Collaborative App-Making as a Research Method

Abstract

This article details a community engagement project involving mobile app technology to create a walking tour of a Baltimore neighborhood.  Greenmount West is an historically African American community in Baltimore City that is now experiencing rapid gentrification.  After receiving a “mash up” grant from a local museum, researchers were partnered with the director of a local community center and created the idea to create a walking tour through the perspective of youth.  In this case, four Black young women who shared their perspectives on their changing neighborhood and were involved in every facet of producing the tour.  The article provides a step by step process for how to use this particular technology as a form of community engagement and research.