Agoras: Towards Collaborative Game-Based Learning Experiences on Surfaces
Alejandro Catalá, Fernando García-Sanjuán, Patricia Pons, Juan Javier, José A. Mocholí · Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age · 2012
Children nowadays consume and manage lots of interactive digital software. This makes it more interesting and powerful to use digital technologies and videogames supporting learning experiences. However, in general, current digital proposals lack of in-situ social interaction supporting natural exchange and discussion of ideas in the course of creative learning activities. Moreover, learning activities based on games should put the emphasis on the phase of creating artifacts for the game ecosystem, not on just playing or consuming contents. With the aim of supporting learning activities focused on “playing to create games”, this paper presents the implemented middleware to support this process from a technical point of view. The system allows the creation on an interactive tabletop of both single and advanced entities composed of shapes that can be enacted according to physics principles and rule-based behavior to create game ecosystems for learning purposes.