The characteristics and development of urban computing practices:utilizing practice toolkit approach to study public display network

Abstract This thesis concentrates on understanding people’s daily interactions with urban technologies and the role they play in everyday life by investigating use practices for the on urban, multipurpose, public display network in the city of Oulu in northern Finland. The goal is two-fold, namely, to investigate different aspects of emerging urban computing practices and understand the versatility of the contributing factors behind these practices. The work is grounded in practice theory that understands practices as a result of an historical evolution influenced by several forces. On the one hand, the thesis concentrates on the local accomplishment of practices; on the other hand it, seeks to understand the broader connections between these practices as well as their history and evolution. The material comes from three main sources: Users of the public displays, their developers and additional stakeholders involved in the design process, and citizen comments on the display network project on social media. The research is based on empirical qualitative research material; quantitative use statistics are applied to support the findings. The findings reveal that urban computing practices take on influences from several directions including designers and other stakeholders during the design phase, the users’ lives and existing practices, and ongoing societal and communal discourses. The thesis offers increased understanding of the designing and implementation of successful ubiquitous computing projects in a public setting.Tiivistelmä Tämä väitöskirja keskittyy ymmärtämään ihmisten päivittäistä vuorovaikutusta kaupunkiteknolgian kanssa tutkimalla käytäntöjä julkisten näyttöjen verkoston ympärillä. Tavoite on toisaalta tutkia kaupunkiteknologiakäytänteitä eri näkökulmista ja toisaalta ymmärtää monipuolisia osatekijöitä käytäntöjen takana. Työ perustuu käytäntöteoriaan, joka ymmärtää käytäntöjä historiallisen kehityksen seurauksena sekä usean osatekijän tuloksena. Toisaalta tutkielma keskittyy paikallisiin käytäntöihin; toisaalta se yrittää ymmärtää laajempia yhteyksiä käytäntöjen välillä sekä niiden historiaa ja evoluutiota. Materiaali tulee kolmesta päälähteestä: 1) Julkisten näyttöjen verkoston kehittäjiltä ja muilta suunnitteluprosessin sidosryhmiltä, 2) näyttöjen käyttäjiltä sekä 3) kaupunkilaisilta, jotka kommentoivat näyttöverkkoprojektia sosiaalisessa mediassa. Tutkimus perustuu laadulliseen tutkimusaineistoon, jonka lisäksi määrällistä käyttötilastoaineistoa sovelletaan tukemaan laadullisia havaintoja. Havainnot paljastavat, että urbaanin teknologian käytänteisiin vaikuttavat monet tekijät mukaan lukien suunnittelijat ja muut suunnitteluvaiheen sidosryhmät, käyttäjien elämä ja heidän olemassa olevat käytänteensä sekä ajankohtainen yhteiskunnallinen ja yhteisöllinen keskustelu. Tutkielma tarjoaa uudenlaista ymmärrystä jokapaikan tietotekniikka -projektien suunnittelusta ja toteutuksesta julkisissa ympäristöissä

Introducing a practice toolkit for understanding and shaping children’s digitalized everyday life:case children and public displays

Abstract Children of today live increasingly digitalized lives. Child computer interaction (CCI) research has a strong agenda to empower children in the digital age through participation in new digital technology design. While children’s role in digital technology design has been studied from various perspectives, existing research is limited in understanding and approaching children’s continuously evolving digital lives and practices. In this paper, we scrutinize a practice toolkit method for making sense and shaping children’s digitalized everyday life and practice. We concretize its use through an analysis of children’s and their families’ engagement with an interactive public display infrastructure, providing zoom-in and zoom-out analyses of emergent practices around the infrastructure. We show various kinds of creative and collaborative accomplishments, the importance of the material world and the relationship of the practices to media discourses and discuss how these practices can be used to inspire and shape further digital technology development. We demonstrate the value of the practice toolkit and emergent practices for CCI research and practice

Digital technologies in everyday environments:zooming in and out to children's and their families' smart device practices with public and private screens

