Browsing by Author "Bhatti, Neelma"

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    Griot-Style Methodology: Longitudinal Study of Navigating Design With Unwritten Stories
    Kotut, Lindah; Bhatti, Neelma; Hassan, Taha; Haqq, Derek; Saaty, Morva (ACM, 2024-05-11)
    We describe a seven-year longitudinal study conducted in collaboration with an indigenous community in Kenya. We detail the process of conducting research with an oral community: the deliberate practice of understanding and collecting stories; working with inter-generational community to envision and design technologies that support their ways of storytelling and story preservation; and to infuence the design of other technologies. We chronicle how we contended with translating oral stories with rich metaphors to new mediums, and the dimensions of trust we have established and continue to reinforce. We ofer our griot-style methodology, informed by working with the community and retroftting existing HCI approaches: as an example model of what has worked, and the dimensions of challenges at each stage of the research work. The griot-style methodology has prompted a refection on how we approach research, and present opportunities for other HCI research and practice of handling community stories.
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    Intimate Narratives: An Assets-Based Approach To Develop Holistic Perspectives of Student Mothers' Lives and Their Use of Technology in Parenting
    Bhatti, Neelma; Mbakwe, Amarachi; Nnadi, Sandra; Clarke, Geetha; Gautam, Aakash; McCrickard, D. Scott; Kelliher, Aisling (ACM, 2022-11-11)
    This paper details our collaborative approach in capturing a holistic understanding of parental technology use through an assets-based framework. We steer the focus away from the design of technology as the central force of technological innovation, and instead support participants to reflect and describe intimate details that highlight specific use-contexts of technology in their lives. We leverage a group of foreign graduate student mothers’ self-described unique strengths to gain an in-depth account of their lived experiences with technology. As research participants and co-authors, our collaborators elicit intimate narratives about meaningful events in their lives, bringing social and cultural aspects of their lived experience to the forefront, and thus providing broader context of their use of technology. We detail and reflect upon our approach of promoting user agency by creating an affinity group, fostering a safe and intimate space for research engagement, and describe the implications of using our adapted research methodology in intimate settings. We conclude by highlighting the various ways in which technology facilitates foreign student parenting, as well as the ways in which it serves as a temporary band-aid solution, prompting consideration of larger social issues.
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    Technology and International Student Parenting: Implications for Research and Design of Digital Childcare Technologies
    Bhatti, Neelma (Virginia Tech, 2022-08-02)
    Digital technologies such as televisions, touch screen tablets, smartphones, and smart speakers are now frequently encountered and used by young children even before the age of one. These devices facilitate modern parents in their care-giving of young children due to their prevalence in the home environment. The use of these devices is especially common by international student mothers of young children who subscribe to a multiplicity of roles such as being a productive student, efficient mother, and dutiful partner in a new country. This dissertation summarizes four studies exploring the role of technology in international student mothers' life as a parent of young children, and the implications of design and research of technologies for parents based on the transferable learning from these studies. The first and second studies employ auto ethnographic and collaborative approach to involve these mothers as equal stakeholders and collaborators to understand their context of use of technology. The third and fourth studies explore the various uses of technology by caregivers and young children, to obtain certain gratifications. By engaging primary caregivers in in-depth efforts of understanding of their motivations and perceptions about early childhood media exposure, I set forth the praxis between the professional recommendations and their actual lived experiences with technology and young children. Building on these insights, I present a conceptual framework for research which considers the dyadic use of technology due to the close relationship between primary caregivers and young children. Based on the various roles of technology in international student mothers' parenting, I present implications for designing technologies which can assist parents in their care giving duties.