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G. Fitzpatrick, P. Slovak:
"We are Social: social interaction & social-emotional competencies";
Talk: HCID Research Seminars, City London University, UK (invited); 2017-04-28.

In this seminar we will discuss two different strands of research broadly connected to us `being social beings´. In the first strand, we use the Give&Take project as an example to explore how a focus on peer interaction and mutual social support might provide an alternative to more functional monitoring-based approaches to technology support for older people. In the second strand, we go back to basics, recognizing that many of the social interaction technologies we build often presume a basic set of social emotional (SE) competencies; but we have little knowledge about how to scaffold or support learning of these competencies with technology. These questions become all the more important as HCI turns towards designing for well-being, where decades of research position SE competencies---such as self control, perseverance, or empathy---as basic requirements for a happy and fulfilling life. We explore the key challenges involved in developing SE competencies, and how technology could meaningfully help address these, capturing this in a conceptual framework based on Schön´s notion of reflective practicum.