For the first time AIT Innovation Systems Department is analysing one of its own projects: to what extent does it adhere to the six dimensions of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) participation, science education, gender, open access, ethics and governance. The project under scrutiny, the BlindBits project from the Business Unit Technology Experience, focuses on using gaming as a means to support pupils at the Institute for the Blind navigate around their school better. To help with the analysis, the Innovation Systems Department is working together with a group of 5th grade pupils from the Sir-Karl-Popper School as part of their ethics lessons. The aim of the project is to write an RRI assessment of the BlindBits project and subsequently to develop guidelines for future projects to implement.
During the last three weeks the pupils from the Sir-Karl-Popper School have been working on breaking down the somewhat abstract RRI dimensions into concrete questions to be able to interview the blind pupils. Last week the Popper School pupils went to the Institute for the Blind and carried out the interviews. “It was fascinating to observe the way in which the pupils from the two schools interacted with each other and how peer-to-peer interviewing worked in practice”, says Katy Whitelegg, who’s responsible for the RRI BlindBits project.
The RRI BlindBits project is funded by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy and aims to support the development of their new Citizen Science Programme.
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