Project Kick-off: Families and Tech in COVID
After several weeks of recruitment and over 290 responses, the first 15 families enrolled in the “Families and Technology during COVID-19” study! Families are responding to prompts and will be participating in design activities through Slack. The three main goals of this study are to:
- Learn about how families are adapting to and leveraging technology at this time and which resources and strategies are most effective
- Co-design solutions that can build family resilience
- Share practical learnings with the public
The first group of 15 diverse participants includes families from around the country: Alabama, Washington D.C. Massachusetts, Washington and more with a broad range of kids ages, from 1–18. Some parents have been laid off from work while others have a parent in the household who is an essential worker and shoulders increased work hours. We’re learning from parents in real time, as they balance work needs, caregiving, and facilitating remote schooling. As parents are introducing themselves this week, they are also reflecting on: what advice they would give themselves — in the first days of learning to stay at home — that they know now but didn’t know then. Many of the families and those who responded to the screener shared struggles with managing too many different schooling platforms, messages, and needing to learn new tools for classwork. The biggest anxiety shared by families has been way too much screen-time.
Parents in the study are sharing some compassionate advice, such as: following cues from your kids, as to not push them to work, if they are having trouble. One parent shared: “In hindsight, I wish I realized that home learning would not look like school learning and that is okay! Trying to do school at home is not realistic for us. I would remind myself to take a breath, get kids on schedule and not stress/freak out if something doesn’t happen on one day. It will all be okay. What most important is making sure it’s sustainable and a positive experience for all”.
While this study is focused on technology, we are also taking note of the social-emotional factors at play. One parent’s advice to her pre-pandemic self would have been to set clear boundaries. She writes,
“Especially because I have a family of 6 in a very small house. I was sitting at the dining room table today, working on three different monitors, breastfeeding my 7 month old, leading a discussion on a conference call… and my 13 year old starts waving his arms furiously to get my attention. I excuse myself and mute my call and ask what’s the emergency?!! He needed a drink and wanted to know if we had juice in the cabinet. The cabinet that he is standing next to. He’s 13. 🤔 🙄 Meanwhile my partner was in the next room playing cars with our toddler. So yeah, boundaries. 😄😂”
Our first group of parents will be moving onto a diary study next week, so that we can learn more specifics about their experiences with technologies (to prepare for co-designing solutions). In the meantime, we are also enrolling a group of single parents, since they may face different daily challenges. We are currently still recruiting for this study, though focusing on essential workers (such as healthcare workers, delivery drivers, warehouse workers, bus drivers, etc.) and ESL (English as a Second Language) families. If you know anyone who would be interested, please feel free to share this screener. Stay tuned for more stories, tips, and resources — through Medium and Twitter!
Co-written with Ria Nagar
