Kingdom of the knights: Evaluation of a seamlessly augmented toy environment for playful learning

Ubiquitous technologies offer new opportunities for digitally augmenting children's toys and play experiences. A key question is how augmented toy environments affect children's playful learning, and whether this differs from non-augmented play environments. This paper presents preliminary results of a user study we conducted to evaluate an augmented toy environment that we built - the Augmented Knights Castle - in terms of fun and storytelling, particularly when compared with an identical, non-augmented version. All sessions were observed, videorecorded and further feedback was elicited through small group interviews and questionnaires. Findings suggest ways in which digitally augmented play environments promote different kinds of activity from an equivalent non-augmented play environment Copyright 2009 ACM.