Participatory design methods to define educational goals for full-body interaction

Abstract

The paper presents an exploratory study aimed toward including children in the design of an Interactive Learning Environment based on Full-Body Interaction. The study proposes a method based on using Participatory Design techniques to analyze core meanings and misconceptions of children. The aim is to identify appropriate learning goals and to define concepts capable of bridging between children's knowledge and novel contents. Furthermore, it explores a novel approach aimed at fostering design methods suitable for a Full-Body Interaction experience. The results show the benefits of the method in defining guidelines for a first design proposal of a Learning Environment based on environmental education.