Utilizing Technology to Support the Development of Empathy Anonymous MIT student Karen Brennan MIT Media Lab How can technology infused collaborative learning environments be used as authentic opportunities to learn about oneself others and to understand interpersonal dynamics Motivation and Framing In order for community members to recognize injustice and work well together toward a solution they must be able to empathize with others civic engagement This project explores the ability of storytelling and technology to support the development of empathy and foster civic engagement We use Scratch a new programming language designed for young people as a tool for self expression empathy technology storytelling Approach Throughout the workshop students explore both emotion and identity through trajectories of awareness We begin with projects related to emotional self awareness and individual identity and then throughout the weeks move toward awareness of the feelings of others and one s identity as a part of a community emotion identity self social Emotional self awareness Empathy How do I feel Why do I feel that way How do you feel Why do you feel that way Individual Community Who am I What do I believe Who are we What do we believe How do we relate trajectories of awareness We worked with six male and four female Boston area middle school students for 14 weeks The seven thematic sessions explored trajectories of awareness directly through curriculum and indirectly through variations of collaborative groupings Session 2 Interactive collage My perspective Session 1 Introduction to Scratch Community building Session 4 Three part story Multiple perspectives Session 3 Shared experience story Your perspective Session 6 30 years in the future Beliefs Session 5 Things unseen Inattentional blindness Session 7 Project Preliminary Interpretations Largest community teachers parents and students participation as seen by school administrators Scratch is a programming language that lets you express yourself Participant References Bers M Chau C 2006 Fostering civic engagement by building a virtual city Journal of Computer Mediated Communication 11 3 Resnick M 2007 Sowing the Seeds for a More Creative Society Learning and Leading with Technology December 2007 Zaff J F 2002 Encouraging civic engagement how teens are or are not becoming responsible citizens Online Participating in this workshop has given my daughter a voice She s a different person now Participant s parent MIT OpenCourseWare http ocw mit edu MAS 714J STS 445J Technologies for Creative Learning Fall 2009 For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use visit http ocw mit edu terms