Learning and play for all, through inclusive design and technology

London Design Biennale 4–23 September 2018, Somerset House

Learning and play for all, through inclusive design and technology

Learning and play for all, through inclusive design and technology This installation shows how putting people’s functional, personal and emotional needs at the centre of the design process can lead to creative and novel solutions that improve life. It shows the importance of including those who feel isolated or marginalised on a daily basis, due to health conditions or other circumstances as well as the wider application to everyone – we can all benefit!

It communicates the value of involving and focusing on real people in the design process to uncover needs, barriers, and new problems to solve. Here lies the true innovation potential – and entrepreneurs and start-ups can apply the approach without significant costs to build a new business. For the wider range of visitors, this installation demonstrates how two Norwegian start-ups used technology to help solve problems that they discovered through their people-centred design research.

The aim is to demonstrate how technology and creativity combined with empathy can enable and empower isolated and excluded people - to ensure inclusiveness and enhance the feeling of taking part no matter situation or ability or – in this case in education, play and social settings. The exhibition communicates the value of empathy within technology and emotion within the digital realm. Ultimately it draws links between binary developments and human endeavour, demonstrating the power of technology to meet people’s needs in a way that is equitable, inclusive and inspiring.

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Inclusive Design We define Inclusive Design, also known as Design for all, or Universal Design, as “the design of products and environments in such a way that they can be used by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialised design�. By addressing the needs of individuals across the full spectrum of ability, age, gender and culture, inclusive design can lead to innovative, versatile and people-friendly design solutions, and can be applied to the development of any massproduced product, building, transport system, environment or service. Central to this approach is the involvement of lead users based on human diversity in the design process.

In 2005, the Norwegian government set the ambitious goal of making the country inclusive of every citizen and launched the first 5-year action plan to achieve this. In 2009, 14 Norwegian government ministries agreed on the second binding action plan based on the vision of a universally designed Norway by 2025. Upon the Ministry of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion’s request DOGA established the Innovation Award for Universal Design in 2011. The award is a recognition of those

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who, in an innovative and inclusive way, have developed products, services and environments that contribute to a more inclusive society. Some of the projects shown in the video on the screen and iPads in this installation are award winners from 2011, 2014 and 2017, from across all sectors of society and design disciplines.

The projects presented are both related to inclusive learning and play. One is a virtual gaming platform designed to engage students in social learning both within and beyond the classroom walls; the other is a unique telepresence robot that allows children dealing with long-term illness to preserve a link to their schooling and social life.

The installation is organised by Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA), supported by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in London.

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AV1 by No Isolation Long-term illnesses and lengthy hospital stays do not only remove a child from their education at sometimes critical junctures; they also separate them from their social lives, which can result in intense loneliness.

Karen Dolva, co-founder and CEO of No Isolation, first understood the severity of this problem when she met the mother of a daughter lost to cancer. For both of them, the physical pain of the illness and treatment was secondary to the social isolation they both suffered as a result.

The design of AV1 and the establishment of No Isolation were both a direct response to this all-too-common experience (currently around 72,000 children in the UK are unable to attend school because of long-term illness). No Isolation believe that the most effective design is user-led. This means that they believe that the starting point of all good design is extensive research into the issue they are trying to fix. This involves researching, at the desk, but most importantly in the field; talking with kids, parents, doctors, teachers were crucial to the design of AV1.

Developed in collaboration with teachers, scientists, families and the Norwegian Cancer Society, AV1 is a connected, app-linked robot avatar that allows children and young adults to maintain a

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physical presence in the classroom even when they cannot be there in person. Fitted with a camera, speaker and microphone, the robot opens up a two-way audio and one-way visual channel between the student and their classmates, allowing them to learn alongside their peers, and maintain social contact with their friends, throughout the school day. Focusing development on meeting user needs and feedback, the new generation of AV1 have features such as emotive eyes which allows the user to be more expressive and it increases the engagement with their classmates, teachers or friends.

Formally launched in 2016, AV1 robots currently help more than 450 children across Europe, acting as their eyes, ears and voice in the classroom when they cannot be there themselves.

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Kahoot!

Kahoot! is a versatile and inclusive virtual gaming platform that transforms learning into an engaging, exciting and personally rewarding game-show-like experience. Kahoot!’s pedagogy is called ‘Learners to Leaders’ and is a learning journey that teaches 21st century skills, suitable to any educational context, from kindergarten to university, as well as business training, conferences and events. Through their mantra, based on the founding principles and values Social, Play, Learn, is to ‘MAKE LEARNING AWESOME’, Kahoot! is on a mission to improve education globally, by unlocking the magic of learning for everyone.

With any connected mobile device, Kahoot! users can access, create and share learning games and quizzes customised to any topic. In the classroom setting, this enables teachers to design and run group learning games, comprising questions and embedded media displayed on a central screen, with each student being able to answer through their mobile device – individually or in teams.

Teachers can set single-player games as homework challenges; use individual student’s scores for formative assessment; encourage students to take charge of their own learning by creating their own games; create games to introduce new study topics or revise old ones or reach out and play in real time with other schools in 180 countries around the world.

Since it was launched in 2013, Kahoot! has built up a following of 70 million monthly active users worldwide.

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How to play and learn about AV1 and Kahoot!

Join the hosted sessions to play and learn with Kahoot! and the robot AV1 from No Isolation. Joining the Kahoot quiz you can use any mobile phone or tablet with Wifi connection.

Open your web browser and navigate to www.kahoot.it – if you happen to have the Kahoot! app already installed, you could use that instead.

Here you will be prompted to enter the game pin number that is displayed on the projector at the front, and then a nickname – upon entering you will see your name appearing on the screen at the front.

On the iPad’s in the classroom you can learn more about Kahoot! and AV1 by touching the icons, you can see videos and get more information about inclusive design as well.

About DOGA Design and Architecture Norway (DOGA) has a mission to explore the intersection of design and architecture and promote the understanding, knowledge and use of the twin disciplines from a commercial and social perspective. It is actively involved in a host of international initiatives intended to explore ways of using design and architecture to develop products, services and environments. www.doga.no

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