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Special Issue: Digital Wellbeing for Teens: Designing Educational Systems

· 3 min read
Luigi De Russis
Luigi De Russis
Associate Professor
Alberto Monge Roffarello
Alberto Monge Roffarello
Assistant Professor

The Interaction Design & Architecture(s) Journal (IxD&A) has scheduled a special issue on the topic "Digital Wellbeing for Teens: Designing Educational Systems".

IxD&A

Recently, researchers have been exploring the unexpected issues arising from the excessive use of personal devices and social media apps, particularly as companies adopt attention-capture tactics like guilty-pleasure recommendations and automatic content playback. These strategies exploit users' psychological vulnerabilities to increase advertising revenue, resulting in significant impacts on users’ perceived agency and often leading to a sense of losing control over their technology use.

This has led to the emergence of a new focus on digital wellbeing, studied in fields such as Human-Computer Interaction and psychology. Traditional approaches by practitioners and researchers to tackle these issues involve developing Digital Self-Control Tools (DSCTs), such as mobile apps and browser extensions, that help users track their usage patterns and implement interventions like timers and lock-out mechanisms to regulate device use. However, both researchers and users are beginning to emphasize that achieving digital wellbeing requires more than just self-monitoring strategies; it is a journey of personal growth that necessitates education.

Topics of Interest​

The goal of this special issue is to discuss ongoing research and ideas at the intersection of digital wellbeing and education. It aims to foster the development of strategies and interactive tools that mentor users, especially children and teenagers, towards a more meaningful and conscious use of technology. This can be accomplished in various ways, such as by designing new Digital Self-Control Tools with educational components, developing serious games, or creating collaborative platforms to introduce and support digital wellbeing learning in schools.

Topics of interest include, but not limited to:

  • participatory and co-design of digital wellbeing systems;
  • tools and strategies to teach digital wellbeing at school;
  • strategies and tools for measuring students’ digital wellbeing;
  • novel DSCTs that include educational aspects;
  • gamification strategies for digital wellbeing;
  • ethical, social, and political factors.

Submission​

All submissions must be original and may not be under review by another publication. The manuscripts should be submitted anonymized either in .doc or in .pdf format. All papers will be blindly peer-reviewed by at least two reviewers. Prospective participants are invited to submit an 8-20 pages paper (including authors’ information, abstract, all tables, figures, references, etc.).

More information on the journal website: https://ixdea.org/digital-wellbeing-for-teens-designing-educational-systems/

Important dates​

Deadline: December 31st, 2024
Notification to the authors: February 28th, 2025
Camera ready paper: March 30th, 2025
Publication of the special issue: June 2025 (tentatively)

Guest Editors​

Chiara Ceccarini, University of Bologna (Italy)
Catia Prandi, University of Bologna (Italy)
Alberto Monge Roffarello, Politecnico di Torino (Italy)
Luigi De Russis, Politecnico di Torino (Italy)