Exploring Childrens Requirements for Game-Based Learning Environments.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Human-Computer Interaction Volume 2008, Article ID 284056, 7 pages doi:10.1155/2008/284056 Research Article Exploring Children’s Requirements for Game-Based Learning Environments Tuula Nousiainen1 and Marja Kankaanranta1, 2 1Agora Center, University of Jyvaskyla, P.O. Box 35, 40014 Jyvaskyla, Finland ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ 2 Institute for Educational Research, University of Jyvaskyla, P.O. Box 35, 40014 Jyvaskyla, Finland ¨ ¨ ¨ ¨ Correspondence should be addressed to Tuula Nousiainen, tuula.nousiainen@jyu.fi Received 8 October 2007; Revised 21 April 2008; Accepted 24 July 2008 Recommended by Adrian Cheok End users’ expertise in the development of new applications is acknowledged in user-centered and participatory design. Similarly, children’s experience of what they find enjoyable and how they learn is a valuable source of inspiration for the design of products intended for them. In this paper, we explore experiences obtained from collaboration with elementary school children in the design of learning environments, based on three projects and three requirements gathering techniques. We also discuss how the children experienced the participation. The children’s contribution yielded useful, both expected and unanticipated, outcomes in regard to the user interface and contents of the learning environments under development. Moreover, we present issues related to design collaboration with children, especially in terms of the children’s feeling of ownership over the final outcome. Copyright © 2008 T. Nousiainen and M. Kankaanranta. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons