RAPID: Education, Work, and Life during COVID-19: Supporting Families at Home with Technology

在COVID-19大流行的背景下，美国家庭正在迅速适应新的条件，这些条件破坏了我们的工作、育儿和教育方式。劳动力、教育和社会经验突然发生了变化，数百万家庭被迫在全职工作或忍受新失业的痛苦的同时承担起子女教育的责任。技术的作用是至关重要的，因为这种新的社会距离背景要求家庭单位以外的一切现在都可以通过计算机网络远程执行。这个研究项目将发展这些特殊情况对家庭生活，教育成果和工作的影响的理解。研究小组将调查数字技术如何提供解决方案，产生负面影响，并延续或减少数字鸿沟和其他差距。为了帮助家庭减轻COVID-19对社会和经济的负面影响，该团队将开发指导-涉及家庭技术-关于如何同时支持远程教育，远程工作和家庭生活。研究团队将定期通过博客和社交媒体向家庭、教育工作者和技术设计师传达这一指导。这项研究将有助于对家庭在COVID-19社交距离和其他中断时期的经验进行实证理解，结合计算和信息，（1）收集和分析有关在COVID-19大流行中，社交距离如何改变家庭的社交和教育体验的数据;（2）调查在COVID-19期间对家庭及其与社会和经济机构的关系有帮助和没有帮助的技术设计方面;（3）设计和发现新技术，以支持工作与生活的平衡，教育和家庭联系;以及（4）推导出流行病危机中家庭如何适应远程学习和劳动力参与技术的理论和模型。30个不同的家庭-每个家庭至少有一个3至13岁的孩子-将远程参与采访，调查和设计活动。异步远程社区（ARC）方法将用于收集经验和共同设计新技术。这种方法可以通过增加反思，社会支持和资源共享使参与者受益。该团队将根据与家庭的远程协同设计会议开发新的设计工件。这项工作将有助于新的方法，因为研究人员将ARC方法用于快速变化情况下的幼儿家庭。该研究将被告知，并可能扩展和进一步验证理论框架，包括弱关系的强度，联合媒体参与，家庭弹性理论和知识基金。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, American families are rapidly adapting to new conditions that disrupt how we work, perform childcare, and conduct education. Workforce, education, and social experiences are suddenly transformed, as millions of families are forced to take ownership of their children's education while working full-time or enduring hardships of new unemployment. Technology’s role is crucial, as this new social distancing context requires everything outside the family unit to now be performed remotely, over computer networks. This research project will develop understanding of the effects of these extraordinary circumstances on family life, educational outcomes, and work. The research team will investigate how digital technologies offer solutions, negatively impact, and perpetuate or reduce the digital divide and other disparities. To help families mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19 on society and the economy, the team will develop guidance—involving technologies in the home—about how to simultaneously support remote education, remote work, and family life. The research team will regularly communicate this guidance through blogging and social media targeted to families, educators, and technology designers.This research will contribute empirical understanding of the experiences of families during COVID-19 social distancing and other times of disruption, in conjunction with computing and information by (1) collecting and analyzing data about how families’ social and educational experiences are transformed by social distancing in the COVID-19 pandemic; (2) investigating aspects of technology designs that are helpful and unhelpful to families and their relationships to social and economic institutions during COVID-19; (3) designing and discovering new technologies to support work-life balance, education, and family connectedness; and (4) deriving theories and models of how families in a pandemic crisis adapt technologies for distance learning and workforce participation. Thirty diverse families--each with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 13--will be remotely engaged in interviews, surveys, and design activities. The Asynchronous Remote Communities (ARC) method will be used to collect experiences and co-design new technologies. This method can benefit participants through increased reflection, social support, and resource-sharing. The team will develop new design artifacts based on remote co-design sessions with families. The work will contribute new methodologies, as the researchers adapt the ARC method for use with families with younger children in rapidly evolving situations. The research will be informed by, and potentially extend and further validate theoretical frameworks, including strength of weak ties, joint media engagement, family resilience theory, and funds of knowledge.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.