Stakeholder Information Sheet
In order to take part in OurKidsCode, a representative of your school must consent.
Please scroll down to read what follows and then click the Consent to take part in OurKidsCode button to proceed ↓
STEAM is an educational approach that integrates Science, Technology, Engineering, the Arts, and Mathematics, to better prepare children to think critically and solve problems creatively. OurKidsCode is a research project led by a team at Trinity College Dublin that aims to build a cross-functional community STEAM Team made up of school staff, parents, and children, and to create a sustainable model for STEAM engagement. We aim to help families in County Meath enjoy, understand and encourage creative computing in a way that aligns with the new primary curriculum. Our particular interest is in the role of parents in supporting children and in exploring how children, parents and schools can best work together. We do this by offering family workshops where parents and children collaborate and benefit from being alongside other families.
We are asking individuals who are involved in rolling-out this programme to ensure we are making progress towards our aims by giving input into its design and helping us to scale and sustain our activities. Participation is voluntary.
Before you decide if you want to help, it is important for you to understand why the research is being done and what taking part involves. Please take time to read the following information carefully. Please ask us if there is anything that is not clear or if you would like more information.
What is the purpose of the study?
We know that educators want to support and encourage your community’s creative use of technology. We want to figure out the best way to support that. To do this we would like to invite you to share your views on the programme and your expertise through a post workshop interview and a follow-up online questionnaire. These designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the programme and are not a test!
Do I have to take part?
We need to collect and store your details to organise the interview and follow-up questionnaire. So, in order to participate, you will need to read this information leaflet and sign a consent form.
It is up to you to decide whether to take part. Even if you decide to take part now, you are still free to change your mind at any time and without giving a reason. You can also decide to skip any questions you like.
What will happen to me if I take part?
You will be asked to join the families for a taster workshop session followed up with a focus group interview. Later in an online questionnaire, we may ask you more questions to understand some of the issues in more depth. The focus group interview will be audio recorded.
- Participating in all or any of these is voluntary and you may change your mind and stop at any time.
- You may also choose not to answer an individual question in the focus group interview or in the online questionnaire at any time and skip it without penalty.
What are the benefits of taking part?
You and your school will benefit directly from taking part as we work together to give your school community the best experience possible. You will also be benefiting future participants and their communities as we figure out together how to best embed this family-centred creative computing programme into communities all over Ireland.
Keeping you and your data safe
Our team are Garda vetted which means we are approved to work with families and children.
Your privacy is important to us. We will store personal information and audio recordings on secure password-protected servers at Trinity College for up to 10 years. Only the project team will have access to it. No hard copies of the data will be stored.
Your name and location will be removed so that your identity remains confidential before it is shared with anyone outside the project team. We will never share the audio files with any third parties. If you decide to withdraw from the research, you may request that we delete your data,
If you are at all worried about how your data is kept, please get in touch and we can answer your questions.
It’s very unlikely, but if we find out about any illegal activities, child protection law means that we must let the authorities know.
What will happen to the results of this research?
There may be media reporting, lectures, conference presentations and academic publications written as a result of this project. However, our reporting and published results will not include any information that would identify you.
What do I do if I have any further questions?
If you have any questions or concerns regarding your participation, please contact our project team at contact@ourkidscode.ie. They will be happy to answer any questions that you may have.
THANK YOU
This research is funded by Meta’s Data Center Community Action Grants and Research Ireland and administered by the School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin. The project team consists of Assistant Professor Nina Bresnihan, Assistant Professor Glenn Strong, Louise Caldwell, Mary O’Mahony, Chris Chapman, Dr Richard Millwood and Dr Hao Lucy Liu from Trinity College Dublin.