Pedagogical and Organizational Concerns for the Deployment of Interactive Public Displays at Schools

Abstract

The integration of digital technology into schools is facing substantial challenges. In this study, we address the roles that public displays in communal spaces at the school can play as an additional vehicle for learning practices and, particularly, as a medium for sharing educational videos created by students themselves. Using a participatory design methodology, three hands-on workshops were conducted with teachers of a secondary school from the north of Portugal in order to elicit expectations towards the system design and its integration into school practices. Based on recorded video, direct observations, paper prototypes and open ended questionnaires created during the workshops, we conducted a systematic content analysis of teachers’ concerns associated with the deployment of public displays at schools. Findings suggest that teachers are receptive to the technology and were able to generate scenarios that take advantage of the possibilities offered by digital public displays to stimulate learning processes. However, to accommodate the constraints of learning practices and organizational realities, the design of the system needs to take into account a broad range of sensitivities.