Curiohood
Design an open learning toolkit for refugee and host community children to improve social cohesion.
Overview
UNHCR's Turkey Fact Sheet highlights 1.4 million child refugees and asylum-seekers. Despite iNGO and local authorities efforts, language barriers, education gaps, and cultural differences hinder social cohesion. At ATÖLYE, I led collaboration with the World Bank Group and Turkish Red Crescent, creating an online toolkit for 8-12-year-olds from refugee and host communities to improve tech-skills and cultural bridges.
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I initiated Curiohood, an open-source website promoting multicultural curiosity and creativity through block-coding and crafts, fostering tech learning and new bonds among children.
Client
World Bank Group
Role
Design Lead
Year
2021
Duration
8 Weeks
Team
A learning designer, UX/UI designer, code tutor, social cohesion expert and project manager
Design Challenge
How can we design a holistic digital learning program for refugees and host communities that supports and enhances social cohesion?
Research
We interviewed 6 refugee children and their parents regarding their adaptation to new environments, schools, and interest in and access to coding and tech-enabled skills. Additionally, we observed learning sessions at Turkish Red Crescent community centers in Istanbul. Consulting experts from local authorities and NGOs, we explored integrating tech-learning into existing social cohesion programs.
Desktop research and interviews underscored playfulness' potential in fostering organic conversations around language, culture, and racial issues, often overlooked by existing programs. We emphasized leveraging playfulness to spark curiosity, practice respect and celebrate cultural differences amongst children.
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We established design principles as detailed guidelines for creating activities that blend tech-enabled learning with cultural exploration, emphasizing inclusivity and serious play.
Some of these principles were:
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Focus on building foundation for a safe learning space
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Celebrate and cherish diversity and interdependence
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Merge digital tools and physical activities
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Design for replicability and loyalty
We conducted an immersion session at a Istanbul Community Center of Turkish Red Crescent to learn from refugee children's learning experiences, with a surprising deep dive into gaming.
Design
Our approach for children's tech and crafts learning focused on cultural embrace through activities blending block coding and crafts (e.g., language, rituals, cuisine), categorized into 6 learning journeys.
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Accessible to both learners and mentors, each activity provides specific guidance. Activities are presented with clear objectives, materials, and progressively challenging steps. Learners engage in themed discussions with thought-out questions, followed by coding or crafts exercises, culminating in culturally diverse creations shared among peers.
We also designed a mentor interface for the website and all activities that support any parent, volunteer or teacher with more detailed guidelines.
Impact
In 2021, Curiohood piloted selected activities and journeys with 85 children in collaboration with 2 local NGOs: MÜDEM (Refugee Support Center) and ASAM-SGDD. The children's keen interest in the activities enabled both NGOs to incorporate Curiohood into their offerings across community centers in Turkey.
Activities in practice at a local community center in Al Farah community center in Gaziantep. Facilitated by ASAM-SDGG mentors confidently through previous onboarding sessions.
First community tests with a local NGO in Ä°zmir. and at Al Farah Community Center, Gaziantep
Received photo from Al Farah community center, presenting a movie poster of a 11 year old child’s dream movie to make, guided by our Intro to Graphic Design activity.
Here's what our tester facilitators said about Curiohood:
Having mentor and learner materials separately and different structure, categorization based on age groups and sequences in activities of Curiohood offer in depth facilitation for mentors.
Contents in craft, drama, music, food, graphic design and game developments create sustainable impact while delivering it to various groups.
It was wonderful to see the children enjoying the creative process. They were personally invested in the activities and wished they had more time together. At that moment I felt that this project had the opportunity to go beyond these sessions and penetrate people’s lives.”
Kübra Merve Küçükbey, ASAM
Selin Arıkın, MÜDEM