Abstract Digital technologies have become more and more ubiquitous. The role of technology in our everyday has changed radically, shaping existing practices and facilitating new ones. Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research has recently interested in practice studies. Looking beyond novelty value of technology, practice studies try to understand how technology becomes integrated into everyday life and how it shapes everyday practices in longer timespan. This paper responds to the recent call for practice studies and utilizes Nicolini’s toolbox approach for making sense of technology-facilitated practices of children and their families in their everyday life. We first zoom-in on children’s practices with a multipurpose public display through an ethnographic field study, and then zoom-out to the children’s and families’ smart device practices through a diary study. We show that children’s practices with public display were surprisingly similar with practices elsewhere. The contribution is 1) demonstrating the use of the toolkit approach, and 2) shedding light on children’s and families’ smart device practices in private and public settings

Entertainment with public displays and personal screens:children’s ubiquitous computing practices in urban and domestic settings

Abstract Human-computer interaction (HCI) research has recently become more interested in studying practices. Looking beyond the novelty of technology, practice studies try to understand how technology becomes integrated into everyday life and how it shapes everyday practices in the longer time span. The contribution of this article is to demonstrate how ubiquitous computing practices develop. The article also sheds light on children’s and their families’ smart device practices in private and public settings. This paper responds to the recent call for practice studies in HCI and tries to understand technology-mediated practices of children and their families in their everyday lives. We first focused on children’s practices with a multipurpose public display through an ethnographic field study, and then broadened our focus to the children’s and families’ smart device practices through a diary study. We showed that children’s practices with a public display were surprisingly similar to their other information and communication technology (ICT) practices at home and elsewhere. In both settings, displays were used for entertainment and time-killing, as well as for babysitting and social interaction. This study indicates that technology-mediated practices do not spring up from the ground fully formed. There are several factors contributing to the practices’ emergence: the artefact itself and its affordances, the nature of the space, and the mind-set of the users. This finding has many implications for research and design, indicating that when developing technology, we should pay attention to a variety of factors that might be contributing to the emergence of practice around that technology — factors not yet fully explored by current research

Digital transformation of everyday life:how COVID-19 pandemic transformed the basic education of the young generation and why information management research should care?

Abstract Children of today have been surrounded by digital technology since their birth. However, children of today are not equally equipped for their technology rich future: various kinds of digital divides still prevail in the society and affect the young generation and their digital futures. Schools and education of children should undergo an extensive digital transformation to be able to meet the needs of the young generation and their digitalized future. The COVID-19 pandemic has suddenly and abruptly forced schools and education indeed to engage in such a transformation. In this study we examine the digital transformation initiated by the COVID-19 pandemic in the basic education of the young generation, the variety of digital divides emerging and reinforced, and the possible barriers reported along the way. We argue that information management research should better acknowledge children, their digitalized everyday life and their basic education as significant areas of concern. We should understand them as well as allow them to shape the education we offer in the context of higher education, but we should also aim at influencing the basic education of the young generation — for the purpose of equipping them with important skills and competencies for their digital futures but also for the purpose of arousing their interest in this important field, maybe even as a career option

In sweet harmony or in bitter discord?:how cultural values and stakeholder requirements shape and users read an urban computing technology

Abstract Culture is, in many ways, implicated in and shapes technology design and use. Inspired by Stuart Hall’s conception of encoding/decoding, we maintain that technological artefacts reflect the cultural values of their creators, while users, in their encounters with the technological artefacts, may decode those artefacts in various ways that are shaped by the users’ cultural values. In this article, we apply this lens to study a decade-long urban computing project that took place in the wild. We focus on the project’s development team and on how their cultural values shape technology design. We also acknowledge that such an urban computing project involves many other stakeholder groups that affect the course of events. In our analysis, we examine how these stakeholders shaped and interpreted the technology in question. Although the development project had a seemingly generic “for all” ethos, the various stakeholders pulled the focus in different directions. The trajectory of the project can be characterized as reacting to these competing influences—sometimes achieving fit, while other times resulting in conflicts. The contribution of this paper is a structured analysis and reflections on cultural issues in community technology design in the wild, with a focus on the role of the developers’ cultural values and other stakeholders’ technology-related requirements and interpretations. This study has implications for subsequent studies in the wild by framing them as fluid settings of a great variety of stakeholders with a multiplicity of values, requirements, and interpretations

