This paper reports on a study exploring the use of university students as co-creators when designing activities for an emergent teaching practice such as gamification, using emergent technologies in a Swedish K-12 education context. More specifically, the aim was to empirically explore and develop knowledge about the process ofdesigning for gamification teaching in K-12 education, to develop gamification teaching design principles and, in addition, to study how emergent technologies could be used in this context. Four sub-studies were conducted between 2014 and 2018 which included four groups of university students as co-creators in the teaching designs. The empirical material is based on observations from the field test in which school students tested university student designs. Post interviews were conducted with participating school teachers and university students. In addition, university student written reports were included. Findings illustrate four themes; 1) The design process of the gamification teaching activities, 2)Thegamification teaching design principles developed, 3) The school students’ experiences of the gamification designs and4) Designing gamification teaching activities – a complex process. Findings show that designing for gamification teaching designs using emergent technologies is quite a complex process.This complexity concerns, among other things, the puzzle of combining the different knowledge domainsinto the TPACK Model (i.e. technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, content knowledge) in an emergent teaching practice (gamification) with the use of emergent technologies. The co-creation process and the move between these knowledge domain areas could maximize the effect of achieving a pedagogical balance concerning what school students perceive as funwithout sacrificing focus on their knowledge acquisition and learning processes.
PurposeChildren suffering from cancer or cardiovascular disease, who need extended periods of treatment in hospitals, are subjected to multiple hardships apart from the physical implications, for example, experienced isolation and disrupted social and academic development. This has negative effects long after the child's recovery from the illness. The purpose of this paper is to examine the non-medical needs of children suffering from a long-term illness, as well as research the field of artificial intelligence (AI) – more specifically, the use of socially intelligent agents (SIAs) – in order to study how technology can enhance children's interaction, participation and quality of life.Design/methodology/approachInterviews were performed with experts in three fields: housing manager for hospitalized children, a professor in computing science and researcher in AI, and an engineer and developer at a tech company.FindingsIt is important for children to be able to take control of the narrative by using an SIA to support the documentation of their period of illness, for example. This could serve as a way of processing emotions, documenting educational development or keeping a reference for later in life. The findings also show that the societal benefits of AI include automating mundane tasks and recognizing patterns.Originality/valueThe originality of this study concerns the holistic approach of increasing the knowledge and understanding of these children's specific needs and challenges, particularly regarding their participation and interaction with teachers and friends at school, using an SIA.
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