In recent years, handheld devices have been playing an important role in children's learning. How to utilize mobile devices such as handheld devices to support collaborative learning has been an important research topic of Computer‐Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). Educators in Japan are seeking an educational system structure that supports “integrated courses,” which have been introduced due to the revision of National Curriculum Standards. We focused on a museum as one of the appropriate locations where “integrated courses” are held and constructed a system named Musex for supporting children's learning with two personal digital assistants (PDAs). Musex provides children with opportunities to answer questions related to exhibitions collaboratively. We performed an experiment on Musex in a science museum and discuss the results in this paper. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 35(14): 54–63, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/scj.10696

No abstract

fixed by curriculums, teachers or textbooks. On the other hand, in a museum, kids can freely visit exhibitions based on their own interests or curiosity and can learn a wide spectrum of knowledge through them..Kids can look at or touch an exhibition directly, which stimulates their curiosity or interests..A kid can visit exhibitions alone, with her friends, or her family. Therefore, although she cannot understand what the exhibitions mean, she can ask her parents and learn through them.In this pape1; we describe an interactive guide system for kids in museums. The system uses a sensing board which can rapidly recognize types and locations of multiple objects, and creates an immersive environment by giving users visual and auditory feedback to their manipulations on the board. The purpose of the system is to attract users' interests in a real exhibition by allowing them to interact with the corresponding virtual exhibition on the board, and providing them with its information.We have evaluated the system in a museum. From the interviews and questionnaires, we have confirmed that it is easy for kids to use the system and it can raise their motivation for visiting real exhibitions.

No abstract

No abstract