The International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction serves as a forum to communicate original, high-quality research in child-computer interaction and interaction design and children. IJCCI employs a double-blind review process, utilizing a minimum of two (2) referees. The journal welcomes contributions on the following topics:

• New methods for working with children in design, evaluation and research;
• Models that help designers and researchers better understand children and their relationships with technology;
• Interaction design cases that demonstrate novel and well designed technologies for children;
• Studies of how children interact with and through technology;
• Research about the use of, and the design of, technologies for play, learning, sociality and communication;
• Reviews of the literature, theories around child development and technology design;
• Studies of gaming and the application of serious games theories to children's technologies;
• Evaluation studies of new and emerging technologies designed for children.

Special Issue on A call for social imaginaries at a time of climate crisis: The role of technology in children's environmental sustainability
Submission Date: 2024-11-01

Children are facing a lifetime of climate change and complex environmental challenges. In response, schools, communities, and governments are changing the way they engage, educate, and collaborate with children around environmental sustainability (ES), so that they are better equipped for this current and future reality. This shift has invited researchers to query how the experiences of children shape their perception of the environment; what children’s learning about ES can look like; and the roles children, their adult supporters, and non-human entities can play in current and future pedagogical approaches to ES.

The potential for interactive, digital technologies to support learning around ES is an important consideration in these discussions. Digital technologies are a ubiquitous component of children’s everyday fabric, with great potential to promote new forms of engagement, learning, and participation in ES. Whilst the field of Child-Computer Interaction (CCI) has led on pedagogical-technological initiatives and approaches that redefine children’s learning by placing the child and their participation at the center of innovation, there has been little research to date that seeks to explore how digital technologies can promote children’s learning and participation in ES, or the introduction of theoretical or practical perspectives from other ES domains into CCI research [1]. In this context, digital technologies may include, but are not limited to, computer and mobile software/hardware, digital games, AR, VR, digital cameras and photo editing software, digital robots, printers, smart home technologies, digital making/crafting.

Through this special issue, we begin to address this gap by inviting researchers working within, around, or outside the field of Child-Computer Interaction to contribute submissions of work related to children, digital technology, and ES.

We offer the following questions as prompts to submissions:

    How can we draw upon children’s experiences with ES when designing for ES? Who are the critical actors to involve in this research?
    How can research methods inspire new approaches to learning, designing, and participation in ES?
    How do digital technologies engage children/young people in ES by opening new ways of experiencing, knowing, and doing?
    What interdisciplinarity perspectives can CCI draw on to design and perform research at the intersection of the digital and ES?
    What outcomes should we strive for? What perspectives can we apply to move beyond knowledge-based technologies rooted in school curricula?

Submissions

This special issue invites papers of up to 10,000 words (without references) that will address this critical area and provide a pathway to CCI’s future research activity in ES.

Submissions can consist of systematic reviews, original research, speculative design, or manifestos, so long as they engage directly with ES. Papers that do not engage with ES as the core issue will be desk-rejected.

Notably, we encourage the following types of submissions:

    Design studies or evaluative research that highlight how the features of the technology under investigation are intended to support children’s awareness, engagement, learning, behaviour, and/or action in ES.
    Critical, sociological, and/or methodological papers on the opportunities/challenges of designing/using technology in this field. For instance, a paper may utilise digital technology as part of the research or data collection process (e.g., children’s use of digital cameras or sensors). It may also involve a critical study around the constraints or challenges that technologies introduce in promoting ES in children.

Those from outside the field of HCI are very welcome to submit, so long as the research has an ES focus, and it is clear in the submission how it advances the field of CCI.

We particularly welcome submissions from underrepresented academic communities, particularly from the Global South and those that seek to address issues of global climate injustices.

[1] Vasalou, A. & Gauthier, A. (2023). The role of CCI in supporting children’s engagement with environmental sustainability at a time of climate crisis. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 38:100605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2023.100605

Guest editors:

Andrea Gauthier, PhD
University College London, London, United Kingdom(interaction design, educational technology, science communication, sustainability)

Bronwyn Cumbo, PhD
Monash University, Clayton, Australia
(ethnographic and participatory design methods, futures, children, more-than-human, sustainability)

Mina Vasalou, PhD
University College London, London, United Kingdom
(interaction design/social science, digital learning, disability, sustainability, children)

Manuscript submission information:

The journal's submission platform (EditorialManager®) will be available for receiving submissions to this Special Issue from October 2nd, 2023. Please refer to the Guide for Authors to prepare your manuscript, and select the article type of “VSI: Tech in children's ES” when submitting your manuscript online. Both the Guide for Authors and the submission portal could be found on the Journal Homepage: International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction | ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier

Important Dates:

Submission Open Date: October 2nd, 2023
Final Manuscript Submission Deadline: November 1st, 2024
Editorial Acceptance Deadline: February 28th, 2025

Keywords:

(environmental sustainability) OR (climate change) AND (digital technology) AND (children)