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Mundos virtualesComunidades Filotecnólogicas para

chicos

Marina U. Bers, PhDAssistant Professor

Eliot-Pearson Dept. of Child DevelopmentAdjunct, Computer Science Department

Tufts University

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The DevTech group Laura Beals, PhD student EPClement Chau, PhD student EPMarcy Hudson, master’s student EPNauman Khan, PhD student CSHamid Palo, undergrad CSCheryl Pederson, undergrad CSNathan Render, undergrad EPKeiko Satoh, PhD student MSTEStudent affiliates: Natalie Rusk; Stephanie Marvel

This work and students are supported by the National Science Foundation Career Grant # 044716 and Grant

# IIS-0447166

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The DevTech research agenda

Theoretical Design

Empirical

How to design and implement empowering technological tools to promote positive youth

development ?

How new technologies can enable new ways of thinking and learning about self and community?

How youth, non-experts and communities use these technologies?

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Two lines of research

Early Childhood Robotics

Virtual Communities of learning and care

•Pediatric patients & medical staff•College freshman & peer mentors•Youth in after-school programs

•Young children•Parents and families•Early Childhood Teachers (pre & in service)

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Theoretical Framework

“Positive” Technological Development(Bers, 2005)

“Positive” Youth Development (Applied Development Sciences)

(Lerner et al, 2005)

Constructionist theory of learning (Constructivism)

(Papert, 1980)

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Communication Caring

Collaboration Connection

Community-Building

Contribution

Content Creation

Competence

Creativity Confidence

Conduct Character

PTD

Contribution to Self

Contribution toSociety

Technologically-Rich Context

Communication Caring

Collaboration Connection

Community-Building

Contribution

Content Creation

Competence

Creativity Confidence

Conduct Character

PTD

Contribution to Self

Contribution toSociety

Communication Caring

Collaboration Connection

Community-Building

Contribution

Content Creation

Competence

Creativity Confidence

Conduct Character

PTD

Contribution to Self

Contribution toSociety

Communication Caring

Collaboration Connection

Community-Building

Contribution

Content Creation

Competence

Creativity Confidence

Conduct Character

Communication CaringCommunication Caring

Collaboration ConnectionCollaboration Connection

Community-Building

ContributionCommunity-

BuildingContribution

Content Creation

CompetenceContent Creation

Competence

Creativity ConfidenceCreativity Confidence

Conduct CharacterConduct Character

PTD

Contribution to Self

Contribution toSociety

Contribution to Self

Contribution toSociety

Technologically-Rich Context

The “6 by 6 C’s” Model

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• The “what is happening” question. What are young people doing with “common use” technologies and how is this having an impact?

• The “what could happen” question. What could young people be doing with new technologies and how this might have an impact?

Two approaches

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• The “what is happening” question.

The importance of the question

The “data” answer (developmental psychologists, social scientists, etc). Description/prediction.

The “design” answer (learning science community, ed tech, etc). Intervention.

•The “what could happen” question.

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The DevTech Research Program

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Zora: A 3D Multi-user Constructionist Environment

Zora 1999 – MIT Media Lab (Microsoft VW)

Zora 2006 – Tufts University(ActiveWorlds)

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• Pilot projects• Participatory design with high schools• Senior citizens• Studies •Multicultural teen summer camp •Dialysis pediatric patients at CH Boston•Freshman at Tufts (ACT program for civic engagement)•Post-transplant patients at CH Boston•Intel Computer Clubhouse Network

Zora studies

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Medical Adherence

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Boston Children’s Hospital

• Collaboration with :– Dept. of Psychiatry (Dr. David R. De Maso; Dr. Joseph Gonzalez-

Heydrich– Cardiac, Kidney, Liver and Lung Transplant Programs– Academic Technologies (Matt McVey, David Grogan, David Khale)

• NSF funded project– Career award NSF IIS-0447166

• Previous study in dialysis unit (Bers et. al,2003; Bers et al, 2001)

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The Post-Transplant Study• To explore the potential of networked

technologies to improve the quality of life post-transplant

• 11-15 years old • We provide home equipment (if needed)• 8 months using Zora• Data collection from parents, medical

staff, children, computer logs

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Why post-transplant children?– Medical Adherence is a serious problem

– From a developmental perspective– From an economic perspective– “Gold mine” for research

– Isolation and geographical barriers– Lack of psychosocial supports– Face-to-face programs are hard to implement

– A difficult test case– Extension to other illnesses– Extension to other contexts and contents– Extension to other populations of youth

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The study in a nutshell22 pediatric post-transplant patients at Children’s Hospital Boston (Heart, Kidney, Liver)Using Zora for 8 months from home and hospital.Weekly coordinated on-line activities and access anytimeIntense data collection

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The contextTransplant Activity 2006

 Children's Hospital Boston

US

Kidney 16 10,659

Heart 10 2,191

Lung 5 1,401

Liver 8 6,362

 

Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, Program and OPO Specific Reports, US Transplant, July 2007

Organ Average Cost for 1st year

Heart $478,900

Kidney $210,000

Liver $392,800

Lung $299,000/508,000

Cost of Transplantation

Total cost of dealing with issues arising from non-adherence in adults $13.5–16.3 million / year (For adult kidney transplant; Hansen, Seifeldin & Noe, 2007)

Milliman Research Report. (2005, June). 2005 US Organ and tissue transplant cost estimates and discussion. New York: Ortner, N. J.

