Serious games for serious challenges: a transdisciplinary study to change obesity prevention at primary school

The article explores emerging changes in educational practice in relation to the critical concepts of serious games, considering the potential that serious games offer for a paradigm shift towards an active, technology-enhanced learning approach. The pilot project of a transdisciplinary research project on the prevention of obesity at school is presented, based on the work started within the Telemedicine Research Center at University of Bari, currently exploring the potential of digital health to innovate education for health and the evolution of serious gaming from applications for single users to engaging applications that connect gamers and use wearables. As part of a multidisciplinary approach that includes knowledge, physical fitness and psychosocial well-being, this project will test a serious game on healthy eating education designed to be played with primary school children using a social robot within a collaborative learning environment.