Towards an Ecological Inquiry in Child-Computer Interaction Rachel C. Smith, Ole S. Iversen, Thomas Hjermitslev CAVI, Aarhus University Helsingforsgade 14 8200 Aarhus N, Denmark +45 87161991 {rsmith,oiversen,hjermitslev}@cavi.au.dk Aviaja B. Lynggaard Aarhus School of Architecture Nørreport 20 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark +45 31132618 mail@aviaja-borup.com ABSTRACT This paper introduces an Ecological Inquiry as a methodological approach for designing technology with children. The inquiry is based on the “ecological turn” in HCI, Ubiquitous Computing and Participatory Design that shift the emphasis of design from tech- nological artifacts to entire use ecologies into which technologies are integrated. Our Ecological Inquiry extends Cooperative In- quiry in three directions: from understanding to emergence of social practices and meanings, from design of artifacts to hybrid environments, and from a focus on technology to appropriations through design and use. We exemplify our approach in a case study through which we designed social technologies for hybrid learning environments with children in two schools, and discuss how an Ecological Inquiry can inform existing approaches in CCI. Categories and Subject Descriptors H.5.2. [Information Interfaces and Presentation (e.g., HCI]: User Interfaces – theory and methods, user-centered design. General Terms Human Factors. Keywords Ecological Inquiry, design methodology, Participatory Design, social technology, school environment, Cooperative Inquiry. 1. INTRODUCTION Cooperative Inquiry, and its envision of children as active design partners, has been successfully applied to the process in which Child Computer Interaction understands, intervenes and develops new technology [18, 19]. Here, the unit of analysis is not only the device, but also the social practice of children, their environment and their devices. The Cooperative Inquiry process model consists of an iterative process of Contextual Inquiry for understanding how children use existing technology, Participatory Design activi- ties to engage children in the design of new technologies, and Technology Immersion to explore how new technologies might stimulate new patterns of use among children. As we acknowledge the general success and applicability of Cooperative Inquiry in CCI, this paper questions whether this process model is sufficient to deal with current challenges in CCI. Based on current literature on Ubiquitous Computing, Participa- tory Design and HCI, this paper develops an Ecological Inquiry that extends the boundaries of Cooperative Inquiry into an itera- tive process model that incorporates aspects of emergence, envi- ronments and appropriation. We point to the fact that current research within Participatory Design literature does not merely emphasize an understanding of users’ current practice as their point of departure [3, 23, 31-33]. Rather Participatory Design scaffolds shared spaces in which new directions for design can emerge as a dialogical process between children, researchers, designers and stakeholders [33]. This technology enhanced space has been described as a “third space” [41], a “design collaborato- rium” [7], and a ‘technology-enhanced activity space’ [34]. The objectives for design intervention have also changed accord- ing to current research. Whereas Cooperative Inquiry and its corresponding techniques emphasize the development of techno- logical artifacts, current literature within HCI and Interaction Design, especially within Ubiquitous Computing, apply ecological perceptions of use practice as their unit of analysis [9, 10, 11, 42]. This approach shifts the objective of design interventions from the artifact to the entire use ecology. An Ecological Inquiry in CCI must accordingly expand the scope of design interventions to also include the entire activity space including the physical space of children’s technology use. Finally, an Ecological Inquiry does not only consider future use patterns as a result of technological im- mersion. Technological potentialities are according to Kaptelinin and Bannon [34] first realized when new technologies are appro- priated into existing use practices, initiated already through the process of design. Thus, an ecological inquiry combines emer- gence of values and environmental discoveries with studies of appropriation to explore how new technologies fit and transform the social practices of children. The paper is organized as follows. First, we will account for the “ecological turn” in HCI and Interaction Design to motivate the need for an Ecological Inquiry in CCI. We will discuss the eco- logical turn in relation to existing CCI literature in a related work section. Following, our approach to an Ecological Inquiry is un- folded as an iterative process of inquiries in social practices, user environments and appropriation of technology. We exemplify the iterative Ecological Inquiry process model in a case study through Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be hon- ored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or repub- lish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from Permis- sions@acm.org. IDC '13, June 24 - 27 2013, New York, IA, USA Copyright 2013 ACM 978-1-4503-1918-8/13/06…$15.00 183 Full Papers IDC 2013, New York, NY, USA