  Investigating child-computer interactions within their contexts is vital for
designing technology that caters to children's needs. However, determining what
aspects of context are relevant for designing child-centric technology remains
a challenge. We introduce EXPLORA, a multimodal, multistage online methodology
comprising three pivotal stages: (1) building a teacher-apprentice
relationship,(2) learning from child-teachers, and (3) assessing and
reinforcing researcher-apprentice learning. Central to EXPLORA is the
collection of attitudinal data through pre-observation interviews, offering
researchers a deeper understanding of children's characteristics and contexts.
This informs subsequent online observations, allowing researchers to focus on
frequent interactions. Furthermore, researchers can validate preliminary
assumptions with children. A means-ends analysis framework aids in the
systematic analysis of data, shedding light on context, agency and
homework-information searching processes children employ in their activities.
To illustrate EXPLORA's capabilities, we present nine single case studies
investigating Brazilian child-caregiver dyads' (children ages 9-11) use of
technology in homework information-searching.
