The World is Canvas: A Painting Application forChildren based on the Social Constructivism SystemSatoru Tokuhisa
Keio University
CS610, Hiyoshi 4-4-1, Kohoku, Yokohama, Japan
dangkang@kmd.keio.ac.jp

Yusuke Kamiyama
Keio University
CS610, Hiyoshi 4-4-1, Kohoku, Yokohama, Japan
yukke@sfc.keio.ac.jp

This research focuses on creativity about painting in artistic creativities and aims to increase children's
motivation about painting. This research assumes that drawing support as well as fun in the learning,which focuses on social elements relating to the Social Constructivism system, increases the motivation.
We developed 2 features for social elements composed of mobility and network, and implemented an
iPhone application "The World is Canvas". This application allows the users to choose any image as adraft for coloring.
Children, fun, motivation, painting, coloring

1. INTRODUCTION
Vygotsky said that children love to express
creativity by painting before elementary school, butthey lose the passion to paint after entering
elementary school when their interest changes tolanguage [1]. Children do not lose the passion topaint if their family or school continues to stimulate
them. This practice means a training to acquire
skills of drawing. This training imposes suffering onchildren and children cannot stay motivated. This
research aims to tackle the problem in a fun way
relating to the relationship between children and art
by using a painting application based on the Social
Constructivism system, and increases themotivation of children to paint.
To achieve this purpose, we implemented theiPhone application "The World is Canvas". Thisapplication enables the user to use any image as adraft for coloring and to support drawing whichmost children do not do well. To be concrete, theuser shoots any object using the camera
embedded on iPhone. Next, the user chooses animage on the application. This application traces
the image loaded on the application and generates
a draft for coloring. The user can enjoy coloring on
this processed image using his/her favorite colorand brush size (Figure1).

later called Social Constructivism. Piaget's
Constructivism [2] is based on his theory thatchildren actively compose new knowledge fromtheir experience through the process of assimilation
and accommodation. However, Constructivism
System has a significant problem that children haveto correct mistakes by themselves, and they cannot
exceed their own intellectual boundary. On theother hand, Vygotsky's Social Constructivism is atheory that children acquire higher knowledge withhelp of their society including adults based on theconcept of Zone of proximal development (ZPD) [3].
Vygotskyemphasizes
importanceofcommunication with language and collaborative
activity. The World is Canvas, which we propose inthis paper, increases the motivation for children topaint through having fun in the learning experience
focusingonsocialelements
asSocialConstructivism system.

2. RELATED RESEARCHES

3. CONCEPT

Learning system for children in Human Computer
Interaction (HCI) is strongly influenced by sometheories of development psychology. The
representative researchers are Jean Piaget andLev Semyonovich Vygotsky. Piaget's position iscalled Constructivism and Vygotsky's position is

The World is Canvas decreases the element whichchildren feel uncomfortable in painting andincreases fun. The former is achieved with drawing
support by using any image as a draft for coloring.
The latter is achieved focusing on social elements,

Figure1．An image created by The World is Canvas.

1

The World is Canvas: A Painting Application for Children based on the Social Constructivism System
Satoru Tokuhisa and Yusuke Kamiyama

Questions

Table 2．Questionnaires, options and results in the interview
Options
The whole

Q1 ． Which do you have fun, normal
coloring or The World is Canvas?
Q2 ． Which do you have fun, normal
painting or The World is Canvas?
Q3．(To parents)
Do you think your child painted with funcompared to normal painting?
Q4．(To parents)
How do you think you talked more withyour child compared to normal coloring?

a．normal coloringb．The World is Canvas
a．normal painting
b．The World is Canvas
a．didn’t look as having fun
b．looked as having less func．looked as having fun
d．looked as having much funa.
Not excitedlyb.
less excitedlyc.
excitedlyd.
very excitedly

18(16%)
92(83%)
24(22%)
83(75%)0(0%)6(8%)
26(34%)
43(56%)

Pre-school
children6(30%)
12(60%)
6(30%)
10(50%)0(0%)
2(11%)
9(47(%)
8(42%)

Schoolchildren12(13%)
80(88%)

0(0%)
4(7%)
17(29%)
35(60%)

3(4%)
16(21%)
32(42%)
26(34%)0(0%)
5(26%))
8(42%)
6(32%)

3(5%)
11(19%)
24(41%)
20(34%)

18(20%)
73(80%)

question. There is no significant difference in the
4th question between pre-school children andelementary school children.

which generates fun in the learning experience andincrease the motivation to paint.
This application has 2 features as a learning
system based on the Social Constructivism system
which focuses on social elements in learning. The
first feature is the social element through mobility.
Mobility enables the users to go to any place andreflect the information in the place to the application.
In addition, it allows them to communicate with avariety of people in each place. The second featureis the social element through network. Network
enables the users to send and receive the data totheir friends, family or other people. Based onthese features, we implemented an iPhone
application "The World is Canvas" based on theSocial Constructivism system.

Table1. The percentage of sending data
population
The number of
The rate ofrequests
requests
Gross (111 children)
51 people
45.9%
With parents (77)4254.5

5. CONCLUSION
These result indicated that the children and theirparents acted reflecting the aims of two features,
which we adopted based on the Social
Constructivism system; communication between
children and their parent in the same place wereprompted(question 4), and they ran the e-mailfunction to remote place(quantitative evaluation). In
addition, the results of the question 1 and 2 as thesubjective opinion from the children and the resultof the question 3 as the objective opinion from thechildren's parents shows that The World is Canvas
is more fun than normal painting and normal
coloring. We suppose that the World is Canvas,
which is more fun compared to the original activity,
should be the highest motivation for children topaint.

4. EVALUATION
We organized a workshop for children andconducted a user study of this application. We
retrieved the shot photos and the images createdby the children as log data, retained them, andconducted interviews. The workshop was held in
two days, and 111 children from the age of 4 to 13years old attended.
First, we analyzed the number of sending email aslog data for the quantitative evaluation (Table1).
This result is divided into gross children andchildren with parents. This is because theattendees were children; most of them hardly had
their own e-mail address. As a result, the childrenwith parents got 8.6 points higher than the grosschildren.
Table 2 is the result of the questionnaires in theinterview. The 3rd and 4th questions were asked toanswer if the children are accompanied by theirparents. As a result, the ratio of the positive answer
from children after entering elementary school
increases in all questions except for the 4th

6. REFERENCES
1.

2.
3.

2

Vygotsky, L.S. Imagination and Creativity inChildhood. Journal of Russian and East
European Psychology 42 (1). 7 - 97.
Piaget, J. Structuralism. Harper & Row, New
York, 1970.
Vygotsky, L.S. The Collected Works of L.S.
Vygotsky: Volume 1: Problems of General
Psychology, Including the Volume Thinkingand Speech. Springer, New York, 1988.