Interpersonal expression in the special educational needs classroom: An experience-centred design case study

This paper describes our Experience-Centered Design (ECD) enquiry into the current and potential role of digital photography to support interpersonal expression in a class of children (aged 11-15 years) at a mixed special education needs school. Presented as a case study, we describe five classroom-based creative workshops that engaged pupils with a broad range of complex special needs, and classroom staff. From these workshops, we generated a set of qualitative considerations for the design of digital photographic tools to support interpersonal expression in this setting. Additionally, we present the evaluation of a photo-sorting system we developed in response to our workshop findings and evaluated in the school over a period of 12 months. Our case study demonstrates how an ECD approach can guide a creative interaction design process in a special education needs setting, supporting interaction designers in empathising and responding pragmatically to the complex and dynamic interactions at play between the stakeholders. We further discuss design research approaches to user groups in such settings, and consolidate our insights about conducting research through design for social inclusion.

[1]  Xiang Cao,et al.  Telling the whole story: anticipation, inspiration and reputation in a field deployment of TellTable , 2010, CSCW '10.

[2]  Border Ireland,et al.  National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) , 2005 .

[3]  Patrick Olivier,et al.  Design to support interpersonal communication in the special educational needs classroom , 2013, IDC.

[4]  Patrick Olivier,et al.  A study of the challenges related to DIY assistive technology in the context of children with disabilities , 2014, Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.

[5]  Jeffery D. Higginbotham,et al.  Design Meets Disability , 2009 .

[6]  Lieselotte van Leeuwen,et al.  Designing sound tools and toys for blind and visually impaired children , 2004, IDC '04.

[7]  Kieron Sheehy.  ICT and Special Educational Needs: a Tool for Inclusion , 2005 .

[8]  Steve Hodges,et al.  .NET Gadgeteer: A Platform for Custom Devices , 2012, Pervasive.

[9]  Elizabeth Foss,et al.  Cooperative Inquiry Extended: Creating Technology with Middle School Students with Learning Differences , 2013 .

[10]  Allison Druin.  Children as codesigners of new technologies: valuing the imagination to transform what is possible. , 2010, New directions for youth development.

[11]  Lieven De Couvreur,et al.  Design for (every)one: co-creation as a bridge between universal design and rehabilitation engineering , 2011 .

[12]  Anthony J. Hornof.  Designing with children with severe motor impairments , 2009, CHI.

[13]  Tal Levin,et al.  Aphasia Talks: Photography as a Means of Communication, Self-Expression, and Empowerment in Persons with Aphasia , 2007, Topics in stroke rehabilitation.

[14]  Linda Good.  Snap it Up!: Using Digital Photography in Early Childhood , 2005 .

[15]  Per-Olof Hedvall,et al.  Ideation and ability: when actions speak louder than words , 2012, PDC '12.

[16]  José van Dijck,et al.  Digital photography: communication, identity, memory , 2008 .

[17]  Manfred Tscheligi,et al.  Joking, storytelling, artsharing, expressing affection: a field trial of how children and their social network communicate with digital images in leisure time , 2000, CHI.

[18]  Neil Selwyn,et al.  Editorial: In praise of pessimism - the need for negativity in educational technology , 2011, Br. J. Educ. Technol..

[19]  Janet C. Read,et al.  Using obstructed theatre with child designers to convey requirements , 2010, CHI EA '10.

[20]  Paul Dalziel,et al.  Education and Skills , 2013 .

[21]  Peter C. Wright,et al.  Experience-Centered Design: Designers, Users, and Communities in Dialogue , 2010, Experience-Centered Design.

[22]  Allison Druin,et al.  Designing with and for children with special needs: an inclusionary model , 2008, IDC.

[23]  Christopher Frauenberger,et al.  Interpreting input from children: a designerly approach , 2012, CHI.

[24]  Allison Druin,et al.  Mixing ideas: a new technique for working with young children as design partners , 2004, IDC '04.

[25]  Rachel A. Lotan,et al.  Complex instruction: Equity in cooperative learning classrooms , 1999 .

[26]  Risto Sarvas,et al.  From Snapshots to Social Media - The Changing Picture of Domestic Photography , 2011, Computer Supported Cooperative Work.

[27]  William W. Gaver.  What should we expect from research through design? , 2012, CHI.

[28]  Allison Druin,et al.  The Role of Children in the Design Technology , 1999 .

[29]  Franca Garzotto,et al.  Broadening children's involvement as design partners: from technology to , 2008, IDC.

[30]  Gregory D. Abowd,et al.  Pervasive Computing and Autism: Assisting Caregivers of Children with Special Needs , 2007, IEEE Pervasive Computing.

[31]  Andrew Large,et al.  Mobile Technology for Children: Designing for Interaction and Learning , 2010, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[32]  Darren Newbury.  Reconstructing the Self: Photography, education and disability , 1996 .

[33]  Eija Kärnä,et al.  Designing technologies with children with special needs: Children in the Centre (CiC) framework , 2010, IDC.

[34]  Julio Abascal,et al.  Moving towards inclusive design guidelines for socially and ethically aware HCI , 2005, Interact. Comput..

[35]  Judy Robertson,et al.  Embedding technology in the classroom: the train the teacher model , 2012, IDC '12.