ABSTRACT
The child computer interaction and educational technology communities are increasingly suggesting the suitability of tangible user interfaces (TUIs) and digital tabletops to support children's learning in domains. In particular these technologies are coming to be viewed as the technology of choice for computer-supported collaboration and more recently collaborative learning for children. This chapter refers to tangible, multi-touch tabletops as simply digital tabletops. The unique features of digital tabletops provide opportunities for collaborative interaction through shared physical objects and large working surfaces. The chapter presents two examples of digital tabletops. The first, Futura, was implemented on a custom-build, multi-touch tabletop. The second, Youtopia, was implemented with tangibles on a Microsoft Surface multi-touch tabletop. Digital tabletops offer many unique opportunities to design applications that support collaborative learning. Until recently, little was known about how to make design decisions that leveraged the characteristics of table-tops within social and educational contexts to enable purported benefits.
