Neighborhood investigations and game design using mobile media (original) (raw)
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Using a studio-based pedagogy to engage students in the design of mobile-based media
The article presents a brief overview of the Neighborhood Game Design Project, a studio-based curriculum intervention aimed at engaging students in the design of place-based mobile games and interactive stories using geo-locative technologies (e.g., GPS enabled cell phones). It describes the three curricular components that defined the project, then highlights how a studio method was used to guide students' design work and develop their design literacies. In particular, the article focuses on one of the main design activities students engaged in – collaboratively designing an Augmented Reality simulation – and explores how the embedded design practices align with a socio-cultural view of literacy
Restructuring activity and place: augmented reality games on handhelds
Proceedings of the 8th …, 2008
Human activities are constrained by interconnected and overlapping factors of: biological abilities, time, space, and social narratives. I focus on how the interplay between two of these factors, space and narratives, can be mediated with cultural tools of locative technologies such as Augmented Reality games and GPS units. In order to understand how place-based pedagogies affect learning and how locative technologies, like Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Augmented Reality Games on Handhelds (ARGHs), help connect learners to cultures of place I examine experiences with place-based video games in a deep woods camping environment. Drawing together research in sociocultural learning, design, embodiment, environmental education, experiential education, human geography, and video games, this paper demonstrates how ARGHs can restructure a learning activity to (1) better connect learners to place, (2) increase and mediate their physical activity and social interactions, and (3) help enculturate them into a community of practice.
Location-based games with smartphones – developing a toolbox for educators
Location-based games for educational purposes provide a link between content and its real-life relevance in a physical environment. The potential of mobile, location-based activities for authentic learning is well known, but the technological and organizational barriers for educational staff still exist. There is a need for easy-to-use tools to facilitate the creation of playful location-based mobile learning activities.Within the MILE project (move-interact-learn-eat), a transdisciplinary team consisting of educational experts in the field of outdoor education, in nutrition and consumer education as well computer scientists developed an authoring system for location-based games, the MILE Designer. This authoring system provides several formats of tasks that can easily be adapted and each task is located intuitively using a simple map as interface. Several tasks are combined to an educational geogame for a native smartphone app. This paper describes the relevant theoretical background and the transdisciplinary development process. The MILE Designer was formatively evaluated in a participatory observation and in focus group discussions. The results of this evaluation process are presented and further educational implications are discussed. Keywords: Location-based game, learning game design model.
Restructuring Activity and Place: Augmented Reality Games on Handhelds1
2015
Abstract: Human activities are constrained by interconnected and overlapping factors of: biological abilities, time, space, and social narratives. I focus on how the interplay between two of these factors, space and narratives, can be mediated with cultural tools of locative technologies such as Augmented Reality games and GPS units. In order to understand how place-based pedagogies affect learning and how locative technologies, like Global Positioning Systems (GPS) and Augmented Reality Games on Handhelds (ARGHs), help connect learners to cultures of place I examine experiences with place-based video games in a deep woods camping environment. Drawing together research in sociocultural learning, design, embodiment, environmental education, experiential education, human geography, and video games, this paper demonstrates how ARGHs can restructure a learning activity to (1) better connect learners to place, (2) increase and mediate their physical activity and social interactions, and ...
Taking students outside the classrooms. Location-based mobile games in education
5th International Conference on Higher Education Advances (HEAd'19), 2019
The contribution aims at corroborating location-based mobile games as models for the integration of digital technologies in the educational field. They demonstrated to be valid alternatives to formal education in the applied research project: Play Design!, which addressed to high school students, interested in design-related matters, and intends to valorise the Italian design culture, transforming Milan into the stage of a double-sided story. Design is here highlighted both as a cultural heritage and a discipline, inducing the development of two different games sharing a common didactic aim: D.Hunt and D.Learn. The first one is a mobile treasure hunt illustrating the excellences of the creative production of the country, and the renowned protagonists and places of Italy-and Milan-based design: a cultural background to be preserved and valorised. The second one, instead, is a roleplay, cooperative and competitive game which depicts the city as a hub for schools and universities, where design is considered a subject for didactic courses, a combination of theories and practices to be transmitted and implemented. Then, the two mobile, location-based serious games exploit this copious and multifaceted material for evident learning purposes, joining the examples of informal education to increasingly follow in future technology developments.
