Combining Physical Activities and Mobile Games to Promote Novel Learning
Practices

Daniel Spikol & Marcelo Milrad
Center for Learning and Knowledge Technologies (CeLeKT)
School of Mathematics and Systems Engineering, Växjö University, Sweden
{daniel.spikol, marcelo.milrad}@msi.vxu.se


Abstract

Mobile outdoor games can be seen as fertile ground
for conducting novel learning activities that involve
children in different tasks including physical motion,
problem solving, inquiry and collaboration; all those
are activities that support different cognitive and
social aspects of learning. Co-design and human
centric design practices have been the focus of current
research efforts in the field of educational technologies
but not as prevalent in mobile games to support
learning. In our current research we are exploring
which design methods are appropriate for developing
innovative ways of learning supported by mobile
games. This paper presents all those aspects related to
the design and implementation of a mobile game called
Skattjakt (Treasure Hunt in Swedish). The outcome of
our activities has provided us with valuable results that
can help us to bridge the gap between learning in
informal and formal settings. Moreover, we believe
that involving children in the design process of mobile
games may give us new insights regarding the nature
of their learning practices while learning with games.

1. Background

New forms of mobile communication and
collaboration are rapidly being adopted and integrated
into young people’s everyday lives on a global scale.
Multimedia capable mobile phones, MP3 music
players, digital cameras, and GPS devices are merging
into single powerful units that rival the computational
power of laptops at the fraction of the cost. One of the
main assumptions we consider as a point of departure
for the ideas that guide our work is the fact that in the
coming 5 years, whether educators would like it or not,
more and more students will bring these devices into
the classroom. Clear indications of this can find in such
sites as www.youtube,com, www.flickr.com,
www.blogger.com, and www.facebook.com.
Lankshear and Knoble claim that school ignores some
of these trends and argue that mobile and wireless
technologies and new media might be integrated into
current school educational activities since they are
transforming and defining new literacies in teaching
and learning [9].
One possible way to explore these new literacies is
through the use of digital games. Until recently, the use
of computer-based games has struggled to be taken
seriously within the formal educational community.
The recent proliferation of mobile games makes them a
fertile ground for the development of new resources to
support learning [2]. Mobile games can promote
children getting involved in different tasks such as
exploration, content generation, collaboration, problem
solving and navigation in space; all these activities can
be seen as important components that support a wide
variety of cognitive and social skills.
It is our belief that the active involvement of young
people in co-design and human centric design practices
regarding the development of mobile learning offer
new dimensions and opportunities to promote novel
ways of learning. User and learner centered design
practices have been the focus of much research in
educational technologies in recent years. However, far
less efforts and discussions are available on the process
of designing innovative educational activities using
mobile games. As mobile technologies are already an
integral part of young people, homes and social places,
we face new problems and issues that pertain to the
optimal use of these technologies to support learning.
Therefore, the focus of our current research can be
formulated as follows:
Which design methods are appropriate for developing
novel learning activities using mobile games?
This paper presents those aspects related to the
design and implementation of a mobile game called
Skattjakt (Treasure Hunt in Swedish). We also discuss
the results of the activities we have conducted with 38
young people that played this game in informal
learning settings during 2007. Skattjakt has been
conceived and developed to encourage young people to
Fifth IEEE International Conference on Wireless, Mobile, and Ubiquitous Technology in Education
0-7695-3108-3/08 $25.00 © 2008 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/WMUTE.2008.37
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