Design, Gender and Technology

2021

Research Areas

Learning Technology, Interactive Tech for Children

Researchers

Mehreen Masood

Meri Kahani is a mobile application created to teach computational thinking skills to school-going teenagers in underdeveloped areas of Pakistan. We explore the use of gamification to teach computational thinking through level-based learning in a Pakistani context. This project demonstrates how gamified learning, rewarding techniques, and feminine themes can be used to attract female teenagers towards computational thinking. We hope that through this study, we have taken the first step towards nurturing an interest in young females for computational thinking and overcoming the gender gap that adversely affects female involvement in Computer Science in Pakistan.

Masood, M., Khawaja, M. A., Sharif, M. S., Iqbal, O., Mehmood Butt, M., & Shahid, S. (2021, May). Meri Kahani: A Gamified Solution to Teach Computational Thinking to Female Teenagers in Low Resource Communities. In Extended Abstracts of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-6).