Children’s Participation in Constructing the Future School

Abstract

Children are active technology users. Still, a literature review reveals that they are not positioned in a very strong role in large-scale efforts involving information and communication technology (ICT) development. Information systems (IS) literature hardly mentions children in connection to ICT. The authors have examined how children have participated in the development of a ‘future school’ in a large-scale ICT development effort, involving also developments in the domains of pedagogy, architecture and interior design. They identified three established roles for children: the user, the informant and the tester. In addition, the authors identified traces of children’s more genuine participation, hardly addressed in the IS literature but discussed extensively within other disciplines. Therefore, the authors offer a broadened conception of what ‘participation’ may entail for the IS community. They argue that large-scale efforts of this kind would benefit from more active participation by children as it has been acknowledged that children’s participation may lead to improved decision-making.