Hosting MSCA-2024-PF. Children-technology interaction in research and innovation.

The ChildTech lab research group https://blogs.uoc.edu/childtech/ at the Open University of Catalunya invites researchers holding a PhD to express their interest in applying to a Skłodowska–Curie Postdoctoral (PF) Fellowship. Our group is interested in studying children’s behavior (emotional expression, speech, engagement, attention, achievements, etc.) in their playing and learning processes using advanced technology (artificial intelligence). We led interdisciplinary research projects from the fields of psychology, education, child-computer interaction, gender studies and sociology in the UK, Spain and Brazil, funded by the EC (H2020), m-Learning companies and Spanish and Brazilian State Research Agencies. 

RESEARCH LINES:

Innovative research methods and ethics issues

Child Tech Lab stands out for its commitment to finding new solutions to the challenges of applied social-science research in ordet to collect, code, process or visualize data in an efficient, ethical and non-intrusive way. We are interested in exploring innovative applications of advanced technology in mixed research designs with children, young people and vulnerable populations. By means of computer vision techniques, we are exploring new solutions for behavioral research in order to study cognitive, social, and emotional development with three- to five-year old children, their speech and learning achievements. We have developed a tool and a visualization solution to synchronize many video sources and perform a micro-multimodal analysis. Thanks to international collaborations and a multidisciplinary approach with colleagues from the field of computer science, it was possible to automatically recognize the children’s emotional expression in each video frame, and also their attention to the learning task.

We adopt an intersectional perspective in research, promoting gender equality and coeducation and we are concerned with data-protection practice in research with technology and children, adolescents and vulnerable participants. We have developed and continue to update an ethical protocol for research in natural contexts with young children. One of our goals is to explore children’ perspectives and opinions directly by finding ways to listen to their voices.

Cognitive child development 

We study in an interdisciplinary way the children’s interaction with technology and how this interaction is influenced by the age and developmental changes of the pupil, viewer, gamer and citizen. From the fields of psychology, education, child-computer interaction, gender studies and sociology, the questions we address are: how to improve interactive and digital content to make it age-appropriate? How technology can be used as an educational resource with young children? To answer these questions through observational studies, we analyzed the spontaneous interaction of young children with digital games (educational apps), recording verbal and non-verbal behavior to understand their cognitive processes better, such as problem-solving, attention and reasoning.

Social and emotional child development

We are interested in the developmental and learning process of children and teens. We focus on the analysis of the children’s emotional expressions while using educational technology and the role of emotions in individual and collaborative play and learning activities. This aim implies also exploring the influence of emotions on cognitive funtions like reasoning, problem-solving, decision-making and attention. Additionally, we want to contribute to social transformation by studying the process of the affective development and socialization of children and young people from a gender perspective, preventing the perpetuation of stereotypes and gender violence. What perceptions and opinions do boys, girls and adolescents have about the technology that surrounds them? How do they represent themselves and how are they represented in social media and networks?

We offer support from a mentor at the Psychology and Educational faculty, and the opportunities to develop your research further and to promote transfer activities. Selected candidates will have access to training, seminaries and support from the International Projects Office.

Interested candidates please send an email to lcrescenzi@uoc.edu