Group interaction on interactive multi-touch tables by children in India

Interactive tables provide multi-touch capabilities that can enable children to collaborate face-to-face simultaneously. In this paper we extend existing understanding of children's use of interactive tabletops by examining their use by school children in a school in Delhi, India. In the study, we explore how the school children exhibit particular types of collaboration strategies and touch input techniques when dealing with digital objects. In particular, we highlight a number of behaviours of interest, such as how the children would move the same digital object on the table together. We also discuss how the children work in close proximity to each other and dynamically organize their spatial positions in order to work together, as well as establish territory and control. We go on to examine some of the finger-based interaction and manipulation strategies that arise in these contexts. Finally, the paper considers the implications of such behaviours for the deployment of tabletop applications in these particular educational contexts.