What a Tangible Digital Installation for Museums Can Offer to Autistic Children and Their Teachers

This study is a cooperation between the authors and a teacher who works with pupils affected by autism spectrum disorders (9-12 years old) in a primary Danish school. The aim was assess the benefits of game-based learning with respect to teachers' main challenges: facilitating the discussion of curricular subjects and enabling learning through conceptual thinking and social interaction. An existing digital and tangible installation called MicroCulture, originally created by the authors to bridge history learning across museums and schools was re-contextualised and placed at the school's disposal, in a three weeks study involving 15 pupils. Data was gathered unobtrusively, with qualitative methods. Through mediated play and teacher's facilitation, children occasionally engaged in interactions leading to conceptual thinking, cooperation, and forms of role play. The authors present both problems and positive experiences the pupils and teachers had in playing at MicroCulture; the findings allowed us to outline guidelines for developing similar installations.