A conceptual framework for mixed reality environments: designing novel learning activities for young children

How do we conceptualise and design mixed reality environments (MREs)? Here we describe a first pass at a conceptual framework and use it to inform the design of different kinds of activities for children to experiment with. Our aim was to investigate how different MRE set-ups affected children’s exploratory behaviour and their understanding of them. The familiar activity of colour mixing was used; different set-ups were provided, where paint or light colours could be mixed, by using either physical tools, digital tools or a combination of these. The findings of our study showed that novel mixes of physical and digital ‘transforms’ engendered much exploration and reflection.