Participant Observation and Experiences in the Design for Affectibility

Abstract

This paper reports on our experience as Participant Observers in a Project introducing the XO laptop at an elementary school in Brazil. Working together with all members of the school community, we experienced their daily activities with and without technology. Our objective was to build a better understanding of the affective and emotional relationships developed among the community. Moreover, we wanted to understand how users made use and sense of technology. In this article we investigate the presence of affect in our study scenario using the method of Participant Observation. This study was one of the initial steps towards the design of an educational system to be used at elementary schools.