Tag: Gaming (Page 3 of 4)

Minecraft

Social media, including virtual worlds, has the potential to support children with autism in making friendships, learning pro-social behavior, and engaging in collaborative play with their peers.  However, currently, little is known about how children with autism interact socially in online spaces. Furthermore, there is much more to learn about how technology can support these collaborative interactions. In this study, I propose investigating how a virtual world can be intentionally run alongside other complementary social media (e.g., website, forum, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+) specifically for children with autism. The contribution of this work is to create design guidelines for creating social media systems (including virtual worlds) to support social interactions of children with autism.

Current Publications:

Kathryn E. Ringland. 2019. “Do you work for Aperture Science?”: Researching and Finding the Gamer Identity in a Minecraft Community for Autistic Children. In FDG 2019. [PDF] [BLOG]

Kathryn E. Ringland. 2019. A Place to Play: The (Dis)Abled Embodied Experience for Autistic Children in Online Spaces. In CHI 2019. [PDF] [BLOG]

Kathryn E. Ringland. 2019. “Autsome”: Fostering an Autistic Identity in an Online Minecraft Community for Youth with Autism. In iConference 2019 Proceedings. [PDF] [BLOG]

Kathryn E. Ringland, LouAnne Boyd, Heather Faucett, Amanda L.L. Cullen, Gillian R. Hayes. Making in Minecraft: A Means of Self-Expression for Youth with Autism. In IDC 2017. [PDF] [BLOG]

Kathryn E. Ringland, Christine T. Wolf, LouAnne E. Boyd, Mark Baldwin, and Gillian R. Hayes. 2016. Would You Be Mine: Appropriating Minecraft as an Assistive Technology for Youth with Autism. In ASSETS 2016. [Acceptance Rate: 25%]. Best Paper. [PDF][BLOG]

Ringland, K. E., Wolf, C. T., Faucett, H., Dombrowski, L., & Hayes, G. R. (2016). “‘Will I always be not social?’: Re-Conceptualizing Sociality in the Context of a Minecraft Community for Autism”. In Proceedings of ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2016. [Acceptance Rate: 23.4%]. [PDF][BLOG]

Ringland, K.E., Wolf, C.T., Dombrowski, L., and Hayes, G.R. “Making ‘Safe’: Community-Centered Practices in a Virtual World Dedicated to Children with Autism”. Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Conference on Computer Supported Collaborative Work, ACM (2015). [Acceptance Rate: 28.3%]. [PDF][BLOG]

Ringland, K.E., Wolf, C.T., Hayes, G.R. (2015, May 15). “The Benefits of Online Play: An Investigation of Virtual Worlds for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder”. International Meeting for Autism Research Salt Lake City, Utah.

Ringland, K.E., Hayes, G.R. (2014, April 27). “Virtual Worlds: An Alternative Method for Communication for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder”. Workshop: Supporting Children with Complex Communication Needs. ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Toronto, Canada. [PDF]

Last Updated: September 16, 2019

Related Posts:

A sunset over the tops of trees in minecraft.

A Place to Play

The (Dis)Abled Embodied Experience for Autistic Children in Online Spaces Preview: Play is an important part of childhood that is ...
A sunset over the tops of trees in minecraft.

“Autsome”: Fostering an Autistic Identity in an Online Minecraft Community for Youth with Autism

Preview: Autism is a medical diagnosis that has attracted much attention in recent decades, particularly due to an increase in ...
News

CHI 2019 Honorable Mention

I'm happy to report my paper, "A Place to Play: The (Dis)Abled Embodied Experience for Autistic Children in Online Spaces" ...

DanceCraft

Individuals with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders often experience sensory perception impairments, which can lead to challenges such as sensitivity to loud noises or irritation from specific textures on their skin. Atypical movement, such as rocking, can be exhibited as compensation for this sensory perception impairment.

