Smart Playgrounds? Using Smart and Interactive Technologies to Combat Playground Underutilization

As settings planned and designed with children in mind, playgrounds have a lot to offer 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 find out why they do not visit playgrounds more often. The survey found that many children found the playgrounds unexciting and wished for a different and more interactive setting. 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-first century playgrounds.