To conduct a virtual workshop with researchers, practitioners and refugees that focuses on participants who cannot travel, we organize co-located workshops for refugees in German, Austria and the Netherlands. The participants of the co-located workshops join the main conference workshop virtually using zoom. We will use the virtual board software Miro for collecting ideas as written notes, uploaded documents and images. To overcome language barriers, we will focus on visual notes and we use a translation software (e.g., DeepL). Physically present participants will also participate in discussions using the virtual environment – we will organize in-person networking opportunities during breaks.

Researchers will be asked to take a supporting role during the discussions, so practitioners and refugees can engage dominantly in the discussions. Each sub-group will choose and discuss two topics defined by refugee participants in the pre-conference workshop. To structure and scaffold discussions, we will use a card game that supports players in talking about the role of technology in their everyday lives. The game collects and visualizes real and fictional situations, problems and questions related to technology. For this workshop, we will create cards based on the topics participants would like to discuss.

The card deck consists of
1) General cards depicting fictional personas that relate to the refugees, used in the game to ease discussions about the challenges and problems they experience,
2) Event cards depicting specific situations to prompt discussions about everyday technologies,
3) Action cards describing responses to the events, and
4) Blank cards that participants can use to extend the game with their own ideas. The game will be played virtually, using the Miro board and digital versions of the cards.

At the end of the workshop, each group will present the results of their discussions and reflect on the method.

References:

Weibert, A., Aal, K., & Ertl, T. (2021). Und alle können das dann lesen…: von der partizipativen Entwicklung eines Spiels über die Rolle (n) von Technik in unserem Alltag. Mensch und Computer 2021-Workshopband.

Rüller, S., Aal, K., & Weibert, A. Applying Theatre, Storytelling, and (Card) Games in low-literate settings.