Primary School Students´ Attitude towards Gesture Based Interaction: A Comparison between Microsoft Kinect and Mouse

This paper attempts an empirical study regarding the attitude of primary education students (n=32) towards gesture based interfaces in educational contexts. A simple construction activity was designed and tested both with Microsoft Kinect and the traditional mouse. The main finding was that Kinect was preferred over mouse, even though it was less easy to use. It seems that gesture based interfaces increase student´s motivation and engagement. Nevertheless, in order to fully exploit their potential as educational tools, the following are needed: more robust motion sensing technology, exploitation of the kinesthetic taxonomy and customized educational software.