One Mouse Per Child

Established: June 17, 2011

Emerging from an ongoing relationship between Microsoft Research Connections and Miguel Nussbaum at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, the One Mouse Per Child project is a broad spectrum of experiments in the education space around games for learning. Using Single Display Groupware and multiple mice, collaborative learning activities are supported which improve the way resources can be used in schools and foster personalized learning with individual feedback.

  • Research on Single Display Groupware at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and the University of California in Berkeley led to the creation of the One Mouse Per Child framework. As described in their article (opens in new tab),

    Single Display Groupware (SDG) allows multiple people, in the same physical space, to interact simultaneously over a single communal display, through individual input devices that work on the same machine. The aim of this paper is to show how SDG can be used to improve the way resources are used in schools, allowing students to work simultaneously on individual problems at a shared display and achieve personalized learning with individual feedback, regardless of their cultural context.

    One Mouse per Child: Interpersonal Computer for Individual Arithmetic Practice (opens in new tab)

    The approach was shown to be effective and the technology itself could be implemented fairly cheaply. Collaborative learning scenarios with large groups were investigated, also with positive results.

  • Ongoing Research

    Microsoft Research Connections became interested in this framework as a possible platform in the education space around games for learning. Current work is being done under a grant from Latin American and Caribbean Collaborative ICT Research (LACCIR) (opens in new tab) and Microsoft Research Connections.  The effort explores immersive collaborative games in the classroom using “one mouse per child”.

  • The Future

    We imagine One Mouse Per Child as a platform on which a vast ecosystem of partners can develop applications that fit into this framework. The potential is immense, especially for young children. There are many who argue that children in North America are too jaded by technology to enjoy anything that is not 3-D with a massive budget. It can be argued that young children have no frame of reference and even simple interactive technologies can amaze and engage them, which will also make the teacher’s job easier.

  • Links

    One Mouse Per Child Resources
    Related Resources
    • Games For Learning
    • Unified Game Layer For Education
    About Us
    • Microsoft Research Connections
    • Education and Scholarly Communication

People

Portrait of Donald Brinkman

Donald Brinkman

Research Program Manager