Cardboardification: from play to knowledge

The inexorable technological evolution, supported by the growing adoption of digital products, is progressively transforming the canonical physical objects into experiential objects while changing the way we interact and relate to the real world [1]. This change is generating new lifestyles, new opportunities, and new design challenges. Through increasingly smart and interconnected objects, it is possible to create shared activities and experiences that overcome the barrier of the "tangible", to land in increasingly immersive and attractive environments. Such interactions amplify the need to create meaningful content, extending our perception beyond purely physical reality. Starting from a research on "Corrugated cardboard and Digital technologies" carried out at the School of Design of the Politecnico di Milano, in collaboration with a leading company in the packaging sector in Italy, we examined corrugated cardboard from different points of view. From the analysis carried out, we were able to see how, still today, corrugated cardboard is perceived as a cheap material with little value. But the same material, when placed in a digital scenario, could acquire value by giving tangibility to immersive digital experiences. From these considerations derives the neologism "cardboardification", a transformation that enhances corrugated cardboard to technologically advanced material, evolving from a container of physical elements to a container of digital content. As technologies change, so do formats and quality of content, dematerialising and giving rise to new customisable experiences that are potentially useful in mitigating the differences between users. In a broad and changing framework, learning is also undergoing important changes, leaving great room for improvement, especially considering the generational and skills gap between immigrants and digital natives [2]. Digitisation allows for a vast amount of innovative content that can activate parallel learning processes, without replacing the canonical teaching activities proposed by educators. In this logic, our proposal aims to outline elements that, through play and cardboardification, accompany the educational processes useful for the growth of the child, not only by making available digital content, but tangible augmented experiences that act as a bridge between the physical and the virtual