Prototyping Mediation: How can a technological artefact be designed to mediate local data stories and evoke reflective thought in a learning situation?

Retoft, Mads Friborg ; Szpirt, Mischa Benjamin ; Frøsig, Nikolaj

4. term

Techno-Anthropology, Master

2018

2018-08-01

92

Denne afhandling følger design og test af en medierende teknologi (et redskab, der er med til at forme brugernes opfattelser og handlinger) udviklet for at hjælpe skoleelever med at forstå luftforurening i det EU-finansierede projekt SaveOurAir. I to korte, intensive data sprints (fokuserede udviklingsforløb) observerede og deltog vi i udviklingen af prototypen "myAir teaching kit". Den bestod af en partikelsensor, en lærervejledning og en webplatform, som koblede sensorens målinger med elevernes positionsdata fra deres smartphone. Da luftforurening skader sundhed, økosystemer og økonomi, undersøger vi, hvordan undervisning kan designes, så elever bliver reflekterende om problemet. Vi bygger på John Deweys ideer om refleksiv tænkning og læring gennem erfaring (pragmatisme og konstruktivisme). I dette perspektiv vækkes refleksion, når data giver anledning til spørgsmål (f.eks. når information er ufuldstændig), hvilket leder til refleksion og eksperimenter. Vi analyserer prototypens design med et design thinking-perspektiv (en menneskecentreret, iterativ designmetode) og bruger postfænomenologisk mediationsteori (hvordan teknologier former erfaring) til at diskutere, hvordan kittet påvirkede elevernes forståelse af den luft, de indånder. Vi finder, at eleverne var modtagelige for undervisningsforløbet og for prototypens idé. Feltobservationer og interviews viser, at eleverne udviklede nye forståelser. Kittet gav dem mulighed for at indsamle empiriske data fra deres eget hverdagsliv og udfordre deres antagelser. Selvom deres datasæt til tider var for små til sikre konklusioner, skabte denne begrænsning refleksion og praktiske eksperimenter.

This thesis follows the design and testing of a mediating technology (a tool that helps shape how users perceive and act) created to help school pupils understand air pollution, developed within the EU-funded SaveOurAir project. Across two short, intensive data sprints (focused development sessions), we observed and took part in creating a prototype called the "myAir teaching kit". It combined a particle sensor, a teaching guide, and a web platform that linked sensor readings with pupils’ smartphone location data. Because air pollution harms health, ecosystems, and economies, we ask how education can be designed to prompt pupils to reflect on the issue. We draw on John Dewey’s ideas about reflective thinking and learning by doing (pragmatism and constructivism). In this view, learners are prompted to think when data raise questions (for example, when information is incomplete), leading to reflection and experimentation. We analyze the prototype’s design through a design thinking perspective (a human-centered, iterative design approach) and use postphenomenological mediation theory (how technologies shape experience) to discuss how the kit influenced pupils’ understanding of the air they breathe. We find that pupils were receptive to the educational program and to the prototype’s concept. Field observations and interviews show that pupils formed new understandings. The kit allowed them to collect empirical data from their own daily lives and to question their assumptions. Although their datasets were sometimes too limited for firm conclusions, this limitation encouraged reflective thinking and hands-on experiments.

[This abstract was generated with the help of AI]

Luftforurening ; Tracking ; John Dewey ; Pragmatisme ; Mediering ; Postphenomenology ; Læring ; Data ; Experience

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