HCI Educators 2009 - playing with our education - Index

Abstract

HCIEd 2009 is the annual international conference of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) educators. The theme of the 2009 conference was PLAY - education through play, play through education. Play is enjoyed by all and in terms of HCI education it is a concept that can be considered from many viewpoints.

Initiated by the BCS Interaction SG (previously the BCS HCI Specialist Group) in 2001 as an informal workshop amongst HCI educators, the workshop has since grown into a small conference with strong participation from various national and international HCI organisations. In 2009 the event was organised by the University of Abertay, Dundee and co-sponsored by IFIP WG 13.1 Education in HCI and HCI Curriculum and the BCS Interaction SG.

HCIEd 2009 seeks to extend the discussions of previous conferences and continue the remit of HCIEd 2008 to consider 'Architecting the Future'. In previous years the roles of inventivity and creativity had been the focus of the discussions and presentations and we believe that continuing varied discussions across these issues creates a virtuous circle of educational pedagogy.

This year we particularly welcomed contributions that specifically address the theme of play, such as:

• Teaching interactivity and design through the theory and technology of play.

• Designing and developing the interfaces of play by considering concepts such as unobtrusive interaction and collaborative interaction.

• Consideration of the appeal of the new technology of play to all generations and how that impacts on interactive processes.

HCI education needs to consider the importance of play as a tool to aid our teaching, but also presumably must ensure that interfaces and interaction styles of play are part of the curriculum. We therefore also encouraged papers that describe methods for teaching the concepts of play at the interface, in terms of design, developing, interaction styles and users.

Main article text

Conference organisation

Local organisation

Jacquie Archibald (co-chair)

Colin Cartwright (co-chair)

Lachlan MacKinnon

Wendy Robb

Linda Fyfe

Programme chair

Lachlan MacKinnon (University of Abertay Dundee, UK)

Programme committee

Jacquie Archibald (University of Abertay Dundee, UK)

Russell Beale (University of Birmingham, UK)

Colin Cartwright (University of Abertay Dundee, UK)

Ebba Hvannberg (University of Iceland, Iceland)

Tom McEwan (Edinburgh Napier University, UK)

Janet Read (University of Central Lancashire, UK)

Corina Sas (University of Lancaster, UK)

Janet Wesson (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, South Africa)

William Wong (Middlesex University, UK)

Papers:

Session 1: Playing with their education

Carlo Giovannella Play to test http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.1

Jon M Pearce and Sofia Pardo So now you're ready to play - but with what? A system to encourage playful exploration http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.2

Olaf Hallan Graven and Lachlan MacKinnon Prototyping Games-Based Environments for learning C++ programming http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.3

Session 2: Interaction design techniques

Sus Lundgren Teaching Aesthetics in Interaction Design: Attempt One http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.4

Phil Turner and Susan Turner Practical Interaction Design http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.5

William Wong Learning Cognitive Task Analysis http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.6

Session 3: The Abertay dimension

Mark Grindle and Brian Robinson Developing Talent & Intellectual Property for Digital Entertainment: Space to 'Play'? http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.7

D Galloway, Dr I Donald and Dr E Dempster Entertainment Design - A Module in Expectation Management http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.8

Session 4: Developing their creativity - making HCI accessible

Emilia Sobolewska, Colin F Smith and Phil Turner Auto-Ethnography: Problems, Pitfalls and Promise http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.9

Corina Sas and Alan Dix Understanding and Supporting Technical Creativity http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.10

Anke Dittmar Playing with Narratives http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.11

Kristina Moroz-Lapin Role play in HCI studies http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.12

Philip Scown HCI Education in a Business School: Outside their Box http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.13

Session 5: The big picture - industry and research linkages

Tom McEwan Playing the game: HCI careers in the competency era http://dx.doi.org/10.14236/ewic/HCIED2009.14