How Do We Teach Emerging Technologies in K-9 Education?

This Ph.D. project takes a Participatory Design approach to address the research question how design fiction and constructionist approaches support the understanding of Emerging Technologies' societal implications in formal education for 14 - 16 year old students? The main contribution will be new learning experiences in secondary schools that support children's critical and constructive engagement with emerging technologies, such as the Internet of Things, Augmented Reality, and Machine Learning. The thesis leverages theoretical strands within Child-Computer Interaction on constructionism and design fiction to combine hands-on learning and technological imagination. Preliminary results from Participatory Design interventions (Fall 2020) indicate that the combination of constructionism and design fiction provides a beneficial methodological framework for supporting children's understanding of societal implications of emerging technologies while also gaining a deeper understanding of the technology fundamentals.