Currently, therapists use dance therapy to stimulate the various senses in children with autism to help reduce atypical movement and to increase engagement in the activity. DanceCraft is a system developed to further the aims of dance therapy by increasing the children’s body awareness. We will be exploring how the software engenders different interactions styles to help inform the design of future systems focused on using body based movements to support dance therapy.

Related Posts:

Keep on Dancing

[This is cross-posted on our Dance Craft website] I made the trek across campus today to meet with Professor Andrew Palermo ...

Minecraft Interviews

Screenshot 2015-06-30 12.06.09

The purpose of this research is to determine how children with Autism Spectrum Disorder use the virtual world Minecraft to communicate. While there are no direct benefits from participation in the study, it may explain how children with Autism Spectrum Disorder socialize and how to best assist them with technological interventions for communication. Interviews will take place within Minecraft, in person, or via Skype, depending on your preference. Interviews should take approximately 1 hour.

Please email me at kringlan [at] uci [dot] edu to arrange an interview!

Click HERE for info for parents.

Click HERE for info for adults being interviewed.

Click HERE to learn more about the overall study.

GamerGate Lecture up on YouTube

Last week, I co-led a lecture on GamerGate. This was meant to give our class (Computer Games and Society) a small taste of the GamerGate controversy. First time giving a large-lecture hall talk! It was nerve-wracking, but exciting. I’ll leave it here for you to enjoy.

Keep on Dancing

[This is cross-posted on our Dance Craft website]

I made the trek across campus today to meet with Professor Andrew Palermo in UC Irvine’s Dance Department. I briefly pitched him our idea and explained what we could do with the Kinect. We talked about the dance classes he teaches at the local autism center. His classes consist of one part neurotypical dance class, one part partner dancing tailored to kids with autism, and one part dance routine. The dance routine is a composition of steps created by each person in the class. After our discussion, I am more excited than ever to move forward with our Dance Craft application for Kinect.

For our prototype that we will be demonstrating for the Autism AppJam, we will be creating an application that will encourage creative movement in the player/user. We will be focusing on something that can be used at home, outside of the dance class, to bring the creative motion out of the classroom and into the daily lives of the children. The great thing about this software is that set up and use will be fairly inexpensive for the typical. All that is needed is a computer to run the program, a Kinect, and a monitor/television.

I will leave you with a video of the inspiration behind Professor Palermo’s dance classes- a choreography called beyond.words:

Minecraft Study Blog Week 1

My intention with these blog posts is to have a sort of informal record of my time spent in Autcraft. They will be my beginnings, in a way, of creating my overall narrative of my experience. I will be creating much more formal documentation in the form of conference papers and journal articles, but here I want to create a space that is more open to dialogue and discussion. I also want the community to know that I am completely open and willing to share my thoughts and findings as much as I want to hear the thoughts of those in the community. My hope is to be able to tell the story of Autcraft and to be able to, through technology, expand on what it has given the autism community if I can.

My first week in the Autcraft community has been an extremely humbling experience. As I made my first timid steps into the unknown, I was greeted with open arms. A good number of people have given me encouragement, offered to help, welcomed me and offered friendship, and thanked me. I feel like I should be the one thanking every single member of the Autcraft community for allowing me to be among them.

I feel like I have accomplished a lot in the few hours I have played over the last week: I’ve built a modest office, explored many different areas, gone mining, died in lava, played Hide and Seek with other players, marveled at all the amazing things other players have built, played Paint Ball with other players, and died falling from a giant pink pony. All and all, a very busy, but successful week.

a pink pony statue in minecraft

Fell off from the top of a giant pink pony and died. Admittedly a first for me.

I have been struck by the many different ways in which players communicate in Autcraft. There is text chat, but there is so much more. Players also communicate via their characters (how they look and through their movements), via their constructions, via signs littered throughout the world, and more. I am sure those that have a limited understanding of autism would be very surprised to hear that these players are communicating at all. And while I am still in the very early stages of my research, I can assure anyone reading this that these players are communicating- in a varied and rich format.

