Tag: autism (Page 4 of 6)

“Will I always be not social?”: Re-Conceptualizing Sociality in the Context of a Minecraft Community for Autism

Preview: Members of the Autcraft community for children with autism and their allies use a variety of social media platform, centered around Minecraft. The community’s use of various technologies facilitates the expansion of how members can socialize with one another, giving them opportunity to explore their own sociality, expand how they would like to be able to socialize, and deepen their connection with other members of the Autcraft community.


Autcraft community members playing a game together.

Autcraft community members playing a game together.

“I love being a member of the [Autcraft] community and love spending time with my ‘family’ here. … A place I was accepted for …  just being ‘different’ than others.”

If a child finds face-to-face conversations challenging and feels isolated from their peers at school, where can they go to make friends? Online communities have the potential to support social interaction for those who find in-person communication challenging, such as children with autism. Unfortunately, online communities come with their own set of problems – cyberbullying is particularly troubling. We studied how one online community, Autcraft, through a variety of social media platforms, practices and defines how they are social.

Autcraft is a Minecraft community for children with autism and their allies run by parent volunteers. The goal of the Autcraft community is to have a safe space for children with autism to play Minecraft free from harassment and bullying (for more information visit the Autcraft website). As part of our study, I have been conducting an on-going ethnography within the community (see our paper for details). This study included analysis of activity within the Minecraft server, forums, website, Twitter, Facebook group, YouTube, and Twitch.

Our analysis demonstrates how members of the Autcraft community search for, practice, and define sociality. These results indicate more broadly how people may increasingly find new ways to express themselves and create a sense of community as emergent forms of media change the nature of our social landscape. Our exploration of Autcraft adds to a growing body of work about social platforms by showing how flexible, multimodal communications not only “keep the game going” but also can have profound effects for self-expression and feelings of social belonging.

Autcraft community members engage in the following:

  • Searching For and Finding Community. Minecraft serves as a bridge or means of entry for members of this community. The game plays a key role, coupled with other forms of social media, in supporting children who are particularly known to struggle with finding social support. Autcraft—including the game, forums, Facebook page, and community-related videos—helps community members to not feel “alone.” Much like for other youth online, Autcraft members describe “hanging out” with their friends in Minecraft. Although they may not be meeting in person, members consider these relationships to be meaningful friendships. Autcraft, by its very nature of blending social interaction with strict rules of behavior and appealing game mechanics, comes together to form a space of cohesion, not difference, and of support, not scorn.
  • Defining Sociality and Community. Although Autcraft community members often seek out social relationships through Autcraft as an augment to in-person relationships, some do not wish to seek out these in-person friendships. Those who prefer the majority of their socializing to occur online struggle with what it means to be “social.” Acceptance is a cornerstone to making being “different” more tolerable and reducing the social isolation and loneliness that frequently surrounds difference.
  • Practicing Sociality. In practicing their social behavior, social connections are formed and maintained through a variety of media technologies, allowing members to use communicative practices best suited for them, both as individuals and as a group. The community sets the stage for sociality by encouraging members to “Be Kind, Be Respectful, Be Responsible.”  On an individual level, Autcraft provides powerful common ground for players, a key foundation to many friendships. Not only do those who join the community share a common interest in Minecraft, they also all have claimed to be either an ally of, or someone with, autism. This is a requirement the community regulates carefully. These two components of the community help lay the groundwork for friendship because they represent part of a person’s shared interest.

By using various platforms, members of the Autcraft community are able to form deeper friendships with one another, if so desired. Being able to foster these relationships across the myriad platforms creates cohesion in the community. Two members may meet through an advertisement on the forums for builders, build a project together, and then go on to create YouTube videos together of the experience. This facilitates the expansion of how members can socialize with one another, giving them opportunity to explore their own sociality, expand how they would like to be able to socialize, and deepen their connection with other members of the Autcraft community.

For more details about our methods and findings, please see our full paper that has been accepted to CHI 2016 (to appear in May 2016). Full citation and link to the pdf below:

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

ResearcherKateAcknowledgements: We thank the members of Autcraft for the warm welcome to their community. We would like to thank members of LUCI for their feedback on this paper. We would also like to thank Robert and Barbara Kleist for their support. This work is covered by human subjects protocol #2014-1079 at the University of California, Irvine.


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We discuss how parents are creating a “safe” space in a Minecraft virtual world for children with autism by continually reexamining the boundaries of what is considered safe and unsafe.

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%].

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

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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.

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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.

