Ludic engagement designs: Creating spaces for playful learning

Abstract

The learning within and the design of a learning (or therapeutic) situation constitutes a situated activity with inherent actions and interventions. The participant profile influences the facilitator's decisions on how to set up the attributes of the environment relative to the desired learning process and the expected outcome of that process. This paper presents a model which was developed relative to the development, use and evaluation of interactive spaces for playful learning. However, the model has a more generic value as it has been used in learning situations where other forms of resources and/or methods have been used. Thus, the general results upon which the present model is created, indicate that a playful learning tool may be construed by an open-ended design, in the sense that its (im)material affordances should in a flexible way support inclusion of different forms of emergent interaction and forms of play. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.