Children have their own likes, dislikes, curiosities, and needs that are not the same as their parents or teachers.  As obvious as this may seem, we as designers of new technologies for children, sometimes forget that young people are not “just short adults” but an entirely different user population with their own culture, norms, and complexities.   Yet, it is common for developers of new technologies to ask parents and teachers what they think their children or students may need, rather than ask children directly. With the emergence of children as an important new consumer group of technology, it is critical that we support children in ways that are useful, effective, and meaningful for their needs. With this in mind, we need to question how we can build new technologies that respect children for their ability to challenge themselves and question the world around them.  We need to understand how we can create new technologies that offer children control of a world where they are so often not in control.

Today, children are most definitely our partners in all that we do at the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab.  Twice a week, children ages 7-11, join researchers from computer science, education, art, robotics, and more.  Together we have become what we now call an Intergenerational Design Team pursuing projects together, writing papers, and creating new technologies.  This intergenerational design team has produced research projects on everything from storytelling robots to collaborative zooming software for storytelling. Children and adults alike gather field data, initiate ideas, test, and develop new prototypes.  Team members do what they are capable of, and learn from each other throughout the process.  We try to keep in mind that it is not easy for an adult to step into a child’s world, and likewise it is not easy for a child to step into an adult’s world.  We have found that no single technique can give teams all the answers they are looking for, so a combination of techniques has been adapted or developed that form the methodology of Cooperative Inquiry.  These techniques do not necessarily offer a magic formula for working with children, but rather a philosophy and approach to research that can be used to gather data, develop prototypes, and forge new research directions. Cooperative inquiry activities include:

In the future, we can look forward to greater challenges given the proliferation of new technologies and new more demanding users that are young people.  We have a chance to change technology, but more importantly we have a chance to change the life of a child.  Every time a new technology enables a child to do something they never dreamed of, it offers new possibilities for the future.