EAPSI Alum Advice for Applicants

Pink lotus blossom

I have been getting questions about the EAPSI application process, so I thought I would save everyone some time and write a quick blog post about my experience. I will probably update this as needed (when I think of new things or someone asks me a new question).

Firstly, for those who don’t know what EAPSI is, it is a summer internship opportunity that is funded through the NSF that gives student researchers a chance to conduct research in various Asian/Pacific countries. As an EAPSI 2014 Fellow, I was able to spend 10 weeks in Hiroshima, Japan conducting research at the university there. NSF has a lot of really great information on their website, which I highly encourage you to read through if you are thinking about applying.

As a caveat, my experiences are particular to the Japan EAPSI fellowship. Each country has a different relationship with NSF, differing numbers in terms of applicants they will take, etc. For instance, it is a fact that the countries where the primary language spoken is English have a much lower acceptance rate. The non-English speaking countries, like Japan, have much higher acceptance rate (I heard the number 40% floating around, but can’t verify that).

Now, I’ll present my advice as someone who had their fellowship application accepted.

  1. You have to have a good idea of who you will be working with in the country of your choice. In face, you will not get accepted as a fellow without a letter of support from that person. What I did for Japan is searches on the web for anyone who might be related to my area. When I didn’t hear back from anyone, I had my advisor send some emails. In the end, I found someone who was not directly in my field, but he was someone who could use my expertise (as someone who can built and evaluate tech). We emailed back and forth several times, while I worked out a potential summer study plan*. SAVE all these emails and attach them to your application. NSF wants proof that you have a working relationship of some kind with your potential host.
  2. You don’t need international experience, so don’t stress it. It’s more important that for your application that you have a relationship with your potential host researcher (see #1). You also don’t need to be able to speak the language of your country of interest. NSF is more interested in sparking collaboration and giving students a new opportunity.
  3. Have very clear Intellectual Merit and Broader Impacts categories in your application. If you have applied for the GRFP, then you know how important these categories are. Make sure you have lots of both.
  4. It needs to be clear that you know how to plan a research project that will take place in the allotted time. You only have 8 or 10 weeks, depending on which country you go to. That’s not very much time at all. Be able to articulate the work you will do leading up to the summer and how you will possibly extend your work (and your new international collaboration) into the future after the summer has finished.
  5. Look through the slides and handbooks from the NSF EAPSI website. These were super informative for me when I was writing my proposal and application.

Here are the quotes from my IM and BI categories of my proposal:

Intellectual Merit. The intellectual merit of this project includes an examination of how designing assistive technology can occur in a cross-cultural practice, particularly between Japanese and American researchers. This project will also result in a prototype of an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device for Japanese speaking users. In addition, the work from this project will contribute to the development of a framework to facilitate cross-cultural design of assistive technology. I plan on disseminating the results of my proposed work through academic publication at conferences, such as CHI and UBICOMP, and relevant academic journals.

Broader Impacts. This project will ultimately benefit children with ASD, their caregivers, and with which peers they interact. The project will strengthen international ties between USA and Japan as I collaborate with researchers from Hiroshima University. This project will allow me, as an underrepresented student, to gain experience researching internationally. I intend to share this work and experience at conferences, such as the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing and the Richard Tapia Celebration of Diversity in Computing, aimed at underrepresented students in both graduate and undergraduate school. This will bring awareness of my work to underrepresented groups in computing fields and help draw more women, minority, and students with disabilities to graduate school. I will also keep a blog during my experience in Japan on my personal website. As part of my studies at UCI, I plan to continue to mentor undergraduate students and to continue to develop technologies that can be used to assist children with disabilities.”

*In truth, this plan did not really end up happening due to a lot of different things, which is totally okay and normal. We still did some amazing research.

Additional questions can be left as comments here or emailed to me at kringlan [at] uci [dot] edu.

Hope this was helpful!

Paper on SensoryPaint wins Best Paper Nomination at Ubicomp 2014

Ubicomp LootI am happy to announce that our paper, “SensoryPaint: A Multimodal Sensory Intervention for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders” has received Best Paper Nomination at Ubicomp 2014. Many thanks to my awesome co-authors as well as others who helped with editing and other feedback. I presented this paper Sept 17, 2014.

Full citation here:

Ringland, K.E., Zalapa, R., Neal, M., Escobedo, L., Tentori, M., and Hayes, G.R. “SensoryPaint: A Multimodal Sensory Intervention for Children with Neurodevelopmental Disorders”. Proceedings of the 2014 ACM International Conference on Ubiquitous Computing, ACM (2014).

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