MOSAIC: Teaching the understanding of, respect towards, and empathy for other people
| Reference number | |
| Coordinator | CHALMERS TEKNISKA HÖGSKOLA AKTIEBOLAG - Institutionen för tillämpad informationsteknologi |
| Funding from Vinnova | SEK 786 929 |
| Project duration | October 2014 - June 2016 |
| Status | Completed |
Purpose and goal
On the market, there are numerous pedagogical apps aiming to teach children math, the alphabet and so on. However there is a lack of apps teaching soft values, like empathy and respect for other´s opinions. The aim of this project has been to develop two apps that aim to help Swedish teachers teach the understanding of, respect towards, and empathy for other peoples´ feelings, ideas and circumstances. A secondary goal was that the user centered design processes would provide two design cases given increased insights in how to design pedagogic apps for a learning environment.
Results and expected effects
The result is two apps. The first, Thrimage (BildTrean) provides students with identical sets of pictures, from which they choose a few in relation to a given subject. The app stimulates discussion on how we all see things differently, increasing the understanding for how others think. The second app, ImagePal (BildVännen) works like a secret penpal. Participants send missions to each other and respond using photographs. The app encourages empathy and thinking about the other person. Who is this, really?
Approach and implementation
The apps were developed using an iterative user-centered design process. In all, circa 120 students from four schools and six different classes took part in 11 different discussions, workshops and user tests. Although we started with two basic app concepts, students helped greatly with ideas and suggestions. They also provided valuable insights in how children see and relate to images and photography. In addition, we plan further studies to provide teacher guides and examples of learning.