Primary School Students Designing for Future Relationship Building in Extended Realities: Encounters with Live Human Holograms

We postulate that early stage developments of emerging technologies, such as hologram technology, should involve active participation of stakeholders in an educational context, to ensure the inclusion of didactic values rather than after the fact adaptations. This paper presents a participatory exploratory study aimed at designing extended reality interactions with 3D-live-streamed human holograms fostering relationship building among school students. The study comprised of two distinct phases, with eight participants attending grades 6 and 7 in a public school. In the technology exposure phase, the students participated in a 10-minute meet-and-greet session paired with students whom they had not previously met, while wearing the Microsoft HoloLens 2. In the subsequent design phase, the students expanded upon interactions within a role-play session. They designed a friendship book, and embodied and shared experiences for future holographic encounters. We maintain that participatory design of early stage emerging technologies with primary school students provides valuable insights to guide future technology developments in education.