MEDIATE is a multi-sensory environment design for an interface between autistic and typical expression. It was designed as a space for creative expression and exploration via three sensory interfaces: visual, aural and tactile. The interaction with this digitally augmented world is under the child's control allowing them a sensory dialogue. It is as much a space for the user with autism to enjoy as an interface for relatives and carers to observe interactions and expressions. MEDIATE is the outcome of a collaboration between Designers, Programmers and Psychologists from Spain, the Netherlands and the UK and was funded by the European Community. The expert psychology team on child development and autism informed the design process, which was essentially usercentred. The resulting outcome is successful for other user groups, but has benefited, in usability and innovation, from being constrained to a specific and challenging user group.

In this paper I will describe the term Tactile Semiotics -the meanings we ascribe to different types of haptic sensations. When designing devices for haptic communication or haptic input devices for HCI, it makes sense firstly to look to psychophysics as an informant. However, to gain insight into tactility as both experience and meaning, it may also be beneficial to look at the cultural and social context of touch.Also, I will explain how it is possible to explore this field with the help of low-tech prototypes and methodologies more common in art and design.

In an integrated view of perception and action, learning involves all the senses, their interaction and cross-modality, rather than multi-modality alone. This can be referred to as synesthetic enactive perception, which forms the basis for more abstract, modality-free knowledge and a potential underpinning for innovative learning design. The authors explore this mode of learning in two case studies: The first focuses on children in Montessori preschools and the second on MEDIATE, an interactive space designed for children on the autistic spectrum that offers a “whole-body” engagement with the world.

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<p>It is ironic that the management of education has become more closed while learning has become more open, particularly over the past 10-20 years. The curriculum has become more instrumental, predictive, standardized, and micro-managed in the belief that this supports employability as well as the management of educational processes, resources, and value. Meanwhile, people have embraced interactive, participatory, collaborative, and innovative networks for living and learning. To respond to these challenges, we need to develop <em>practical tools to help us describe these new forms of learning</em> which are multivariate, self-organised, complex, adaptive, and unpredictable. We draw on complexity theory and our experience as researchers, designers, and participants in open and interactive learning to go beyond conventional approaches. We develop a 3D model of landscapes of learning for exploring the relationship between prescribed and emergent learning in any given curriculum. We do this by repeatedly testing our descriptive landscapes (or footprints) against theory, research, and practice across a range of case studies. By doing this, we have not only come up with a practical tool which can be used by curriculum designers, but also realised that the curriculum itself can usefully be treated as emergent, depending on the dynamics<br />between prescribed and emergent learning and how the learning landscape is curated.</p>