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Digital participatory research with adolescents in youth service
residential care under Covid-19 containment measures –
A messenger-based digital research method
Isabel Zorn, Marc Schmidt, Dennis Wilk, Janina Rösch
10th European Conference on Social Work Research ECSWR 2021.
5-7th May 2021, University of Bucharest/Romania
Content
1. Problem: no-entry bans of residential care under pandemic
measures; Data privacy in digital participatory research
2. Research Question: Participatory research methods and
transmission tool needed
3. Study design
4. Findings
5. Digital ProbeKit via messenger as participatory research
method
6. Conclusions
7. Transferability and outlook
8. References
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INTIA is a project coordinated by the TH Köln University of Applied
Sciences:
•the research center Digital Technologies and Social Services (DITES)
with its areas
•Social Work Media + Education (Prof. Dr. Isabel Zorn),
•Computer Science and Socio-technology (Prof. Dr. Stefan Bente and
Prof. Dr. Christian Kohls)
•Service-Design & Co-Creation (Prof. Birgit Mager)
•cooperate with institutions of social work. Those partners work with
disadvantaged youth.
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Inclusive Development of Methods and Technologies for
Supporting Everyday Activities of Young People with Special
Needs -INTIA
The project is sponsored by the
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
under number 13FH534SX7 .
Background: participatory research and
technology development with youth in residential
care under Covid pandemic measures
•Young people are involved in exploring everyday needs. They
co-create technological support solutions for those needs.
•In order to conduct participatory research with adolescents in
residential care about their everyday needs worthy of support,
originally it was planned to conduct workshops, participant
observations and joint explorations of the living space as an
action research approach.
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Digital survey and participation methods were sought.
Problem
•While some research exists on safe online counselling, a
lack of literature and tools on safe digital methods for
social work research was experienced.
• (Ethical) data management ist not yet established at
universities (Palsdottir 2021, Florea/Florea 2020)
•Digital research poses new issues on protecting
research participants (Mattos 2019)
•Digutal data research (esp. social media) needs ethical
guidelines (Clark 2019)
• As soon as a digital tool becomes part of a research
process as a mediator and medium, all data runs via the
service provider as a third party.
But:
a) research ethics as well as
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Research Question
Which communication tools are suitable for digital
participatory research with adolescents in residential
care?
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Study Design
1. Criteria for selecting an appropriate tool for
communication and data collection together with
disadvantaged adolescents were developed.
2. A research method around the tool was re-designed:
Digital ProbeKit.
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Research: Suitable communication tool für
participatory research with vulnerable groups
Criteria for promising youth
participation included:
•dissemination,
•availability,
•cost,
•technical requirements and
usability,
•diverse data formats,
•expected probability of
implementation and use,
•and especially data protection.
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Tools were analyzed:
•telephone,
•file storage,
•email,
•messenger,
•post mail.
Findings: traditional communication tools
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1. Lack of suitability were found for …
post mail (lack of ease and lack of diverse data formats)
telephone (lack of diverse data formats and asynchrony).
Findings: digital communication tools
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10
Popular digital services like
• e-mail,
•Skype,
•WhatsApp messenger,
•Viber messenger,
•and cloud services like Dropbox, etc.
transmit and process unencrypted sensitive data like contacts,
metadata or even the clear content.
Not suitable after GDPR,
not meeting Confidentiality requirements in social work
Not meeting ethical research requirements (anonymity etc.)
Findings: encrypted messengers
Messengers fulfilled many criteria, however, data protection of sensitive
research data had to be examined.
Result: Threema Work (Switzerland-based secure messenger) was
found to fulfill criteria best and protect research data:
• Cost (costs for private Threema version – payment procedure barrier)
•Dissemination (Threema not widespread),
•Availability (Threema Work edition provided by research team)
• technical requirements and usability (good),
• diverse data formats (text, speech, photos, video, audio call, vieo call)
•expected probability of implementation and use (if distributed by research
team)
•Encrypted data, hardly meta data. No personal data (no telephone
number) required. Full data protection.
•Full anonymity towards third parties.
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Analyses of popular messengers
Analyses Sheet
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GDPR conformity
European company
1. Messenger found.
2. Needed: participatory research method under conditions
of pandemic entry bans
After choosing the research medium for remote
participatory research, a research method was needed.
Crossing boundaries of disciplinary research, we re-
designed cultural probe kits from computer science into a
digital messenger-based cultural probe kit as a remote
method of co-creative exploration of everyday life in the
residential care with the young people.
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Digital messenger-based probe kit
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14
The young people
•received game-based research assignments
•and transmitted their own observations, reflections and ideas
about their everyday needs in residential care
•as narratives, photographs, pictures and ideas,
•using the ThreemaWork messenger.
Digital ProbeKit Method: exploring
adolescents needs
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Example of probe kit
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Example of probe kit
Conclusions
•The entry ban under Covid conditions lead to the
interdisciplinary development of a digital remote
research method for social work research.
• A need for standard deployment of safe tools by social
work research institutions (universities) was detected for
communication of sensitive research data in social work
with external partners.
•Universities’ IT centers need to provide adequate tools
and information for ethical research
•Further participatory digital research tools and suitable
research methods must be developed for data protecting
digital participatory research.
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Transferability and outlook
1. For further remote participation, remote workshops
were planned. Same issues arise for video
conferencing system.
2. Transfer possible for diverse participatory research
with and on vulnerable groups and privacy concerns,
especially in schools and all areas of Social Work.
3. Research institutions seem to rarely provide safe
encrypted tools for external collaboration. Dito: Social
work institutions.
4. Technical equipment in social work institutions to be
improved…
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References
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19
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Online: https://dl.gi.de/handle/20.500.12116/33567 .
European Union (2016/2017): REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 April 2016 on the
protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC
(General Data Protection Regulation). GDPR. EU. Online : https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
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