Investigating child-computer interactions within their contexts is vital for designing technology that caters to children's needs. However, determining what aspects of context are relevant for designing child-centric technology remains a challenge. We introduce EXPLORA, a multimodal, multistage online methodology comprising three pivotal stages: (1) building a teacher-apprentice relationship,(2) learning from child-teachers, and (3) assessing and reinforcing researcher-apprentice learning. Central to EXPLORA is the collection of attitudinal data through pre-observation interviews, offering researchers a deeper understanding of children's characteristics and contexts. This informs subsequent online observations, allowing researchers to focus on frequent interactions. Furthermore, researchers can validate preliminary assumptions with children. A means-ends analysis framework aids in the systematic analysis of data, shedding light on context, agency and homework-information searching processes children employ in their activities. To illustrate EXPLORA's capabilities, we present nine single case studies investigating Brazilian child-caregiver dyads' (children ages 9-11) use of technology in homework information-searching.

中文翻译：

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EXPLORA：一种引发自然儿童与计算机交互的师徒方法

研究儿童与计算机在其环境中的交互对于设计满足儿童需求的技术至关重要。然而，确定背景的哪些方面与设计以儿童为中心的技术相关仍然是一个挑战。我们介绍 EXPLORA，一种多模式、多阶段的在线方法，包括三个关键阶段：(1) 建立师徒关系，(2) 向儿童教师学习，(3) 评估和加强研究员-学徒学习。 EXPLORA 的核心是通过观察前访谈收集态度数据，使研究人员能够更深入地了解儿童的特征和背景。这为后续的在线观察提供了信息，使研究人员能够专注于频繁的互动。此外，研究人员可以用儿童验证初步假设。手段-目的分析框架有助于系统分析数据，揭示儿童在活动中使用的背景、代理和家庭作业信息搜索过程。为了说明 EXPLORA 的功能，我们提出了 9 个单一案例研究，调查巴西儿童保育员二人组（9 至 11 岁的儿童）在家庭作业信息搜索中使用技术的情况。