Papers by Heike Winschiers-Theophilus
Cultural Appropriation of Software Design and Evaluation
IGI Global eBooks, Jan 18, 2011
... Heim (SINTEF, Norway) Sample PDF | More details... $30.00 Add to Cart. 13. Cyber Security and... more ... Heim (SINTEF, Norway) Sample PDF | More details... $30.00 Add to Cart. 13. Cyber Security and Anti-Social Networking (pages 183-194). Malcolm Shore (Canterbury University, New Zealand) Sample PDF | More details... $30.00.
나미비아 오바힘바족과의 협업을 통한 무형문화유산 디지털화의 반복적 개선
People's primary school interactive tech library exhibition
Libraries have played a fundamental role in nurturing a reading culture. However, with an observa... more Libraries have played a fundamental role in nurturing a reading culture. However, with an observable trend of children's and young adult's decreasing interest in reading, the libraries of today do need a fundamental reconceptualization in order to attract visitors. Examples from elsewhere have shown that libraries integrating physical activities, with imaginative spaces and mindful technologies attract and retain crowds. In the absence of such libraries in Namibian schools, we have launched into an interactive tech library design journey with a Namibian government school. Our goal is to design and create technologies and spaces that contribute to an enhanced reading experiences for children. Over a period of four months we have held weekly participatory design meetings with the learners from People's Primary School and co-designed imaginative spaces and technologies. At the conference we will re-create parts of the designed library spaces for visitors to experience the technology prototypes within an artistic set up.
Grab It, While You Can: A VR Gesture Evaluation of a Co-Designed Traditional Narrative by Indigenous People
EJISDC: The Electronic Journal on Information Systems in Developing Countries, Jul 16, 2021
Unemployment is a serious issue in many areas of Global South. Over the last years, microwork pla... more Unemployment is a serious issue in many areas of Global South. Over the last years, microwork platforms have started to emerge offering opportunities for earnings and promising improved livelihoods. Although the gig economy facilitated by these platforms has been criticized in the literature, we argue that in the context of informal economy, participation on these platforms does not always worsen the livelihood and thus should be examined. This paper investigates the requirements for using such platforms and assesses their applicability in an informal settlement in Namibia. The Sustainable Livelihoods Approach provides the conceptual framework for the research. We devised a simulation by using design science research methods, where the community members were able to complete digital micro-tasks for monetary compensation. The experiment evoked excitement among participants. This paper argues that the digital micro-tasks have promise for the individuals, and elaborates on human, financial, physical, and social capitals required to use these platforms. Finally, we propose a new way, trained peers called "tech mediators," that can act as facilitators to make these platforms more available for the communities in Global South in the future.
The Metamorphosis of Kishikishi: Exploring Audience Experiences Telling the Same Story Just Different Media
Springer eBooks, 2018
Stories have been transforming over time in line with societal changes in values and practices, b... more Stories have been transforming over time in line with societal changes in values and practices, but also its mediums from oral, to written to digital. In our quest to enhance reading experiences of young Namibian children who are not part of an established reading culture we describe how the experiences change with the medium of narration of Kishikishi, a traditional Namibian story. We first recall its value as a told story and how it translates into a written format as an illustrated children book. Transferring the book onto a digital notice board has shifted the reading experience from an individual to a collective activity. Gamifying the story into a reading app added value in terms of attracting children to engage with the story while feeling involved and in control. Whereas enhancing the paper book with augmented reality features created the expected novelty effect. The intent of telling the same story with various media was to gain an appreciation for the variety of created audience experiences. Emerged design themes, such as performative aspects, illustrations and animations, stimulation and engagement, as well as bonding are to inform further developments of technologies aiming at enhanced reading experiences.
Co-Design as a Means of Fostering Appropriation of Conservation Monitoring Technology by Indigenous Communities
A threat to indigenous communities living in north-west Namibia has been the growing human wildli... more A threat to indigenous communities living in north-west Namibia has been the growing human wildlife conflict. Established practices of patrolling and incident reporting have not yielded in mitigations. An evaluation of current conservation management tools, such as the Event Book, has shown that its users have not fully comprehended its use nor meaning nor appropriated the tool. We postulate that through co-design with the indigenous target communities we support the appropriation of the Event Book, creating a meaningful interaction.
Hunting with the Ju/’hoansi in the Kalahari: A co-created VR gesture application
Students’ achievement goals: Goal approximation, engagement, and emotions in co-design activities and product
International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction, Jun 1, 2023
Going Beyond Empowered Design by Inter-community Engagement
When participatory technological design initiatives are focused on a very specific local context ... more When participatory technological design initiatives are focused on a very specific local context it becomes difficult to scale up their deployment to wider or different contexts. We have therefore extended the notion of empowered design and consequent technology appropriations and show that scaffolding, assistance that fades away, is a viable method to facilitate inter-community engagements with technology. This leads to technology appropriation by communities who did not participate in the original design, and they do this independently of the original academic design team. In this paper we report on our project process over an extended period of time. A collaborator and co-author on this paper is an elder from the original community who is acting to extend and adapt the technology with other, distant, communities from the same ethnic group, the ovaHimba. We particularly focus on the evolving role our collaborator took on over a number of field trips, and how our support, the scaffolding, became less and less important. His perspective is shared through translated statements and integrated into the text after our joint paper discussions
OzCHI '14 Proceedings of the 26th Australian Computer-Human Interaction Conference on Designing Futures
Australasian Computer-Human Interaction Conference, 2014
Welcome to the first Indigenous Knowledge Technology Conference
IFIP WG 9.4: Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries
A mediated intermedia conversation around the perception and self-perceptions of the San
We present an interactive media installation that seeks to provoke a public dialogue in which pre... more We present an interactive media installation that seeks to provoke a public dialogue in which prevailing stereotypes of the San community are challenged. Although being among the oldest people on earth and the first nation of southern Africa, the San, are extremely marginalized at the present time. Stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination are some of the biggest problems the San are struggling with. Drawing on mediated, live perspectives, as well as constructed media, and relevant archival sources, we deconstruct and re-construct an alternative narrative in which a number of urban and rural-based San have actively been involved. Starting with a number of selected media representations of the San, a video elicitation shows perceptions and reactions of the audiences. These in turn have been reviewed by a rural San community, who have co-produced responding and alternative digital narratives. Those recorded mediated video conversation threads are presented at the conference in form of an interactive wall for the audience to explore. Considering that perceptions and perspectives are continuously influenced by the media, past and current San related media reports are infused into the curated video dialogue.
