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- Title
Smart Playgrounds? Using Smart and Interactive Technologies to Combat Playground Underutilization.
- Authors
LOUKAITOU-SIDERIS, ANASTASIA
- Abstract
As sett ings planned and designed with children in mind, playgrounds have a lot to off er to children’s physical, social and educational development. However, US playgrounds are often underutilized by middle-school children, as they become upstaged by electronic and computer games. This article explores the reasons for playground underutilization in the US through a historic overview of playground development and a review of literature sources that discuss the causes and consequences of playground utilization. It also draws from an empirical study of the author, who surveyed 897 middle-school children and 348 parents in twelve middle schools in Los Angeles to examine their feelings toward playgrounds and fi nd out why they do not visit playgrounds more often. The survey found that many children found the playgrounds unexciting and wished for a diff erent and more interactive sett ing. In response to this sentiment, the last part of the article examines the concepts of ‘smart park’ and ‘interactive playground’ and discusses opportunities that smart and interactive technologies present for developing twenty-fi rst century playgrounds.
- Subjects
LOS Angeles (Calif.); PLAYGROUNDS; ELECTRONIC games; COMPUTERS; LITERARY sources; EDUCATIONAL planning
- Publication
Built Environment, 2021, Vol 47, Issue 2, p243
- ISSN
0263-7960
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.2148/benv.47.2.243