Parents and children work together in museums and other informal learning settings to make meaning of the world around them. The parent-child conversations, the child's interests (islands of expertise) and the surrounding technology influence the overall informal learning experience. We conducted two studies at the Children's Museum of Atlanta to better understand the interplay amongst those conversations, child's interest, and technology. Drawing on the insights from the field studies and participatory design activities conducted with parent-child dyads, we created a prototype of a companion mobile app which may create avenues for having in-depth, contextualized and personalized parent-child conversations, which may, in turn, improve the informal learning experience.
The CAT Lab studies how culture impacts the use and production of technology with a focus on learning applications, computer science education and designing new technologies with culture as a point of convergence.
