Postgraduate Course: Children, Interaction and Design (fusion on-site) (EFIE11294)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh Futures Institute |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Would you like to explore the socio-technical entanglements that pervade children and young people's lives, and the design of technologies which shape their futures? In this course, we will critically examine the methods and mindsets that can lead to more inclusive and child-led design futures, and apply learning to real-world contexts through methods such as Participatory Design Futuring. |
| Course description |
This course will furnish students with an understanding of the current state-of-the-art in the area of children, interaction and design - conceptually, methodologically and pragmatically. Based on participatory design principles, which suggest the people for whom a technology is intended ought to be foregrounded in its design, the course will actively support students to understand the complexities of supporting young and marginalised voices to be included in technology development, such as children with additional support needs and accessibility considerations. Key to the methodological underpinnings of this work will be a Participatory Design Futuring approach, where students are invited to explore and expand on participatory design methods with children in speculative, future-focussed ways.
The course will be delivered across two main topics:
1) Understanding Children, Interaction and Design (Conceptual/Theoretical)
The first part of the course will introduce key theory on children, interaction and design, drawing from multiple disciplines, such as Human-Computer Interaction, Child-Computer Interaction, Education, Accessibility, Design and Computer Science. Students will build an understanding of the state-of-the-art theory and practice related to current critical debates in the field, for example the increasing proliferation of artificially intelligent systems in children's lives.
2) Exploring Participatory Design Futuring (Methodological/Practical)
The second part of the course will introduce design thinking and concepts of co-design and participatory design futuring as they apply to children's interactions with technology. With a focus on interdisciplinarity, students will work in groups to develop a design concept or prototype based on real-world, data-driven design briefs. In terms of supporting students' wider skills, this course will bring Design Thinking to the fore, teaching students how to apply creative methods to understand design problems, involve participants, ideate and brainstorm, and 'prototype' solutions to design opportunities or challenges in children's lives (linking to wider challenge-led initiatives).
To demonstrate their learning, students will complete a group assignment based on the format of a short 6-page 'work-in-progress' paper for the premier Child-Computer Interaction conference, 'Interaction Design and Children', as well as an individual short creative reflection on the design sprint and its outcomes, in the creative format of their choice (e.g. a short video, podcast, annotated drawing, or written piece).
Edinburgh Futures Institute (EFI) - On-Site Fusion Course Delivery Information:
The Edinburgh Futures Institute will teach this course in a way that enables online and on-campus students to study together. This approach (our 'fusion' teaching model) offers students flexible and inclusive ways to study, and the ability to choose whether to be on-campus or online at the level of the individual course. It also opens up ways for diverse groups of students to study together regardless of geographical location. To enable this, the course will use technologies to record and live-stream student and staff participation during their teaching and learning activities.
Students should be aware that:
- Classrooms used in this course will have additional technology in place: students might not be able to sit in areas away from microphones or outside the field of view of all cameras.
- Unless the lecturer or tutor indicates otherwise you should assume the session is being recorded.
As part of your course, you will need access to a personal computing device. Unless otherwise stated activities will be web browser based and as a minimum we recommend a device with a physical keyboard and screen that can access the internet.
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 20 |
| Course Start |
Semester 2 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 2,
Supervised Practical/Workshop/Studio Hours 16,
Online Activities 4,
Formative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
74 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Summative Assessment:
The course will be assessed by means of the following assessment components:
1) Group 'Work-in-Progress' Paper for the ACM Interaction, Design and Children Conference (50%)
Up to 6 pages (in line with IDC publishing guidelines at time of writing), group (approx. 4 students per group).
The coursework will take the form of a real-world conference paper for the Interaction Design and Children conference, enhancing students' understanding of the process of academic publication and critical reflection on design outcomes. The paper will describe, for example, the chosen case study and literature background, the method and design process during the design sprint, and critically analyse the design outcome. Current IDC Guidelines here: Call for papers - Work in Progress - IDC 2024 (acm.org).
A group collaborative mark will be awarded for this assessment. Students will be provided with guidance about how to conduct effective group work and will attend 2 collaborative group meetings, the purpose of which is to ensure overall cohesion of the work. They may wish, for example, to each be responsible for one section of the work (e.g. literature review, methods etc). The second assessment provides the mechanism for ensuring each student individually engaged with all sections of the collaborative submission.
2) Individual Creative Reflection (50%)
Various formats, individual.
