How to Support Specific User Needs and Values to Make Moving Engaging
This student project sets out to investigate what values and need we have to support and take into account if we want to design for a good physical education for girls in lower secondary education. Based on physical education for 7th grade at Tre Falke Skolen in Copenhagen the project showcases how we might make moving more motivational and engaging if we allow for specific user needs and values in physical education. The project’s case gives insight into and present findings from our effort to circumvent some of the constraints and challenges holding girls back in todays physical education.
About the demo
We have worked together with 24 girls from Tre Falke Skolen in Copenhagen in four different sessions each lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes. During fieldwork we have observed the girls as they were engaged in physical education and we have furthermore interviewed them about their motivation, needs and values in relation to physical education.
During the interviews the girls specified that the social aspect of physical education is very important to them. They love competing, though preferably in groups, where the competition can give them a sense of unity. However, they underlined the fact that individual performance was also important – not so they can feel superior – but to experience a sort of personal success as they get recognition for having improved their results in physical education.
Based on our observations of and interviews with the girls we decided to spend at least another 6 hours with them to get a deeper understanding of their needs and values. We asked the girls to participate in a ‘physical Tetris’ workshop using MaKeyMaKey. During this workshop we would like to observe and get the girls to help us identify how they relate to group and individual cooperation with and without a competition. We would also like to gain a deeper understanding of what motivates and engages the girls the most, and how they believe that they learn most rewardingly in physical education.
Accordingly, the next step in the project will be to organize and conduct the ‘physical Tetris’ workshop in order to, together with the girls, to chart when the girls are most deeply motivation and engaged. The goal of the MaKeyMaKey workshop is to collaborate with the girls through digital fabrication to improve physical education through discovering might make moving more motivational and engaging. The hope is that the combined project will give us the ability to circumvent some of the constraints and challenges that hold girls back in today’s physical education. And, ultimately, that the girls through being able to structure their physical education based on their identified preferences on the grounds of the analytical framework and the MaKeyMaKey workshop will be better motivated and more engaged in physical education.
The project will be presented in the form of a video illustrating how the girls work with ‘physical Tetris’ using MaKeyMaKey. There will also be select student products showcasing how the girls work to improve physical education.
Presented by:
Ana Milosevic – MA student in ICT-based educational design, Aarhus University.
Ane-Kathrine Petersen – MA student in ICT-based educational design, Aarhus University.
Ida Arbirk – MA student in ICT-based educational design, Aarhus University.
Joy Bryde – MA student in ICT-based educational design, Aarhus University.
Rikke Toft Nørgård – Center for Teaching Development and Digital Media.