Abstract
Youth remain an underexplored stakeholder group in Information Systems (IS) research. Educating them for their digital future should be a pivotal concern of ours. This study, inspired by the Participatory Design (PD) tradition, explores ways by which to offer empowerment and impact-oriented IS education. Literature on IS education lacks PD inspired approaches. We conducted ten participatory game design workshops with youth, who designed and evaluated a literacy game for youth. Their contributions shaped multiple aspects of the game: character design and visual elements were implemented directly, while other ideas evolved into new features or inspired them. Their input also influenced game mechanics and narrative flow, and some ideas travelled beyond the initial project, informing virtual reality environments. We demonstrate an example of PD inspired, empowerment and impact-oriented education, which enabled youth to impact not only immediate design outcomes but also future development trajectories.
Paper Type
Full Paper
DOI
10.62036/ISD.2026.173
Empowering and Impactful IS Education for the Young Generation
Youth remain an underexplored stakeholder group in Information Systems (IS) research. Educating them for their digital future should be a pivotal concern of ours. This study, inspired by the Participatory Design (PD) tradition, explores ways by which to offer empowerment and impact-oriented IS education. Literature on IS education lacks PD inspired approaches. We conducted ten participatory game design workshops with youth, who designed and evaluated a literacy game for youth. Their contributions shaped multiple aspects of the game: character design and visual elements were implemented directly, while other ideas evolved into new features or inspired them. Their input also influenced game mechanics and narrative flow, and some ideas travelled beyond the initial project, informing virtual reality environments. We demonstrate an example of PD inspired, empowerment and impact-oriented education, which enabled youth to impact not only immediate design outcomes but also future development trajectories.
Recommended Citation
Tikkanen, R., Iivari, N. & Rajanen, M.(2026). Empowering and Impactful IS Education for the Young Generation. In M. Valenta, B. Mannová, R. Pergl, A. Przybylek, M. Lang, H. Linger, C. Schneider, N. Iivari, & E. Insfran (Eds.), Making ISD Sustainable: Reloaded with AI and Automation (ISD2026 Proceedings). Prague, Czech Republic: Czech Technical University in Prague. ISBN: 978-80-01-07585-2. https://doi.org/10.62036/ISD.2026.173