Pages: 77-84
• Book Title: TEI '09 Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Tangible and Embedded Interaction
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/1517664.1517688
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1145979