Narrating the Learning Ecosystem: Knowledge, Environment and Relationships for Participatory and Principled Design of Educational Technology for Childhood and Youth

This paper frames ontological insights regarding the knowledge, environment and relationships of participatory and principled educational design, with and for children and youth. We illustrate our discussion with exploration of the design of technology across educational contexts, formal and informal. Although undertaken in diverse settings, common themes and design models have emerged in our work, which foreground in particular the significance of embodiment and narrative in children and young people’s education and learning across diverse contexts. Our design processes have produced overall, similarly engaging educational experiences. With this chapter, we hope to contribute to theoretically motivated arguments regarding educational design for children and young people, particularly discussion of the general implementation of design for learning across multiple settings. Further, we highlight the importance and potential of narrative and embodiment in the principled and participatory design of interactive educational technology, both with and for childhood and youth.