Participatory methodologies to promote student engagement in the development of educational digital games

- Communities of Practice at school promote learning based on active co-participation.
- Participatory methodologies need to be tailored to students' abilities.
- Engagement relates to correspondence between object of activity and students needs.
- Disengagement relates to frustration of needs and high personal expectations.

Engagement is a fundamental condition for learning, which the outdated educational system is failing to sustain for the current generation of students, born in a world permeated with digital technologies. This article presents an analysis of high school students' engagement while playing the roles of programmers and designers of educational digital games in the Community of Practice of the DEMULTS project, which aims to provide an alternative within the traditional educational system. Data collection was performed within an ethnographic approach with participant observation, questionnaires and social network interaction, and analysis was based on the constructs of Activity Theory. Four groups of students were identified with similar needs and motivations, each engaged at different levels according to the nature of the tasks, interaction with peers and educators, and personal expectations. Results reveal that, even in a supposedly fun and innovative context, the relationship between the object of the activity and the students' needs is crucial to promote engagement and learning. Identifying and taking into account students' needs and expectations is reinforced as an indispensable step in educational interventions.