Gender-Inclusive Learning Technology Design

We explore how learning technologies can engage children with varied identities, interests, and preferences. Using computational toys and coding kits as a starting point, we examine how design can broaden participation in computing and offer children more ways to see themselves as computational creators.

Our preliminary studies examine both the features of coding kits and how those kits are communicated to children and families. Drawing on research on gendered toy preferences, we consider colours, physical forms, and suggested activities, alongside the messages that surround these products. Our examination identified a predominance of masculine-oriented features, raising questions about whose interests existing kits accommodate and whose they overlook. Building on this work, we are investigating possibilities for gender-inclusive learning media. Our aim is to expand the range of aesthetics and activities available to children while attending to the diversity of preferences within gender groups. The broader design question is how computational learning can welcome children with different interests without reinforcing restrictive expectations about who computing is for.