Mobile, location-based games for learning: Developing, deploying and evaluating mobile game technology in education

Abstract

Recent developments in mobile technology have facilitated the emergence of a vast number of games to be played on mobile phones. Several mobile games have also been developed with the explicit purpose of being used for learning. Studies of the educational practices related to these mobile games are not extensively available, however. The main aim for this research was to explore how mobile, location-based games can be used to facilitate teaching and learning practices within education. In particular, the aim was to fill the research gap on educational practices with mobile, location-based games, with an emphasis on mediated, situated social interaction with these games. For this purpose the technological framework of SILO — an authoring tool for creating location-based games — and the game Premierløitnant Bielke were designed, enacted and evaluated. Engagement with the game was studied in three different settings: first, with regard to usability and educational potential of the game; second, with regard to the opportunities for countering the experience of “onetimeness” of game playing and integration with other classroom tools and activities; and third, with regard to gaining insight into the interactional organisation and practical accomplishment of gameplay to discover what the players were actually doing when playing the game. A fourth study explored the educational potential of students creating location-based games for each other to play using the SILO framework. Inspired by design-based research, the methodological approach was to study naturally occurring gameplay in order to inform and improve, in practical ways, the design of both the technology and the activities within the scenarios in which the games were embedded. Based on a view of learning as a situated, mediated and socially originated phenomenon, an ethnographically inspired approach to data collection and analysis was adopted, with the view that learning practices should be studied in light of the context in which they take place. This choice was supported by the observation that the data material on learning practices with mobile, locationbased games for learning is still relatively scarce. Therefore, explorative studies that can lead to knowledge about the social practice of location-based gaming and how to use them in educational institutions are valuable. The results indicate that learning by playing mobile, location-based games seems to be motivating and engaging to students, gameplay relies on a varied set of skills, and it is possible and inspiring to integrate student game creation into classroom activity.