CLIMB: A Pervasive Gameful Platform Promoting Child Independent Mobility

Child independent mobility (CIM) refers to the freedom and capability of children to move about their local neighborhoods without constant direct adult supervision. Our climb project combats an observed decline in CIM, offering a pervasive gameful platform for home–school mobility composed of three primary components: the first two using technology to support different levels of child independence and the third providing an element of continuous motivation for positive behavior change. This paper describes these three novel technologies: PedibusSmart, SafePath, and KidsGoGreen, and reports on four years of success with more than 1800 elementary age children, their teachers, and families. We further show how (i), disappearing, pervasive technology contributes to successful adoption, (ii), properly balancing trust and tracking leads to useful, noninvasive technological support, and (iii), in-classroom, gameful technology engages and motivates participation, with behavior changes persisting over time.