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Posted
March 17, 2024
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Gender literacy through the making process: A feminist pedagogy approach

This article aims at exploring how to support students’ awareness on gender stereotypes and the development of gender literacy through the making process of interactive toys. I present a case study with 22 primary students (11–12 years) from a public primary school in Barcelona (Spain) who were involved in a maker workshop series. Building on principles of transformative feminist pedagogy, the article shows exemplary design activities for children to create a space for dialogue and reflection upon gender stereotypes. To this end, the activities were used as a means to spark critical reflections among the students and to guide them in the design of prototypes of cross-gendered interactive toys. By analyzing students’ artifacts and verbal expressions during the discussions, the study illustrates how they gradually discover their own assumptions on gender stereotypes and were enabled to propose cross-gendered alternatives for interactive toys focusing on movement-based and collaborative activities. Finally, the article presents a set of educational activities that support students to reflect upon gender stereotypes in the making process and guidelines for teachers to integrate these strategies into their educational practices.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijcci.2024.100648

Posted
November 17, 2023
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Our special issue on “Computational Empowerment and Children” in the International Journal of Child Computer Interaction is out!

The special issue is honouring Professor Dr. Heidi Schelhowe (1949–2021), whose research and perspectives have been foundational for the development of Computational Empowerment. Building on Schelhowe’s perspective, we included  8 international research articles in the special issue. These contributions showcase how current research in CCI is pushing the boundaries of Computational Empowerment towards novel conceptual perspectives, diverse application areas and participatory strategies for maturing the field. It thus provides an excellent starting point for readers to familiarise themselves with the current state-of-the-art of Computational Empowerment. Each of the contributions offer new opportunities and directions to further develop Computational Empowerment in CCI research and practice towards empowerment, agency and participation. As such, this special issue on Computational Empowerment marks the beginning of an emerging research trajectory within CCI research. It is an invitation to scholars and practitioners to take on the challenges that still lie ahead of us to fully embrace the Computational Empowerment of future generations.

Thank you very much to all co-editors of the special issue Rachel Charlotte Smith, Ole Sejer Iversen, Christopher Frauenberger, Netta Iivari, Anja Zeising, Mike Tissenbaum, Elizabeth Marie Bonsignore and Jason Yip.

Here check out the special issue articles

Posted
June 17, 2023
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Do you develop embodied design techniques for children? Check out our new Think-4-EmCoDe framework! We provide guidelines on how to evaluate and improve your techniques.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhcs.2023.103065

Think-4-EmCoDe framework: Highlighting key qualities in embodied co-design techniques for children

Embodied, co-design and children-specific methods have been gaining traction in Interaction Design for Children, and their potential and benefits are well-established. Yet methods at the intersection of all three areas are scarcer. In addition, design researchers lack tools for the analysis and adaptation of existing methods, and the creation of new ones to suit the particularities of the design project at hand. Here, we present the Think-4-EmCoDe framework for the design and analysis of embodied co-design methods and techniques for children, which foregrounds key qualities in embodied interaction design research: (1) embodied awareness; (2) reflective imaginary; (3) emergence; (4) embodied memory; (5) situated relationality; (6) contingency; (7) playful engagement; (8) play practice; (9) developmental scaffolds; and (10) social dialogue. The framework has been developed drawing from several theories, methods, and frameworks in the areas of co-design and embodied design approaches. This framework allows designers to focus on both general design qualities for embodied experiences and the specific child perspective. We illustrate the use of the framework through the analysis of three design techniques and discuss its potential as an inspirational tool to understand, adapt and refine embodied co-design techniques for children.

Posted
September 23, 2021
Category
STEAM, Women in Technology

During September 2021, I participated in the workshop series Me­thods, Theo­ry, and Ta­king Ac­tion through Gen­der and Fe­mi­nis­ms in Hu­man-Com­pu­ter In­ter­ac­tion (HCI).

In Event 3 about Learning Methods, I presented the a study about “Design Techniques to promote gender literacy in digital fabrication with primary school students” and facilitated a challenge on Designing Interactive Genderless Toys. Instructions can be found here: shorturl.at/tyHJM

 

Posted
August 12, 2021
Category
Design, Participatory Design

Bildschirmfoto 2021-08-12 um 15.53.36Today I want to share a publication, I am particularly proud of. The journal article presents five embodied co-design techniques for children that I developed during my thesis in collaboration with the theatre school Plàudite in Barcelona. The research was recently published in TOCHI.

