Spotlighting spectatorship: elevating observation-based learning in the design and evaluation of body-scale learning environments

Abstract

Research on the educational value of play tends to focus on active players, especially when evaluating novel interaction technologies. However, a long history of scholarship underscores observing communal practice as a primary means of enculturation and learning. This paper demonstrates learning opportunities available within a range of participation forms—from spectator to player and some in between—that emerge around Geometris, a collaborative, body-scale geometry game, as installed in a children’s science museum. Considering learning as participation in communal practice, I present frequency analysis of roughly 350 participants followed by thick narrative descriptions of 3 focal groups to characterize the learning opportunities available within diverse forms of participation in this technologically enabled gameplay. I also identify particular design elements—namely the user-agnostic input mechanism and certain crowd control measures—that inadvertently enabled these participation forms. Theoretical implications include the pedagogically relevant range of action–perception possibilities available across participation forms. Additionally, proposed design heuristics could facilitate these diverse forms of participation in other educational designs.