When participatory design projects end : Designing a toolkit for teachers

Abstract

Enabling participants of participatory design (PD) projects to maintain the practices and experiences of the project and sustaining PD practices and experiences for similar audiences not involved in the initial project, is an ongoing struggle in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and PD. In this thesis, I reflect on the experiences and challenges in enabling participants of the PD project (primary school teachers) and teachers not involved in the initial project to conduct PD and technology design activities after the initial research project, the Social Play Technologies (SPT) project, ended. The aim of the SPT project was to design interactive technologies which support neurodivergent children with social play. Nearing the projects’ end, we focused on creating resources that enable teachers which were involved and not involved in the SPT project to conduct PD and technology design activities with their class, aiming to enable SPT experiences for children not involved in the SPT project. Hence the guiding research question for this thesis is: “How can we increase the likelihood that the positive experiences and practices of PD projects in a school context are sustained for teachers participating in the project and teachers and children not involved in the initial project?”.To address this question, I created a toolkit as a collection of resources that supports teachers to empower children to engage with technology in creative and critical ways and to create their own technologies. My work makes two main contributions: 1. A socio-material toolkit which supports teachers to engage in technology design activities with children, using methods based on PD practices and a support network2. Considerations for future PD practices which can help researchers to enable participants and similar audiences not involved in the initial project to evolve their practices around PD