Effects of playful audio augmentation on teenagers' motivations in cooperative physical play

Abstract

Physical Education (PE) is beneficial for students' mental and physical health, however, teenagers are increasingly becoming less motivated to actively participate in the current form of PE. Motivational studies show that collective physical activity augmented by playful interactions could encourage more participation and social engagement in physical activities (PA). In this paper, we present a within-subject field study with 20 teenagers formed into five groups sized equally. The study is conducted using Shuttlezap, a prototype that provides realtime playful audio augmentation to the process of the activity. Results show that the teenagers enjoyed playful audio augmentation and were socially engaged with an enhancement of their perception of competence. By further comparing the conditions between with and without the audio augmentation, we found that the playful audio augmentation positively contributed to the playfulness in terms of perceived relaxation and expression. We conclude with design implications for social play in the context of PE for teenagers.

Digital technology in physical education: a systematic review of research from 2009 to 2020

“…Further, we also identified studies that showed various ways of expanding or influencing the teaching-learning process. Specifically, the forms of cooperative learning in PE expanded through the use of digital media and could be positively influenced (Ma et al, 2018).…”

“…Relaxation and expression were positively influenced as were social interaction and perceived competence. However, in the event of failure, there was negative reinforcement (Ma et al, 2018). Meanwhile, Kok et al (2020) examined self-efficacy in dealing with digital media-more precisely with video feedback.…”

Six types of audio that DEFY reality!

“…. " [25] The concept of enchantment used here comes from David Rose's book Enchanted Objects [30]. Although his focus is not on audio, he discusses at length the idea of using technology to make ordinary objects magical, or to otherwise augment physical objects.…”