 

Marie-Monique Schaper and Narcis Pares. (2021). Co-design Techniques for and with Children based on Physical Theatre Practice to promote Embodied Awareness. ACM Trans. Comput.-Hum. Interact. 28, 4, Article 22 (July 2021), 42 pages. DOI:
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3450446
Abstract:
Research in Full-Body Interaction suggests the benefits of activities based on using embodied resources to strengthen the sensorimotor, cognitive and socio-emotional aspects of the user experience. However, scholars in this field have been often primarily concerned with the comprehension of and design for the user’s mind. Little attention has been drawn on its connection to the bodily experience. The scarcity of adequate co-design methods with and for children to raise an awareness of their body during design risks of deriving interaction design decisions only from the perspective of adult designers. In this article, we present our research on novel co-design techniques to elicit children’s embodied awareness. These techniques were analysed in the context of a design workshop series with a local theatre school. For the analysis, we used the Think4EmCoDe research framework, a tool to foreground key aspects of an embodied co-design technique for children. Results indicate the benefits of techniques based on physical theatre practice that (1) help children understand their body and space as mediators of ideas and meaning making processes; (2) allow them to incorporate the specific features of Full-Body Interaction in their co-design.

Posted
October 17, 2019
Category
Technology, Women in Technology
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Our CosiCosa team is very grateful to the foundation Cibervoluntarios for the opportunity to take part in the new publication InnovadorasTIC. In the interview, we talk about our experiences with the educational project CosiCosa, our future ambitions and the gender perspective in ICT. Thank you so much for the amazing initiative!
Download the publication here (in Spanish)
Posted
August 2, 2019
Category
Design, Participatory Design
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New publication about the FUBImethod

We are pleased to announce that we have published a new article in the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies.

Title: FUBImethod: Strategies to engage Children in the Co-Design of Full-Body Interactive Experiences

Abstract: In this paper, we present the FUBImethod, a method based on six stages to co-design interactive experiences based on Full-Body Interaction. The FUBImethod aims specifically to engage children in co-design processes and to benefit from their natural playfulness and expertise in movement. This approach allows designers to go beyond the surface level of content-driven ideas by raising awareness of the body and space, and by proposing techniques that help the design team to understand and incorporate the specific qualities that constitute Full-Body Interaction. We also propose strategies to strengthen the children’s perspective in the design process in reaching a common agreement in the design goals and the selection of adequate design choices within the design team. We ground our theoretical discussions on the outcomes of the research project “Evaluation-Driven Design”, the goal of which was the exploration and definition of adequate research and design methods in Full- Body Interaction.

Reference:

Marie-Monique Schaper, Ole Sejer Iversen, Laura Malinverni, and Narcis Pares. (2019). FUBImethod: Strategies to engage children in the co-design of Full-Body interactive experiences. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 132: 52-69. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhcs.2019.07.008 

 

Posted
March 30, 2019
Category
Digital Fabrication, Embodied Design Techniques, Public Space, Technology
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This Friday has opened the exposition ELISAVA Experimenta! During one week, I facilitated the workshop CITY AND SCIENCE for students of this design school in Barcelona. The workshop aimed at designing interactive interventions for a new urban sector in the city Viladecans. For the design, we experimented with different “experiential bubbles” based on embodied design techniques. The goal was to inspire students’ creativity, to engage their body in the design process and offer them another way of reflecting upon the specific qualities of public spaces. The ideation process was documented on a conceptual wall. The result of this workshop are two proposals for interactive interventions for the sector, (1) 5L: questioning our consciousness of water consumption and (2) ONA: translating the cultural heritage of a brick factory into an interactive artefact for the public playground.

Posted
January 28, 2019
Category
Participatory Design, Technology, Virtual Heritage
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Finally, the day has come… I successfully presented my PhD Thesis defence last Friday, 25th January 2019 at 11 am. It took place in Tanger Building, Room 55.309 (third floor), Campus Poblenou, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.

The thesis is titled: Co-Design Strategies with Children in Full-Body Interaction for Situated Non-Formal Learning Experiences. The thesis was supervised by Narcís Parés and evaluated by the PhD committee composed of Ole Iversen (University Aarhus), Oscar Tomico (University Eindhoven of Technology) and Davinia Herandez-Leo (Universitat Pompeu Fabra).

 

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