Using social media and learning analytics to understand how children engage in scientific inquiry

Authors:
June Ahn;Michael Gubbels;Jason Yip;Elizabeth Bonsignore;Tamara Clegg
Affiliations:
University of Maryland, College Park, MD;University of Maryland, College Park, MD;University of Maryland, College Park, MD;University of Maryland, College Park, MD;University of Maryland, College Park, MD
Venue:
Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
Year:
2013

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Abstract

Children are increasingly using social media tools in their lives. In addition, there is great interest in understanding how to design and evaluate social technologies to aid in children's learning and development. We describe two research endeavors that begin to address these issues. First, we introduce SINQ, a social media application that encourages children to practice Scientific INQuiry skills through collaborative participation. Second, we conducted a case study of SINQ with six children, ages 8-11, and collected log data of their interactions in the app. We applied learning analytics on this log data using a visual analytic tool called LifeFlow. The event-sequence visualizations showed how children engaged with scientific inquiry within the SINQ app, and most importantly illuminated how inquiry is not a linear process with a defined start and end. The children in our study traversed the inquiry process via diverse pathways, all of which were supported by the SINQ app.