Location and Place: Two Design Dimensions of Augmented Reality in Mobile Technologies
Handbook of Mobile Teaching and Learning, 2018
Augmented reality (AR) integrates virtual objects in real environments in real time. It is becoming widely adopted in education, entertainment, and beyond. In this chapter, authors introduce "location" and "place" as two key design dimensions for designing AR-based mobile technologies for learning. "Location" is defined as the user's physical location, and "place" is defined as the user's engagement with the physical location she/he is in. Authors further operationalize "location" and "place" as independent constructs and map out their intersection using a quadrant-based framework. In each quadrant, a mobile application is presented to illustrate how this framework informs and contextualizes designs and developments in mobile technologies. The framework introduced in this work aims to highlight the importance of "location" and "place" when designing AR-based educational technologies.
Augmenting Design Curriculum with Location-Aware Technologies
This paper discusses ways in which emerging interactive augmented reality (AR) technologies are being adopted by designers and extended into areas of tourism, education, entertainment and commerce. It discusses, in detail, project development stages and methodologies used to engage design focused students into, often complex, technological issues. The discussion is contextualized through a number of case studies of mobile and marker-based AR applications developed within the university curriculum.
Journal of Urban Design, 2018
Urban planners and designers have spent the last 50 years trying to activate unused public spaces, create walkable cities, and encourage sociability through urban design. Pokémon Go has succeeded, almost overnight, to entice people of all demographics in to the streets of cities around the world. In fact, many previously underutilised public spaces have suddenly become hot spots for all demographics, playing Pokémon Go and other similar augmented reality games (ARGs). While anecdotally, it seems, ARGs activate public spaces, increase community interactions, and facilitate exploration of urban spaces, little study has been done on the influence of ARGs on sense of place, or the way in which these games are influencing player engagement with the public spaces they are playing within. This paper reports the findings of a survey of 994 Australian players. The paper explores whether ARGs affect user needs being met in public spaces, and the implications of these findings for urban practitioners.
Encountering Place: Mapping and Location-Based Games in Interdisciplinary Education
The Cartographic Journal, 2017
In this paper we propose the use of 'Encountering' a location-based game (LBG) based on the Wherigo platform to facilitate interdisciplinary student learning about places on field courses. Deploying a mobile, digital map-based platform addresses significant challengessuch as the sacrifice of context specificity and methodological applicability and depth. It also runs the danger of 'gamifying' the fieldwork, blinding the participant to their own agency and emergent encounters. Interactive and layered digital map interfaces have affordances that can potentially overcome such challenges. We claim that one such affordance is the ability to play through the map. In other words, mapsand digital maps in particularoffer the possibility of decoupling results-orientated actions from free-form serendipitous engagement with the field. Our argument is twofold. First, that LBG toolsets such as Wherigo can provide a 'common ground' for students engaging in place-based interdisciplinary research, by providing a material, cartographic basis for playful investigation. Second, that they can facilitate the production of 'spaces of epistemological failure', allowing students to challenge taken-for-granted conceptual and methodological axioms within and across disciplines.
Interaction Design and Architecture(s) Journal - IxD&A, 2017
The EduPARK game is developed under a game-based learning methodology. It is designed for outdoor learning settings by employing geocaching principles and mobile Augmented Reality technologies. The game aims to develop users’ authentic and autonomous learning about diverse interdisciplinary themes in a smart urban park. It integrates learning guides for different target groups of basic education. The purpose of this paper is to present the game prototype development, and its first cycle of refinement, as the study followed a design-based research approach. The game evaluation involved 74 students from two school levels (aged 9-10 and 13-14). They explored and evaluated the game. Participant observation and focus groups were conducted. The evaluation allowed identifying positive characteristics of the game, such as immediate feedback and collaborative dynamics. Some questions included in the learning guides were perceived as difficult to understand and also some features came out to be considered for future improvements.