In this study we have followed a participatory design process in a class of
children aged 11 and 12. The development team, a group of Danish
schoolteachers, invited the children to participate in the design of a computer
game for mathematics education. The objective of the participatory design
process was to have the children create a game close to their own interests,
experiences and fantasies, hereby insuring that they would find the game
interesting enough to play it in their spare time away from school. Prior to the
design workshops, the development team had a discussion with one of their
classes, and decided on a game of exploration where the player travels
through time and space, and the purpose of the design process described in
this paper was to develop this idea further. During this process it became
clear that the teachers’ ideas in some sense differed from the children’s. In the
teachers’ original concept, the landscape would represent the history of
mathematics (e.g. ancient Egypt, Greece, China), whereas the children’s ideas,
diverse though they were, evolved around a fantasy setting and tourist
experiences. In this project there arose a conflict between a pedagogical goal
and an attempt to understand the end-users world through research.
%0 Generic
%1 Magnussen03
%A Magnussen, Rikke
%A Misfeldt, Morten
%A Buch, Tasha
%B Paper presented at Digitial Games Research Association Conference: Level Up
%C Utrecht, Netherlands
%D 2003
%K design games learning mathematics participatory postdocapplication
%T Participatory design and opposing interests in development of educational computer games
%U http://www.digra.org/dl/db/05150.36589
%X In this study we have followed a participatory design process in a class of
children aged 11 and 12. The development team, a group of Danish
schoolteachers, invited the children to participate in the design of a computer
game for mathematics education. The objective of the participatory design
process was to have the children create a game close to their own interests,
experiences and fantasies, hereby insuring that they would find the game
interesting enough to play it in their spare time away from school. Prior to the
design workshops, the development team had a discussion with one of their
classes, and decided on a game of exploration where the player travels
through time and space, and the purpose of the design process described in
this paper was to develop this idea further. During this process it became
clear that the teachers’ ideas in some sense differed from the children’s. In the
teachers’ original concept, the landscape would represent the history of
mathematics (e.g. ancient Egypt, Greece, China), whereas the children’s ideas,
diverse though they were, evolved around a fantasy setting and tourist
experiences. In this project there arose a conflict between a pedagogical goal
and an attempt to understand the end-users world through research.
@misc{Magnussen03,
abstract = {In this study we have followed a participatory design process in a class of
children aged 11 and 12. The development team, a group of Danish
schoolteachers, invited the children to participate in the design of a computer
game for mathematics education. The objective of the participatory design
process was to have the children create a game close to their own interests,
experiences and fantasies, hereby insuring that they would find the game
interesting enough to play it in their spare time away from school. Prior to the
design workshops, the development team had a discussion with one of their
classes, and decided on a game of exploration where the player travels
through time and space, and the purpose of the design process described in
this paper was to develop this idea further. During this process it became
clear that the teachers’ ideas in some sense differed from the children’s. In the
teachers’ original concept, the landscape would represent the history of
mathematics (e.g. ancient Egypt, Greece, China), whereas the children’s ideas,
diverse though they were, evolved around a fantasy setting and tourist
experiences. In this project there arose a conflict between a pedagogical goal
and an attempt to understand the end-users world through research.},
added-at = {2007-02-05T12:10:22.000+0100},
address = {Utrecht, Netherlands},
author = {Magnussen, Rikke and Misfeldt, Morten and Buch, Tasha},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/207c1850a5bee1df58d6da46ce62f590b/yish},
booktitle = {Paper presented at Digitial Games Research Association Conference: Level Up},
interhash = {9efbb8b8a51b90a0ec99b5ab26bc29ad},
intrahash = {07c1850a5bee1df58d6da46ce62f590b},
keywords = {design games learning mathematics participatory postdocapplication},
timestamp = {2007-11-09T13:59:07.000+0100},
title = {Participatory design and opposing interests in development of educational computer games},
url = {http://www.digra.org/dl/db/05150.36589},
year = 2003
}