I will close with that for this week. Please stay tuned and feel free to email me at kringlan [at] uci [dot] edu with any questions about my work. Thanks and keep on building!

Autism App Jam 2014 – DanceCraft

Dance

I am participating in this year’s Autism App Jam on team DanceCraft. Find out more on my team’s website: dancecraftforautism.wordpress.com.


Minecraft Study

Screen shot of sunset and a volcano in Minecraft

Sunset and a volcano in Minecraft

RecruitmentFlyer

My name is KateRingland and I am a PhD student in Informatics at the University of California, Irvine. I will be conducting observations of players in Minecraft. For the most part, this will just look like I’m playing the game like everyone else. However, I will be taking notes of my experiences and possibly screen shots. I will not be recording any identifiable information. I will not record any real names or real screen names. If I take a screen shot, I will blur out anything that would identify an individual player.

What are you looking for during your observations? I am mostly just watching to see how players on Minecraft interact. I would also like to explore the various ways in which players communicate during game play. I am hoping this research leads to helping children with Autism Spectrum Disorder have a supportive, fun environment to play in.

I am now conducting interviews! Find out more information HERE.

Please email me at kringlan [at] uci [dot] edu if you have any questions.

CLICK HERE FOR ADDITIONAL STUDY INFORMATION.

Our first paper from this project is published at Computer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) 2015, titled ‘Making “Safe”: Community Centered Practices in a Virtual World Dedicated to Children with Autism’.

Last Updated: June 1, 2015.

Three Big Distractions

Today’s post is going to be short and sweet. I could say it is because it is the weekend before final exams. The university has a random final exam time algorithm that assures no one will have to take two final exams at the exact same time. Well, for this semester, this algorithm has decreed that I will be taking my engineering physics final at 8:00 am Monday morning. But wait! It gets better! I then have to take my multivariate calculus final at 10:30 am Monday morning. Back to back the two worst exams I can imagine I’ll ever have to take. This weekend should be full of cramming for physics and calculus at the same time (while these two classes DO have a lot in common, it turns out the exam material is NOT going to overlap as much as one would hope). I’m aiming to graduate with some sort of “cum laude” attached to my degree, so I’m not taking these classes just to pass. I need to do well in them.

I could also say this post is short because something almost more important than acing those finals has come up. I’m set to have a phone interview with Microsoft for their summer internship Tuesday afternoon. The prospect of interviewing with Microsoft is both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. I mean, come on, it’s Microsoft. How awesome would working there for a summer be?? I will be asked to code. Over the phone. In real time. I know I will be asked about data structures and algorithms. I was informed that I should also be prepared to answer behavioral questions. All in all, I feel like I should be doing a lot of cramming for that this weekend.

However, all of these things don’t seem nearly as important as the fact that my new HTC Thunderbolt came in the mail Thursday. After waiting impatiently for the battery to charge, I turned it on just after midnight and started setting it up. Having come from Blackberry, there is a huge learning curve. I am learning how to use the touch screen for the first time. The virtual keyboard is not nearly as efficient as my old Blackberry’s physical QWERTY. I still haven’t figured out all the features and I still only have one email set up (who needs school email on their phone, anyway?). I love it all though. I immediately downloaded: Pocket Frogs- had never heard of this one, but it’s like Tamagotchi frogs, oooh so cute!-, Words with Friends- this is mostly so I can continue to lose games to my mom, now from ANYwhere!-, and Angry Birds- being a Blackberry user, this game was never free before so I have to give it a try. Once I spend a little more time with it, I’ll probably have a lot more intelligent things to say, good and bad. As far as smart-phones go, I’m definitely glad I’ve made the switch to Android. Maybe someday I’ll even find time to start programming some apps for it!

Next week, I’ll let you know how the Microsoft interview and finals went, but more importantly, how I’m coming along learning my new phone.

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