Embedded assumptions in design and making projects with children

Abstract Previous literature highlights the importance of teaching children design and Making skills. However, there are fundamental differences in projects engaging children in design and Making, concerning the objects and motives of design. They vary depending on whether one emphasizes participatory design, user centered design, Making philosophy or entrepreneurship education, among others. In the first two, the emphasis is on the appreciation and engagement with the user, who is seen as separable from the designer. The third one often starts with solving one’s own problems while the fourth one prioritizes the customer. In this paper, we analyze the existing literature and three of our own design and Making projects with children. We reveal diversity in the projects reported in the literature and challenges among children in our projects in understanding the design goals and practices, particularly relating to designing for oneself versus designing for others. We propose a categorization for mapping and managing this diversity

Entrepreneurship education meets FabLab:lessons learned with teenagers

Abstract Digital fabrication, making and entrepreneurship education all have potential to empower children and increase their abilities to participate and shape the society and digitalization within, and act as active “protagonists” instead of passive consumers. While the potential of these educational trends has been acknowledged, they have mostly been studied separately and without specific focus on challenges involved. We have conducted a business innovation project with teenagers at school, combining elements of digital fabrication, making and entrepreneurship education. Our qualitative, data-driven analysis focused on the process and the challenges involved in the endeavor. As a result, we generate a list of lessons learned associated with teenagers adopting the role of a protagonist, driving business innovation. Our main findings relate to the lessons learned on the importance of balancing the making activities with the entrepreneurial aspects and negotiating the roles and responsibilities between the adult participants

“We were proud of our idea”:how teens and teachers gained value in an entrepreneurship and making project

Abstract While the potential of digital fabrication, making, and entrepreneurship education for empowering children and for increasing their abilities to shape the society and our digital future have been acknowledged in the literature, these educational trends have mostly been studied separately in Child–Computer Interaction (CCI) research. Additionally, while digital fabrication and making have been discussed quite extensively in relation to the role of Design Protagonist in the CCI literature, the relevance of entrepreneurship education on this role remains quite unexplored. We combined digital fabrication, making, and entrepreneurship education in a business innovation project with teenagers at school context. Through our qualitative, interpretive analysis, where we use value co-creation as our theoretical lens, we show what kind of value was expected and gained in this collaborative endeavor. Teachers valued learning new teaching methods and the possibilities of digital fabrication. Teens appreciated the change in scenery and routine and working on digital fabrication. They indicated learning useful things about the project topics during groupwork and experienced feelings of success related to their performance and the group project. We also identify challenges hindering value creation for teachers and students: differing expectations on the roles and responsibilities of adult participants, and difficulty balancing the fun, free making activities with the entrepreneurship aspects of the project. We discuss the implications of business innovation for the Design Protagonist role of children and identify balancing acts needed when supporting children to adopt the role for driving business innovation in the future digitalized society

CHI against bullying:taking stock of the past and envisioning the future

Abstract Bullying is a challenge concerning us all, and particularly our children. This has already been acknowledged by CHI, among others. Despite the interest, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the state of the art — a critical review is needed, addressing bullying in the lives of children, in the context of and/or by the means of design and technology, covering CHI as well as related computing fields, being inspired by the strong body of knowledge within human sciences. We report on a comprehensive literature review on the topic, with the aim to understand what and how has been done so far to handle this troublesome and widespread phenomenon as well as to indicate how to move the field forward. We report how the topic has been examined and with what kind of means tackled, revealing interesting underlying assumptions about design, technology and human agency