Bridging Design Prototypes in the Development of Games for Formal Learning Environments

For more than 30 years, research and applied work has been reported on the huge potential of games for learning. This paper presents Bridging Design Prototypes (BDPs) as an approach that could address the remaining challenge of the successful uptake of games in formal learning environments. BDPs are functional prototypes that bring teachers and learners into a development process early: teachers adapt, re-design, and incorporate them into real activities with students without the presence of the R&D team. Designers employ them for learning about the user community, and their context of practice, and to further inform product development. Two examples illustrate how BDPs enabling novel educational practices have put teachers in control of experimentations, in a leading design role, and dissemination. It is argued that this approach could transfer well into the development of serious games in formal education.