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Designing for Interaction 195duction. From the point of view of affect the children were extremely positiveabout the NIMIS classroom. Enjoying what they do helps to motivate them,makes them feel confident and independent but also co-operative and motivatesthem to learn. One teacher explained how they are quite happy to doadditional Maths and English in the afternoons on the computers. The teacherstoo felt very pleased and happy with the classroom, which is also likely toinfluence the children, since teachers establish the general climate in the classroom.The analysis of the interactions showed the interaction with adults to begenerally of a higher quality but less timely (due to teacher/pupil ratio) and theinteractions with peers to be usually of a lower quality but more timely (dueto availability). These different forms complement each other in a busy classroombut an empathic agent which could provide both affective and cognitivesupport in the story-writing software could contribute to both the quality andtimeliness of the interactions as well as modelling high quality interaction toyoung children to improve their ability to support others.6. ConclusionThe recent re-emphasis on of the importance of the emotions is perhaps oneof the most significant developments in understanding the learning process.Brain research increasingly suggests that the cognitive and the affective areinextricably linked and perhaps only holistic approaches and evaluations canreally begin to understand the nature of high quality learning environments.The NIMIS classroom and software was designed with a belief that all thesefactors work together to make successful learning. Computer integrated classroomscan maximise the strengths of both people and computers, supportinginteraction of many different kinds and combinations. The success of bothclassroom and software has provided considerable justification for our thinkingand methodology in the project. Our future aim is to develop the empathicagent to further improve the ambience of the classroom at the level of onetoone personal interaction and to complement the teacher and peer support.The enthusiastic responses of both teachers and children, coupled with strongevidence in the video analysis of very high levels of engagement and greateropportunities for collaboration suggest that such a classroom presents a verypositive model for humans and computers working effectively together. Theaim of smooth and natural interaction between the human and the digital doesseem to have occurred. The holistic view which took into account affect andrelationships, communication and interaction as being central to the learningprocess has contributed to creating a positive classroom climate in which childrenare motivated, confident and mutually helpful.