Participatory Design With Music Students: Empowering Children to Develop Instructional Technology

• In Event: 61.086 - Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: 61.086-12 - Educational Design as a Holistic Endeavor

Abstract

This study employed participatory design (PD) methods to engage a user group of music students, aged 7 through 17. The students were recruited to be active collaborators at each stage of the creation of a technological solution to address various challenges they had experienced when practicing their instrument to develop musical skill. This proposal highlights the process of using PD to develop a technological tool in cooperation with young learners. Benefits of the PD approach are discussed, as well as four specific challenges that were faced by project stakeholders - including the negotiation of power differentials, process-related barriers, misaligned values, and conflicting perspectives.

Authors

• Heather J S Birch, OISE/University of Toronto

• Carrie Demmans Epp, University of Pittsburgh