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Designing a Math Game for Children Using a Participatory Design Experience

Authors:
Inmaculada Rodriguez Santiago
Anna Puig Puig
Sergi Grau
Montserrat Escayola

Keywords: Serious Games;Participatory Design;child-computer Interaction.

Abstract:
Today teachers have in their hands learning resources, such as games, to engage primary school students in dry subjects. Nevertheless, many of these games have a mechanic very similar to in-class exercises, e.g., question -answer and match up images. Then, children end up boring. In this research, we aim to design a game for and by children. We present results of two Participatory Design (PD) sessions performed with children of 6th grade of Primary School to jointly design a game about fractions. The experience has been very fruitful both for us and for children. On one hand, they had an exciting experience as game designers, enforced their learning about fractions, and contributed with numerous and diverse ideas. On the other hand, we have co- created a game with enthusiastic stakeholders. Additionally, this research constitutes a further step in the study of methodologies and techniques of participatory game design with children. As a result of our experience we can say that participatory sessions with children should be very dynamic, with well-differentiated parts and using very different activities. We have used individual brainstorming using post-its, brainstorming and discussion in groups. We have also organised written activities, which seem to be adequate, provided that children have templates to be filled with ideas related to elements and mechanics of the game. We observed they showed really concentrated in these writing activities. Those parts of the participatory design that required the use of computers were the most appealing for them. Moreover, teachers and designers should pay attention and give children positive reinforcement regularly in order to avoid distraction during the PD sessions.

Pages: 28 to 35

Copyright: Copyright (c) IARIA, 2015

Publication date: November 15, 2015

Published in: conference

ISSN: 2308-3492

ISBN: 978-1-61208-440-4

Location: Barcelona, Spain

Dates: from November 15, 2015 to November 20, 2015