Empowered to make a change:guidelines for empowering the young generation in and through digital technology design

Abstract This paper scrutinizes how children can be empowered to make a change through acquiring skills in digital technology design. We propose a framework that integrates theoretical understanding from literature on nexus analysis, values, and value as well as empowerment and genuine participation of children, and a related tool for educators and researchers advocating empowerment and inclusion. They should benefit from this tool when planning, analyzing, and evaluating their projects. We argue that the tool is useful beyond studies with children and can be used as a practical tool when planning and implementing digital technology design projects with any group of people and as a theoretical tool when studying such endeavors, especially when working with vulnerable or underserved participants

Empowering children through design and making:towards protagonist role adoption

Abstract Inviting children to adopt a Protagonist role regarding technology has recently become advocated. Such a role embraces the original political participatory design (PD) agenda and aims at empowerment of children through design and making. However, so far the literature is limited in exploring the adoption of this role by children. While studies have reported experiences of engaging children in design and making activities, in-depth inquiries on children’s experiences and challenges involved are lacking. We also maintain that the PD community has so far neglected education of children — in participation, design and technology — as our task and duty. This study reports findings from a design and making project aiming at empowerment of children, carried out in school context. We show that adopting the Protagonist role is not easy and there is a lot of variety between children. We present children’s experiences and reflect on the challenges involved in progressing towards Protagonist role adoption

‘It has to be useful for the pupils, of course’:teachers as intermediaries in design with children

Abstract We explore ways by which teachers act as intermediaries in information technology (IT) design with children through analyzing three of our design projects conducted with schoolchildren and their teachers. In our projects the teachers acted as informants and evaluators, but not as IT design partners, albeit they had a lot of decision-making power as steering-group members of the projects. The teachers offered valuable understanding of children through their general knowledge about child development and their knowledge of their class. Teachers also acted as valuable facilitators in the design process, enhancing children’s participation in the design process. They also acted as advocates of children and their learning. They considered children’s learning goals and fit with the curriculum and developed their own skills and knowledge to serve children’s learning. Occasionally, they also acted as advocates of children’s interests more generally; however, not in the sense of critical tradition

Manifesto for children’s genuine participation in digital technology design and making

Abstract We articulate in this paper what participation at its best entails in the context of digital technology design with children, forming a theoretical framework for genuine participation of children in digital technology design and making. We integrate in the framework a set of conditions for the meaningful and effective participation of children and the nexus analytic concepts of historical body, interaction order and discourses in place, and complement that with the lenses of empowerment, values and value. In addition to these theoretical lenses, we rely on the insights gained during our empirical work with children for more than a decade. We contribute to research on Child Computer Interaction (CCI) by explaining what ‘participation at its best’ entails in practice and how it can be studied in research. Thus, CCI researchers and practitioners advocating participation, empowerment and inclusion of children can benefit from this framework when planning, analysing and evaluating their projects with children

Inclusive or inflexible:a critical analysis of the school context in supporting children’s genuine participation

Abstract Relatively little attention has been paid to discussing what it means when children’s participation in technology design is genuine, even though the importance of their participation is emphasized in the literature. School as a context presents multiple challenges but also numerous benefits for working with children. We examine five projects carried out with children in the school context, and critically consider in which respects this context supports genuine participation of children, in which respects it poses challenges for it, and what this implies for technology design with children. We maintain that researchers need to critically examine the goals set for children’s participation: whether they are learning- or material outcome-oriented. This significantly affects the choice of the context for projects

Socializers, achievers or both?:value-based roles of children in technology design projects

Abstract We have examined value creation in projects aiming at teaching children design related skills. Our results show that in addition to the roles defined by adults for children in the technology design process children adopt various roles in situ by themselves. We utilized in our analysis a value creation lens, Schwartz’s model of universal values, and Self-Determination Theory. We did this to see in what roles the children were successful in value creation and how this is related to children’s motivation. We propose a five-step method for Role-based Value Creation Analysis (R-VCA). While our participants were 9–14-year-old children, we argue that the value creation approach and the R-VCA method are applicable to other age or user groups as well since the value creation lens is not in any way specific to children. We argue that value creation analysis can be an important tool in finding out what empowers and motivates design process participants. This knowledge can further help in planning new projects as well as offering new perspectives on existing research data

Finding fun in non-formal technology education

Abstract In this exploratory study into the world of 8–17-year-old children’s non-formal technology education, two different types of technology education with varying levels of non-formality were investigated to see how participants find fun in these situations as it is apparent that if something is non-mandatory to attend to, there should be some type of enjoyment found in the process. The results of the analysis suggest that there are three main ways children and teenagers have fun in non-formal education: fun from the tasks they are doing, social fun by sharing with other attendants, and pedagogical fun that has been embedded in the learning process. Based on our findings, we offer suggestions for how to add elements of fun in the non-formal technology education, to make it more motivating and enjoyable to the participants

Preface:FabLearn Europe ’19: proceedings of the FabLearn Europe 2019 conference 2019

Abstract The 4th European FabLearn conference FabLearn Europe 2019: Conference on Creativity and Making in Education in Oulu, Finland, was hosted by University of Oulu, one of the northernmost multidisciplinary universities in the world, where science is done “with an arctic attitude.” It was organized by INTERACT Research Unit from Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, in collaboration with University of Oulu Fab Lab

Digital fabrication and Making with children:scrutinizing adult actors’ strategies and challenges in mediating young people’s activities

Abstract Cultivating children’s Maker mindset by facilitating their involvement in Makerspaces is recognized by researchers around the world as a topic worth investigating. Previous studies have revealed several different roles for the adults involved; however, there is little elaboration on the characteristics and strategies associated with these roles. This study focuses on digital fabrication and Making activities with children aged 7–17 (K12). It presents the results of interview data collected from nine adult actors analysed using nexus analytic concepts of interaction order and historical body as sensitizing devices. The results reveal the diverse strategies the adult actors employed as the mediators of children’s learning, independent of their formal roles, when engaged with children. The study identifies numerous challenges the adult actors faced. Overall, it shows significant variety in the mediation of children’s digital fabrication and Making activities, shaped by adult actors with different histories and backgrounds and within different contexts. The study includes the implications for the research and practice of digital fabrication and Making with children