Doing Culture Work through Design 1 QUEST ATLANTIS: DOING CULTURE WORK THROUGH DESIGN ACTIVITY Sasha Barab, Michael Thomas, Tyler Dodge, Markeda Newell, Bob Carteaux, Hakan Tuzun The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it. Karl Marx, 1845 Introduction The field of instructional design has resulted in the design of countless artifacts and tools of varying shape, size, and type as well as principles for designing them. Currently, we are now even witnessing design efforts towards building something like community. However, even in these latter efforts the primary focus is on learning as opposed to a broader altruistic agenda. While well-designed programs and software applications can support deep understandings and new practices, less common in design work is a social commitment towards making the world a better place. Similarly, many current ethnographers have criticized interpretive accounts that fall under the heading of “basic” anthropological research, instead advocating that there needs to be a social consequence to the work with a focus on what might be labeled “applied” or “critical” anthropological research. Fine (1996), in advocating for the role of critical, feminist ethnography, solicits work “which empowers as it exposes, which offers critique as it reveals not only what is not but what could be” (p. 16, italics added here for emphasis). It is our belief that both anthropologists and instructional designers could better serve the world by committing to and carrying out “culture work;” that is, design work that advances the moral agenda of making the world a better place for us and for our children. The goal of making the world a better place is a messy business, with numerous struggles, opposing agendas, multiple interpretations, and unintended and controversial consequences. To this end, our work positions us as design ethnographers, enmeshing ourselves in local contexts so that we can work collaboratively with those people who transact with these contexts in order to develop and actualize social commitments. In this paper, we describe a design initiative that overtly attempts to do “culture work” by way of a technology-rich educational innovation called Quest Atlantis (see http://atlantis.crlt.indiana.edu). We begin with a discussion of doing “culture work” through design activity and then relate this commitment and discuss the process in terms of the Quest Atlantis project. While the project is currently situated in various centers or locales, the data in this account is primarily focused on our collaboration with a local Boys and Girls Club that serves hundreds of disadvantaged children each day. Doing Culture Work through Design Activity