In the reading Getting Down to Details: Using Theories of Cognition and Learning to Inform Tangible User Interface Design, the authors introduced the Tangible Learning Design Framework as guidelines for design. Since the framework was “developed through a dialectic process of analysis, reflection and critique of research from different perspectives on cognition, learning and TUIs,” I think the Tangible Learning Design Framework encourages the participants to collaborate, communicate, and engage in the learning experiences, which reinforces the idea of constructivism in learners. During my undergraduate study, I worked on a participatory design workshops with four high school students in Thailand who are identified as Hmong tribal people. The goal of the research was to understand the meaning of Hmong embroidery in the perspectives of Hmong teenagers. I asked the students to do weekly embroidery and conducted weekly discussions to share and talk about their works. At the end of seven-week activities, the students mentioned they had learned about their embroidery culture during the activities while also connecting it to their own beliefs, history, ways of life, and other cultural domains like food, music, and farming. Based on these insights, I found that having discussion along with TUIs allows students to reflect on their understanding as well.

The authors of Seven Principles to Design for Embodied Sensemaking introduced the design principles for developing face-to-face embodied sensemaking technology with an example of a mobile design and sensemaking studio. Seven Principles to Design for Embodied Sensemaking include social situatedness, scaffolds, traces, interactive imagery, dialogical system, 1st person perspective, and catalysing engagement. To support the argument, “[the] D&S studio should not be an object that I interact with, but the ground upon which the possibility of interaction is based” in social situatedness, the researchers kept the tasks open for the participants to explore all possibilities. From this point, I think this paper also promotes how TUIs encourages the learners to think outside the box when a tangible tool could have more than one affordances, leaving a room for creativity.

Burning Questions: