Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Alissa Antle and Allen Bevans who organized this workshop sought to elicit and
capture value propositions about how some challenges and needs in urban Nepalese
children's lives may be improved through edutainment-based interactive technology.
Rather than impose their own values and perceptions on the problems faced by these
children, the organizers supported the children to follow a creative design process that
focused on the children's values and perceptions. They supported that the children
to identify problems that interactive technology might be able to address.
The workshop was structured as a series of design activities. In each activity
the children and the facilitators engaged in learning, group work, and discussing
a particular element in a typical creative design process. The first activity centred
around getting to know one another by discussing where everyone was from and
how everyone's work or school days are shaped. This activity focused on setting
the context for the rest of the design process. The second activity centred around
identifying a need or problem that the children had either in their own lives or in the
life of their family or community. The third activity centred around a show and tell
of interactive technology on a variety of platforms ranging from a standard personal
computer to web-based applications to mobile based and tablet applications. The
goal of this activity was to introduce the capabilities and functionalities of different
technologies that might be used as part of the solutions to problems identified in
the previous phase. Finally the fourth activity involved synthesis of all of the ideas
and information in the previous activities. The children worked in small groups with
the facilitators to engage in an ideation activity. The goal of this activity was to
frame a problem and ideate how inter-active technology might be used to enable or
enhance the solution based on one challenge or need the children had identified in the
second activity. The facilitator worked with each small group to help them capture,
express and present the essence of their idea on how the challenge or need might
be addressed. The children presented their ideas to the rest of their peers and the
entire group discussed each idea. The result of the workshop was a series of value
propositions created by the children. Each proposition included a short description
of the context, problem, and potential technically mediated solutions.
The workshop was also designed to set the stage for a close working relationship
between the research team and the child participants in terms of working together
to further develop ideas about one or more ways that interactive technologies might
improve these children's lives (Figs.
2.14
and
2.15
).
2.4
The Workshop Experience
The kids workshops were set up with two aims in mind. The first was to create a
venue through which local children could go beyond mere “playing” with technol-
ogy, and explore concepts such as creativity, experience, and “cool” ways of creating
entertainment media. This meant to expand their own understanding of entertainment
computing and its potential with visiting researchers and entertainment media prac-
titioners. The second aim was to provide the visiting researchers and entertainment