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Hypothesis

• Participation in Zora will promote the formation of a peer network for support amongst same age pediatric post-transplant patients.

• Participation in Zora and virtual community building will improve medical adherence

• Participation in Zora will improve PTD and psycho-social development.

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What Happened ?• What did children create on their

own?– The restaurant– The Transplant house– The Pet store– Their own virtual homes– The library

What was planned for them?– The Health Museum– The Press room– The Pharmacy– The library– The School

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Continuity between the virtual and the face to face experience

– Transplant Times (monthly)

Miles for Miracles Walk

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Zora Log Parser

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What Happened ?• Each user logged into Zora an average of 60 times and

spent an average of 39 hours logged into the program (almost seven hours more online than we had anticipated)

• Engaged in conversations ranging from school activities to shopping to transition to college and medical adherence. Group conversations ranged from 150 to 622 lines of text during weekly one-hour group sessions

• Users made 75 virtual houses and created 4027 objects. from favorite pictures and portraits to objects representing stories about their transplant and family.

• Second heart transplant Story, ICU and Zora

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Zora Activity

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The populationAverage Severity level per Group

0.000.100.200.300.400.500.600.70

LiverRenal/KidneyHeartTransplant GroupSeverity Index

Severity Level was measured by physicians using the Transplant Side Effect Severity Scale (TSESS) Version 4 (DeMaso et al., 2004). Physicians rate each patient on a list of 19 different side effects on a 1 (None), 5 (Moderate), or 10 (Severe) scale.

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Zora activity & time since transplant

Zora Activity by When Transplant Received

0.00

20.00

40.00

60.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

When younger (<4, n=8) 42.25 68.06 415.50 8.00 99.00 23.63

When older (>5, n=11) 13.36 16.75 75.73 1.91 58.00 7.09

Days Hours Objects Houses Chat (x10) Messages

Zora activity by when transplant received

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Zora Activity by Age

Zora Activity by Age

0.00

50.00

100.00

Younger (<13, n=9) 38.78 64.58 378.00 7.33 90.00 21.56

Younger (>14, n=10) 13.60 14.75 75.50 1.90 60.00 7.30

Days Hours Objects Houses Chat (x10) Messages

Zora activity by Age

=10)

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Zora activity by genderZora Activity by Gender

0.00

20.00

40.00

60.00

80.00

100.00

120.00

Male (n=10) 26.60 47.54 385.00 5.60 74.50 17.50

Female (n=9) 24.33 28.15 34.11 3.22 75.50 10.89

Days Hours Objects Houses Chat (x10) Messages

Zora activity by Gender

9)

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Quote from a child

“I believe that taking part in Zora did give me inspiration.  I only had a liver transplant, and I can not have tunnel vision that there’s only me, but there are a multitude of other kids that have gone through similar experiences as myself.  They inspired me to help educate others about organ donation, because there are kids like us whose lives have been saved through the gift of organ donation.”

15 year old girl

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Quote from parents “[Zora] . . . has made noticeable changes in Carl. Last

night his therapist noticed a change in Carl. He is puzzled with Carl seeming more comfortable this time. Carl even laughed and made jokes about how awful his last biopsy went several months back. I have seen a change in his comfort level also. The only new thing in Carl’s life is Zora.

. Carl is very quiet, and over the past few weeks of Zora he has been making new friends, hanging out with kids after school, and talking more about how he feels about biopsy day….I think that it gives him a positive thing to look forward to on his most negative day…

. . . “

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Research/Practice Integration

Although the NSF funding portion for this project has finished, the CICU Cardiac Clinical Research and Education Fund @ Children’s Hospital Boston decided to continue funding the program as a free pilot clinical service, while I look for further funding.

My goal is to extend this work into a multi-site project.

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ClubZora @ the Computer Clubhouse Network

The Intel Computer Clubhouse Network:– “Provides a creative and safe after-

school learning environment where young people from underserved communities work with adult mentors to explore their own ideas, develop skills, and build confidence in themselves through the use of technology”1

– Serves 20,000 youth at over 100 locations around the world

1 http://www.computerclubhouse.org/about1.htm

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ClubZora Goals• Goals:

– To provide a virtual space for Computer Clubhouse members around the world to build a strong community,

– To help youth from different cultures learn about each other.

• Data Collection:– Online questionnaires embedded into the

curriculum– Zora logs– Field notes from visits to local Clubhouses by

undergraduate and graduate students

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ClubZora in the World

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ClubZora Curriculum• Each week a new activity is released• Each activity has three parts: the first

part relates to the individual youth, the second part to the Clubhouse, and the third part to the whole virtual city

• The activities planned around culture include topics about food, sports, school, festivals, families, etc. – Every 6 weeks members can vote on what

topic they want next

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ClubZora Numbers(as of March, 2008, three months after

launching)

• 308 youth, 99 Coordinators/mentors from 67 Clubhouses, 18 countries

• Youth: – 35% female, 65% male– 72% English, 28% Spanish– Average age of 15 years (range: 8 years to 19)

• In the first 3 months:– 3200 objects created– 8409 lines of chat– 2107 logins

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What are youth doing in Zora ?