From Technomania to the School of Things: Taking Control of Your Own Game

Abstract

In this workshop children prototype simple digital games and physical user interfaces to play these games. Only open source hard- and software is used for the workshop. Developed in the course of an international practice-based research project on experimental approaches to media literacy, the workshop is part of xm:lab's School of Things, a cooperation with local secondary and vocational schools that engages school children in the processes of digital design, fabrication, and rapid prototyping. The workshop is presented not as a stand-alone activity that focuses on specific skill sets, but as part of an ongoing series aimed at developing a media literacy curriculum that can in turn be used by future facilitators to conduct their own workshops. Each workshop tests new ideas as well as a common pedagogical core that continues to be developed as we talk both with children participants and the teachers interesting in integrating such workshops into their own teaching.