Community design of community simulations

ABSTRACT

We report on a participatory design workshop in which residents of a community collaborated in learning about and designing projects for a visual simulation environment. Nine participants (five middle school teachers, four senior citizens) first conducted a participatory evaluation of a tutorial developed for the Stagecast Creator simulation tool. They then worked in pairs to brainstorm ideas for Creator simulation projects that would help raise and promote discussion of issues relevant to their community. After sharing these ideas, each pair chose 2--3 simulation ideas to refine as a specification for subsequent implementation. We discuss the participants' learning and design activities, as well as their contributions to our long term goal of supporting cross-generational collaboration and learning through community simulation projects.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY
      K.4.3 Organizational Impacts
          Subjects: Computer-supported collaborative work

Additional Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.6 SIMULATION AND MODELING
      I.6.3 Applications

General Terms:
Design, Experimentation, Theory

Keywords:
community networks, end-user programming, participatory design