In line with participatory interaction design principles, students will individually reflect on experience of the design sprint and design outcome through a short creative piece. This could take the form of, for example, a reflective written piece (max. 2 pages), an annotated drawing, a short video (max. 5 mins), a slide deck, a podcast/audio reflection (max. 5 mins) or another form of creative expression, depending on individual student choice. Formats will be discussed with Course Organiser in advance to ensure they are commensurate with weighting and guidance will be provided (no creative background necessary).
Notes on group work:
Asynchronous students will be liaised with to ensure their participation in the design sprint and in the group work is smooth and rich. Where hands-on making is not possible, digital alternatives can be provided. |
| Feedback |
This course will be characterised by ongoing and dialogic feedback from tutors and peers. This will include the use of discussion forums and Miro board feedback alongside the dialogue that takes place during the intensive 2-day session. Tutors and peers will provide comments on ideas and work in progress.
There will be ongoing formative feedback from Course Organisers and peers during the design sprint, and the group reflective activity at the end of Day 2 will provide key feedback on the outcomes of their design sprint. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Demonstrate critical understanding of state-of-the-art theory and practice in the field of Child-Computer Interaction.
- Engage in participatory and futuring research and apply their understanding of ethical design considerations in practice.
- Identify, evaluate and critically engage with a range of methods for engaging children in the design process.
- Practice approaches to interdisciplinary research through engagement in a group design project.
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Essential Reading:
Alissa Antle and Juan Pablo Hourcade. 2022. Research in Child-Computer Interaction: Provocations and envisioning future directions. International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, 32, 100374. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2021.100374
Ole Sejer Iversen, Rachel Charlotte Smith, and Christian Dindler. 2017. Child as Protagonist: Expanding the Role of Children in Participatory Design. In Proceedings of the 2017 Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC '17). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 27-37. https://doi.org/10.1145/3078072.3079725
Cara Wilson, Margot Brereton, Bernd Ploderer, and Laurianne Sitbon. 2019. Co-Design Beyond Words: 'Moments of Interaction' with Minimally-Verbal Children on the Autism Spectrum. In Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Paper 21, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300251
Chris Elsden, David Chatting, Abigail C. Durrant, Andrew Garbett, Bettina Nissen, John Vines, and David S. Kirk. 2017. On Speculative Enactments. In Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '17). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 5386-5399. https://doi.org/10.1145/3025453.3025503
Recommended Reading:
Susanne Bødker, Christian Dindler, Ole Sejer Iversen and Rachel Charlotte Smith, R. 2022. Participatory Design. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-02235-7
Juan Pablo Houcade. 2015. Child-Computer Interaction. Self, Iowa http://homepage.cs.uiowa.edu/~hourcade/book/child-computer-interaction-first-edition.pdf
Maarten Van Mechelen, Rachel Charlotte Smith, Marie-Monique Schaper, Mariana Aki Tamashiro, Karl-Emil Kjær Bilstrup, Mille Skovhus Lunding, Marianne Graves Petersen, and Ole Sejer Iversen. 2022. Emerging Technologies in K-12 Education: A Future HCI Research Agenda. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. https://doi.org/10.1145/3569897
Andrew Manches. 2018. Evaluating technologies for children's learning: The challenges, and steps to address them. In L. Hamilton, & J. Ravenscroft (Eds.), Building Research Design in Education (1 ed., pp. 213-236). Bloomsbury Academic
Sandjar Kozubaev, Chris Elsden, Noura Howell, Marie Louise Juul Søndergaard, Nick Merrill, Britta Schulte, and Richmond Y. Wong. 2020. Expanding Modes of Reflection in Design Futuring. In Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1145/3313831.3376526
Ross, Jen. Digital futures for learning: Speculative methods and pedagogies. Taylor & Francis, 2022.
Groundwater-Smith, Susan, Sue Dockett, and Dorothy Bottrell. Participatory research with children and young people. Sage, 2014.
About | ChiCI - Child Computer Interaction playbook |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
The course contributes to the following graduate attributes and skills:
- Curiosity for learning that makes a positive difference - inspiring students to make positive change in the area of Children, Interaction and Design.
- Passion to engage locally and globally.
- Creative problem solvers and researchers - 'participatory design research' champions inclusion of marginalised voices, such as children, in the design process.
- Critical and reflective thinkers - develop a flexible and critical mindset towards the design of technology for children.
- Effective and influential contributors.
- Skilled communicators.
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| Keywords | Children,Young People,Interaction Design,Child-Computer Interaction,Participatory Design,Futuring |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Cara Wilson
Tel:
Email: cara.wilson@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Abby Gleave
Tel: (0131 6)51 1337
Email: abby.gleave@ed.ac.uk |
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