Bridging Digital and Physical Educational Games Using RFID/NFC Technologies

• Main Authors: Orazio Miglino, Andrea Di Ferdinando, Raffaele Di Fuccio, Angelo Rega, Carlo Ricci
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Italian e-Learning Association 2014-09-01
• Series: Je-LKS : Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society
• Online Access: https://www.je-lks.org/ojs/index.php/Je-LKS_EN/article/view/959

The physical educational games and the traditional psycho-pedagogical methodologies are deeply based on the manipulation of objects. The opportunity derived by some low-cost technologies could join the physical world with the digital tools creating Augmented Reality Environments based on the concepts of Internet of Things (IoT). This connection has all the capacities to enhance the traditional educational games played in the schools or at home with the digital tools in order to create more exiting learning activities and more appropriate for the new digital natives. In this field, the RFID/NFC technology seems to be a natural candidate due to its natural predisposition to be heavily connected to real objects and send the signal to the digital devices. In this paper, we describe how the RFID/NFC technology could be used to connect digital and physical didactic materials in this hybrid approach. We present three different applications and prototypes: a) Block-Magic, it is an educational games based on well-known Logic Blocks material in the framework of an European project (I); b) Walden PECS Communicator (II) a platform based on Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) a worldwide methodology to enhance communication skills in autistic persons; c) WandBot (III, IV), a learning environment that combines toy robots, RFID-technology and serious games for scientific dissemination in science centres