How Middle-school Students in India Take Charge of Everyday Interactions in Ubiquitous Computing
Spruha Satavlekar, Harshini Venkatachalam, Sridhar R. Iyer, Shitanshu Mishra · 2025
Ubiquitous computing has led to inevitable interactions with computing technologies in individuals' everyday lives in the modern era of computing.These technology interactions are becoming increasingly invisible and intrusive in daily life.To navigate this computational landscape with agency, individuals take charge of their interactions in various ways.This form of engagement is inherently democratic, enabling individuals to cultivate a first-person, autonomous experience of computational technologies, free from apprehension or uncertainty.However, the characteristics of ubiquitous computing interactions can overwhelm children in urban Indian contexts who have limited exposure to technology interaction contexts.The authors of this Work-in-Progress (WiP) present AuthentiCT, a playground that emulates everyday computational interactions designed for urban Indian students in grades 7-8 (ages 11-14).AuthentiCT provides a structured space where students engage in everyday activities using computational objects, ultimately leading to the creation of a design project through three phases-Explore, Solve, and Evolve.This WiP submission outlines the research study plan.The authors anticipate that the study will offer insights into how learners from this context navigate everyday interactions through different dimensions of empowerment to take charge in AuthentiCT environment, along with the challenges they encounter.