Call for Papers

Welcome! Here you will find all relevant information on the workshop “Learning for life: Designing for sustainability of tech-learning networks of older adults” that we are organising at the 2020 European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (ECSCW 2020), which will be held in Siegen, Germany, between the 13th and the 17th June.

In today’s complex society we need to learn on a daily basis during our whole life, especially when it comes to new digital tools on which our lives are increasingly more dependent. However, the way digital tools are designed is not well adjusted to learning how to use these tools in the later part of life. As a result, many older adults struggle with the integration of digital tools into their daily lives. Recently, older adults started to be involved in design through sustainable participatory approaches. However, this group is very heterogeneous and characterised by varied needs that have to be addressed with a fitting approach that is currently missing in E/CSCW and participatory design.

In this workshop we therefore want to bring together researchers from different disciplines to develop new approaches that will help us to design for sustainable tech-learning networks of older adults.

ECSCW and related participatory design approaches have a long history of collaboration with different disciplines. Our workshop hence addresses the issues of how we can better understand supporting learning for life of tech-communities of older adults from an interdisciplinary perspective in the context of sustainable participatory design. The workshop participants will therefore have an opportunity to learn about the challenges and opportunities related to learning for life of tech-communities of older adults in the context of sustainable participatory design as well as to reflect over their own disciplinary position in relation to this topic.

Our goal is to discuss the following questions:

  • How can we develop theoretical grounds of PD when in interdisciplinary discussion in relation to supporting learning of older adults?
    • Are there concepts from other disciplines that we could adopt?
    • Are there PD concepts that could be extended by other disciplinary approaches?
    • Is it possible to synthesize some of the concepts?

  • What is to be done on micro-meso-macro level to support life learning of older adults?
    • A lot of work has been done on the micro level in ECSCW, who is in charge of the meso-macro level?
    • How to create support of older adults’ life learning in a sustainable way?
    • How to tackle the tensions between the different levels?

  • How do we attend the learning needs of such a heterogenous group?
    • How can these needs be approached through an interdisciplinary effort?
    • Which approaches do we need that can attend the individual needs of older adults?
    • How can we think more specifically of provision of adequate learning support & infrastructure for people with various needs and/ or in relation to concepts of “caring communities”?

See the complete workshop proposal… Download

Participation

We invite researchers interested in learning about the challenges and opportunities related to learning for life of tech-communities of older adults in the context of sustainable participatory design as well as to reflect over their own disciplinary position in relation to this topic. Prospective participants are invited to submit a 2-4 pages position paper using the EUSSET template (available as Latex, MS Word, or RTF).

Important dates

  • 19th April 2020 3rd April 2020: Submission of position papers;
  • 27th April 2020: Notification of acceptance;
  • 11th May 2020: Camera-ready
  • 14th June 2020 ECSCW in Siegen

Organizers

  • Katerina Cerna (University of Siegen, Germany)
  • Martin Dickel (University of Siegen, Germany)
  • Claudia Müller  (University of Siegen and Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences Switzerland/ Careum Research)
  • Eija Kärnä (University of Eastern Finland)
  • Vera Gallistl (University of Vienna, Austria)
  • Franz Kolland (University of Vienna Austria)
  • Verena Reuter (TU Dortmund, Germany)
  • Gerhard Naegele (TU Dortmund, Germany)
  • Roberta Bevilacqua (INRCA, Italy)
  • Heidi Kaspar (Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences Switzerland/ Careum Research)
  • Ulrich Otto (Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences Switzerland/ Careum Research)