Researchers used a hands-on approach to find out about the latest ideas in collaborative technology for the final ShareIT workshop at Sussex last week.

Table-top interactive games, especially adapted children's Playmobil sets and a novel way of playing 'Consequences' on iPads were among the technologies discussed and demonstrated by psychologists and computer scientists from across the world.

ShareIT was a joint three-year research venture between the University of Sussex and the Open University. Begun in 2007, it was funded by a £1 million grant from the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC).

Project leader and Sussex psychologist Dr Nicola Yuill said: "ShareIt has opened new ways of looking at how shareable technology can support learning.

"Children are growing up in a world populated by such tools as they develop abilities required for collaboration such as self-regulation, joint attention, turn-taking and co-ordination of social interaction with peers.

"We have been looking at how new tools for collaboration illuminate developmental processes and how might they be used to support these processes.

"In particular, many of our researchers have been looking at how we can use them to help the needs of autistic children."