Re-defining characteristics of a Design Protagonist:elements of children’s design capital

Abstract The importance of child empowerment in and through design and making has been acknowledged. The notion of “child as a Design Protagonist” concerning technology has recently been introduced. We conducted a narrative literature review to examine the current understanding of what it requires from children to become a Protagonist in design. The main objective of this study is to examine the concepts associated with children’s competences relevant for design, such as various capitals, skills, and capacities. We identify core concepts used as well as several gaps in this literature base. We separate the competences into 1) those that need to be nurtured in children and 2) those that children already have and bring to the design process. We propose a concept of design capital for mapping these competences of child Design Protagonists

Brave and kind superheroes:children’s reflections on the design protagonist role

Abstract A design protagonist role for children has recently gained attention in political participatory design, with the aim of reframing the position of a child in relation to technology. However, the concept and the characteristics of the design protagonist remain quite vague still. We conducted a “My Superhero” design project with 13‐14-year-old schoolchildren, giving them a voice, nurturing their agency, and inviting them to reflect on their design experiences and the notion of the design protagonist. The findings show the children spontaneously adopted different roles, also the design protagonist role, in the design process without us intentionally guiding them towards those. The findings reveal children’s views on the characteristics of a design protagonist and their perceptions of their own characteristics and learning within the design process. Several factors mediating children’s adoption of the protagonist role, including context, personal interest, empathy, prior joint experience, adults’ role, self-learning, and soft skills, were discovered

Workplace literacy skills:how information and digital literacy affect adoption of digital technology

Abstract Purpose: Information and digital literacy have recently received much interest, and they are being viewed as critical strategic organisational resources and skills that employees need to obtain in order to function at their workplaces. Yet, the role of employees’ literacy seems to be neglected in current literature. This paper aims to explore the roles that information and digital literacy play on the employees’ perception in relation to usefulness and ease of use of digital technologies and consequently their intention to use technology in the practices they perform at the workplace. Design/Methodology/Approach: This paper builds a conceptual model with key constructs (information literacy and digital literacy) as new antecedents to the technology acceptance model and aims to establish that information literacy and digital literacy are indirect determinants of employees’ intention to use digital technologies at the workplace. The data set used in this paper comprises of 121 respondents and structural equation modelling was used. Findings: The findings reveal that both information literacy and digital literacy have a direct impact on perceived ease of use of technology but not on the perceive usefulness. The findings also show that both literacies have an indirect impact on the intention to use digital technology at work via attitude towards use. Practical implications: Managers and decision-makers should pay close attention to the literacy levels of their staff. Because literacies are such an important skillset in the digital age, managers and chief information officers may want to start by identifying which work groups or individuals require literacy training and instruction, and then provide specific and relevant training or literacy interventions to help those who lack sufficient literacy. Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to consider information literacy and digital literacy as new antecedents of the technology acceptance model at the workplace environment

Uncovering children’s situated design capital:a nexus analytic inquiry

Abstract Nurturing children’s competences needed for their digital futures and inviting them to adopt a protagonist role within design process have recently been emphasized in child-computer interaction research. For children to be able to act as design protagonists, they need design capital. We carried out a project with 13‐14‐year-olds and inquired under what circumstances the situated design capital of children emerged, enabling them to act as design protagonists without us deliberately steering them towards that. By employing the theoretical lens of nexus analysis, several factors were discovered that mediated children to utilize their situated design capital, including distributed agency, positive peer pressure, peer learning, and identity positioning. The findings imply that children’s situated capital emanates from interactional phenomena, within which historical trajectories of the place, children, discourses, ideas, and objects intermingle