Digital Design Literacy in K-9 Education: Experiences from Pioneer Teachers
Abstract
Based on a comprehensive account of digital design literacy, we report from an interview study with pioneer teachers to disclose their experiences from teaching design in formal K-9 education. Unique for the study is that the interviewees were highly qualified K-9 teachers with research-based in-service training in design and more than three years of teaching experience in the area. Our findings suggest that digital design literacy supports children's agency and empowerment in relation to digital technology. Moreover, digital design literacy provides children with four broad competence areas of effective teamwork, contextual inquiry, imagination and creation, and design process navigation. Our study also demonstrates that digital design literacy does not fit seamlessly within the path of conventional school courses. Several structural barriers in formal education such as summative assessments, teacher-roles, failure-prevention and children's lack of experiences with open-ended assignments are reported and discussed in relation to previous studies in child-computer interaction research.
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The process of sourcing, selecting, adapting, and importing external assets can be daunting and complicated, particularly for those still developing digital literacy skills.
“The process of sourcing, selecting, adapting, and importing external assets can be daunting and complicated, particularly for those who are still developing their digital literacy skills [68].”
From ChatScratch: An AI-Augmented System Toward Autonomous Visual Programming Learning for Children Aged 6-12 (2024) · cites this paper as [68]
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- Authors
- Van Mechelen, M., Wagner, M.-L., Baykal, G. E., Charlotte Smith, R., & Iversen, O. S.
- Affiliations
- Center for Computational Thinking and Design Aarhus University, Denmark
- Aarhus University (DK)
- Özyeğin University (TR)
- Department of Digital Design and Information Studies Aarhus University, Denmark
- Venue
- Interaction Design and Children
- Publisher
- ACM
- Published
- 2021-06-24
- Pages
- 32-42
- OpenAlex
- W3174856668
- Semantic Scholar
- 0f90f151328248f481b92166970bcadf7450e21e
- Cited by
- 30
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 4
- FWCI
- 80.69
- Type
- conference paper
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (IDC) (publishedVersion)
- ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology (The Electrochemical Society) (submittedVersion)
- Scopus (Elsevier) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- VILLUM FUNDEN (28831)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Literacy, Media, and Education
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Computer Science Applications › Teaching and Learning Programming
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Mechanical Engineering › Design Education and Practice
- Keywords
- design education, teacher experiences, children's agency, child empowerment, teamwork, contextual inquiry, design process, curriculum barriers, summative assessment, failure prevention, open-ended tasks, continuing teacher education, child-computer interaction
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