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Fröbel's forgotten gift: textile construction kits as pathways into play, design and computation

Published: 09 June 2010 Publication History

Abstract

Reflecting on one of Fröbel's overlooked "gifts", sewing and embroidery, this paper explores a recent renaissance in commercially available textile construction kits for children. Through a survey of such kits, we argue that revisiting embroidery in this digital age is a powerful leverage to introduce computation into material culture. In particular, we highlight the evolution of recent children's textile construction kits beginning with the Barbie Fashion Designer in 1996 then moving onto more recent developments, like the LilyPad Arduino, that combines computation, ICT, fashion and craft. We discuss the implications of these designs for learning, play, and broadening participation in computing fields.

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Cited By

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  • (2024)Engaging Young People in the Expressive Opportunities of Digital Fabrication Through Craft-Oriented CAM-Based DesignProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660693(1162-1176)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
  • (2024)A Review of Cultural Impact on Children’s Play Perception and Digital GamesHCI International 2024 – Late Breaking Papers10.1007/978-3-031-76812-5_23(341-351)Online publication date: 15-Dec-2024
  • (2023)Weaving in: shifts in youth mathematical engagement through weavingEducational technology research and development10.1007/s11423-023-10316-y72:1(15-39)Online publication date: 6-Nov-2023
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  1. Fröbel's forgotten gift: textile construction kits as pathways into play, design and computation

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    cover image ACM Other conferences
    IDC '10: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children
    June 2010
    389 pages
    ISBN:9781605589510
    DOI:10.1145/1810543
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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    Published: 09 June 2010

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    Author Tags

    1. computational crafts
    2. e-textiles
    3. gender
    4. play

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    Overall Acceptance Rate 172 of 578 submissions, 30%

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    View all
    • (2024)Engaging Young People in the Expressive Opportunities of Digital Fabrication Through Craft-Oriented CAM-Based DesignProceedings of the 2024 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3643834.3660693(1162-1176)Online publication date: 1-Jul-2024
    • (2024)A Review of Cultural Impact on Children’s Play Perception and Digital GamesHCI International 2024 – Late Breaking Papers10.1007/978-3-031-76812-5_23(341-351)Online publication date: 15-Dec-2024
    • (2023)Weaving in: shifts in youth mathematical engagement through weavingEducational technology research and development10.1007/s11423-023-10316-y72:1(15-39)Online publication date: 6-Nov-2023
    • (2022)Material syntonicity: Examining computational performance and its materiality through weaving and sewing craftsJournal of the Learning Sciences10.1080/10508406.2022.210070431:4-5(477-508)Online publication date: 18-Aug-2022
    • (2021)DataMoves: Entangling Data and Movement to Support Computer Science EducationProceedings of the 2021 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference10.1145/3461778.3462039(2068-2082)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2021
    • (2020)Historical Roots of Exploration – Through a Fröbelian Third SpaceChildren’s Exploration and Cultural Formation10.1007/978-3-030-36271-3_7(105-119)Online publication date: 29-Feb-2020
    • (2019)Supporting creativity and collaborationProceedings of the FabLearn Europe 2019 Conference10.1145/3335055.3335064(1-3)Online publication date: 28-May-2019
    • (2018)Developing an Elementary Engineering Education Program through Problem-Based Wearable Technologies ActivitiesWearable Technologies10.4018/978-1-5225-5484-4.ch007(101-127)Online publication date: 2018
    • (2018)Developing an Elementary Engineering Education Program Through Problem-Based Wearable Technologies ActivitiesK-12 STEM Education10.4018/978-1-5225-3832-5.ch002(29-55)Online publication date: 2018
    • (2017)Un-CraftingProceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/3024969.3024993(67-77)Online publication date: 20-Mar-2017
    • Show More Cited By

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