The home offers a rich range of technologies and is a key site of learning for toddlers and preschoolers, where parents use a variety of digital devices for and with their children. These devices provide access to media content suitable for children, which is often selected and curated by adult caregivers. We propose this workshop at a time where researchers, teachers, parents, and designers are grappling with the role of technologies at home, to explore this design space by engaging participants' personal and professional personas to initiate conversations about young children's use of technologies at home, critiques of current research practices in this domain, and other novel ways to communicate and interact with emerging technologies in the home. In doing so, we aim to propose a path forward facilitating the design of technology and media, and policies about their use by young children.
Workshop Aims and Outcomes
We aim to leverage caregivers experience of adapting and subscribing to a multiplicity of personal and professional roles in the presence of young children at home to explore their perspectives about the role of technology and affiliated media content in children’s lives in the home. In doing so, we aim to devise a rich opportunity space facilitating the design of innovative media technologies, and recommendations and policies about their use by young children. In summary, we have the following two agenda items for the workshop:
(1) Identify caregivers’ gratifications sought through their own and their children’s use of technology in the home, and elucidate where technology succeeds or falls short in delivering those gratifications.
(2) Leverage workshop participants’ personal and professional personas to establish ways in which technology can optimally help deliver the sought gratifications.