As new technologies become ever more critical to our children's lives, we need to be sure that these technologies can support children in ways that are meaningful and make sense for them. This may seem of obvious importance, since for almost 20 years the Human-Computer Interaction community has strove to find new ways to understand users of technology, but with children as users it has been difficult to bring them into the design process. Children go to schools for most of their days; there are existing power structures, biases, and assumptions between adults and children to get beyond; and children, especially young ones have difficulty in verbalizing their thoughts. For all of these reasons, a child's role in the development of new technology has historically been minimized.

With the KidStory research project, we believe that children can and should be partners throughout a team research experience. Our research approach is unique in treating children as full stakeholders in the research process, rather than simply as research subjects to be observed and assessed. Children are, of course, limited in their range of experience, but so too for example are computer scientists and educators. Each team member can contribute, based upon their expertise and experience during the research and development process, but each can not do what the other is capable. We have found that children play an essential role in our technology design team. How this unique research approach is being carried out will be described below.

Our team consists of almost 100 children (ages 5-7) and 25 adult researchers from Sweden and England that work together on an on-going basis throughout the three-year term of this research. The team's focus is to develop collaborative storytelling environments. At the outset of our research experience, we have found that both children and adults need time to negotiate a new "power structure," in which neither adults nor children are completely in charge. Both must begin to work together toward common goals. Children need to learn their new role as researchers and partners.

We introduced the notion of invention by asking such questions as: What is an invention? How are inventions created? When do we know something needs to be invented? Children work with adult researchers on introductory design experiences, such as inventing a new sandwich; redesigning a new milk carton; and finding objects in their classroom to fix. In each case, children and adults work together in small groups to brainstorm and discuss "what is wrong" with the existing "technologies." Teams might, for example, decide that the problem with a milk carton is that it is too difficult for young children to pour from, and therefore it needs to be redesigned so that children can't spill milk easily. This group would then "prototype" the perfect spill-proof milk carton out of plastic tubes, clay, and straws. Another group might decide that milk containers should be more fun and so children should be able to spill in fun ways. Again a group would prototype their perfect spill-able milk carton.

We have found, as children accept their role as researchers, they better understand their role in evaluating and redesigning computer-related technologies, such as a new mouse or a piece of software. In this way, research partners young and old become accustomed to working together as critics, designers, and inventors. Adults do not "give assignments" to children who "do all the work." Instead, all research partners establish common goals and participate in collaborative development activities. "Low-tech" prototyping tools (e.g., paper, crayons, clay, string, LEGO bricks, etc.) provide material to sketch ideas. Researcher journals for children and adults serve as a repository for ideas and research evaluation. These journals may be used to sketch design ideas, collect photos of technology artifacts, or reflect on team activities. Depending on the age, discipline, or note-taking style of the researchers, different methods of describing or capturing their thoughts can be used (e.g., drawings, text, photos, computer printouts, etc.).

As time goes on, our team members have begun to see themselves as technology inventors and partners: children have begun to see themselves as inventors and adults have begun to see themselves as partners. The team has moved from "wondering how this is done," to planning "what will be done." During our on-going research, the team uses the research methods of "Cooperative Inquiry," methods specifically developed to bring children into the technology development process:

Contextual Inquiry

Participatory Design

Technology Immersion

For more information about the methods of Contextual Inquiry see: [Druin 99] Druin, A. (1999). Cooperative Inquiry: Developing New Technologies for Children with Children. In Proceedings of CHI'99, Pittsburgh, PA..