Learning, Gaming, Designing: Using Playful Participation to Create Learning Games together with High School Students

Abstract

The paper deals with developing learning games in the area of informatics and society in an interdisciplinary collaboration of researchers, university students, and high school students in Vienna, Austria. In this project, we apply mixed methods to ensure meaningful results. Playing research and game analysis are supposed to prepare secondary school students for the task of designing and creating learning games in a participatory setting, using explorative design and design thinking. The students are supported in doing so by the academics. The researchers will also evaluate the outcomes. The paper presents the first examples of informatics and society learning games and use the following approaches to trigger learning experiences: humor and exaggeration, shift of perspective, the presentation of facts, and trial and error. These results from the early stages of the project are encouraging and hint at the possible success of playful participation in the field of game-based learning.