Improving the flow of livelihood information among unemployed youth in an informal settlement of Windhoek, Namibia
Access to information remains circumstantial, even more as it is channeled through ICTs. While te... more Access to information remains circumstantial, even more as it is channeled through ICTs. While technology rich areas have developed well-functioning information dissemination mechanisms, informal settlements lack basic services including information access. Thus, we are investigating how we can ensure that livelihood information reaches the most marginalized people in the informal settlement that would utilize this information to make consequential life changes. We are engaging youth from an informal settlement of Windhoek into discussions, technology explorations and participatory design workshops, to jointly explore the improvement of citizen-based information dissemination. A contextual mapping of the current information flow shows its strengths and weaknesses. While a user, exploration of a digital noticeboard reveals the communities' eagerness to digitally share vital information with their fellow community members.
Education and New Developments 2022 – Volume 2
Academic engagement refers to the overall quality of students' involvement with schooling, includ... more Academic engagement refers to the overall quality of students' involvement with schooling, including their activities and goals, as well as their connections with peers and educators. Much research has examined the facilitation and support of students' academic engagement within physical classroom settings. However, the field of education has been experiencing a shift from the status quo modus operandi of face-to-face instruction to online synchronous/asynchronous instruction, which has impacted students' engagement. This change has increased the demand to develop and adapt digital technologies that can support the engagement of students throughout online learning processes and their adjustment to the new educational norm. Fundamental research on the development and implementation of immersive technologies could provide a way forward, however we maintain that the development of such technologies needs to be guided by current pedagogical and psychological theories. Hence, in this paper, first we examine empirically substantiated frameworks of engagement and identify aspects that require consideration when developing new immersive technologies. Then, we present a succinct review of the technology-enhanced learning environments literature to determine how engagement has (or has not) been supported through immersive technologies, i.e., virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and 3D volumetric video. Finally, having embarked on the development of our in-house technology, an immersive 3D video prototype, we present the technology setup alongside the co-creation process that we are implementing to guide its development. Based on pedagogical and psychological research, we highlight several vital factors substantiating students' engagement, including the significance of the teacher's role and the importance of teacher-student and student-student interactions. These factors serve to guide our qualitative data collection during co-creation sessions to uncover students' and teachers' new perspectives of engagement in relation to the affordances that immersive technologies should offer. Our work presents insights to educators, technology designers and researchers about important educational frameworks and considerations directing our development of immersive technologies in support of academic engagement.
ACM Journal on Computing and Sustainable Societies
School dropout amongst minority groups is a serious problem worldwide. Focusing on educational re... more School dropout amongst minority groups is a serious problem worldwide. Focusing on educational resilience can offer a novel beneficial approach to overcome the challenge. In this paper, we focus on San learners in Namibia, gaining a deeper understanding of the adversities they faced resulting in school dropout, and identifying personal and environmental factors that promote the development of educational resilience. Narrative interviews were conducted with ten San who completed secondary school and ten who dropped out of school, to identify challenges and factors. Rich picture sessions with twelve primary learners were used to identify current challenges. Based on an in depth analysis of the local adversities, a mobile digital application was designed, deploying a role model approach with local content. This empirical study provides a contribution to local technology design for social and mental well-being as part of a holistic solution for resilience building among marginalized lea...
Extended Abstracts of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play, Nov 2, 2022
This preliminary study explored how to make otherwise passive bystanders into an integral part of... more This preliminary study explored how to make otherwise passive bystanders into an integral part of a virtual reality (VR) experience using asymmetric game design. We present a fully implemented collaborative VR game, co-designed by Namibian school children. The team needs to solve puzzles, whereby one player, using a VR headset, enters the digital world of Candyland, communicating with the other teammates, who are using a printed puzzle book. Ten Namibian school children, split into three groups, evaluated the game. Both the children inside and outside of VR were excited and eager to play the game through, despite the game being too complex, with too little feedback and a number of design issues, which required much guidance from the researchers.
The Chronicles of Kunene: The Lion, the Omuhimba and the Drone
IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2022
Adjunct Proceedings of the 2022 Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference
In an attempt to promote wider participation of children across the globe in co-designing, we nee... more In an attempt to promote wider participation of children across the globe in co-designing, we need to establish enabling distributed online facilitation techniques and tools. In this hybrid workshop, we will work in an online design space that was co-designed with 62 children from Namibia, Malaysia and Finland. Participants will share challenging experiences, and develop strategical solutions in teams. Furthermore, participants will have the chance to cofacilitate a design session with children from across the globe and reflect on their experiences. We hope to create new connections between researchers and practitioners, to exchange techniques and tools, and collaborate on new projects with children from different places. CCS CONCEPTS • Human-centered computing → Empirical studies in interaction design.
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Papers by Heike Winschiers-Theophilus