Wednesday 16 September 2015

liveblog from @EcTEL2015 a framework to design educational #mobile based games across multiple spaces

I choose to sit in on this session as the combination of integrating multiple contexts into mobile learning design is quite a challenge. And just one of the contexts that matter to the whole set of learning contexts. So, I do think there might be a generic framework in this, or a basis to add this design framework and add other contexts to it.

Carmen Fernandez-Panadero (UC3M - Spain) takes the stage and immediately dives in with enthusiasm. Content cration and technical deployment are the two keypoints she will focus on. But first the abstract:.

Abstract: The adoption of mobile devices and context-aware technologies offers the opportunity of designing educational mobile-based games across multiple spaces that enrich the learners’ experience. But producing these games is challenging from both the authoring and technical points of view. This paper proposes a framework to facilitate the design of these games. The framework consists of two elements: (1) a narrative structure, and (2) a platform for its deployment. Both elements defined as a set of templates to be completed for facilitating both the authoring of the narrative and the design of the platform. In order to show a usage example, the framework has been used to develop a mobile-based game for a museum. The game designed has been piloted with 10 students between 6 and 12 years old. The results of the pilot show that it is technically feasible to use this framework to design a mobile-base game across three spaces: a museum, home and a classroom. The students found the activity a good and engaging learning experience.

Questions
How to extend the museum experience to other spaces (home, school)?
How can we reinvent permanent exhibition and provide different experiences with the same modules.

Learning experiences: 3 phases: before/during/after

Before: record video illustrating the main experiment (science experiment). The teams are 5 - 6 students. Each tema prepares and uploads a self-contained video.
During the visit: presenting an adventure delivered to mobiles
1st act: adventure.
5 missions, with 5 teams.
All the teams need to find out who was kidnapped.
In order to solve the adventure tthere is an 'agent kit': tablet, map and decoder.
2nd act: conflict rising: each team member has a role to solve part of the mission.
3rd act: denoument
After the visit: in-class activities, personalized reports (e.g. a comic illustrating the full process of the adventure and solving it).

This led to Content creation and Deployment
The Hero Journey is a book that was build once the author realised that adventures are always solved in similar narrative patterns.

the technology used: [m]Gauge: mobile games for augmented education
Ruby on rails, php for server technology and mobile gap for tablets