Hello everyone,
Welcome to our Mobile Games OER! Please click the image to view our website.
The greatest potential in mobile games is that they allow for mobility. Traditional games on the computer or on the table with piles of pieces fix students in place, which limits activities to be done indoors. The most exciting application of mobile games, then, is to bring the classroom outdoors to allow for movement, connect students with the environment, and perhaps to enable learning in informal settings. The increasing demand from parents and educators to break out from traditional classrooms, to make learning more fun, to emphasize character education (empathy, care, citizenship, etc.), and to address climate change in the curriculum have spurred this team to examine mobile games for use in Outdoor Education. We examine mobile games in Outdoor Education within the high school Physical Education and Environmental Science curriculum context.
We encourage you to engage with this OER by interacting with at least one interactivity on this site:
- Try one mobile app examined on this site and provide feedback.
- Participate in one of three discussion prompts.
- Discuss possibilities for outdoor mobile games in the future.
If you have any other questions or feedback you would like to share, please let us know by commenting to this post.
Hi Group,
Excellent job with this project. The project layout was extremely appealing to me. As a person who enjoys choice-based RPG’s such as DND, this project was very appealing to me as the choice I make at each step is going to alter the end results. This set up also captures the essence of mobile culture well: quick, easy, and low barrier access information that is of interest to the users. As a not so outdoorsy person myself (I had a severe accident before when I was skiing), I am quite a gamer. Thus, mobile games is an effective motivator for me to go get some outdoor activity. I have actually played some of the games that you listed in the project. while I am not interested in reaping the benefits of outdoor activities (mostly because I think they are dull), mobiles game provided me with an alternative reason to get outside so I can collect the game rewards. Thus, I think these games provide an excellent starting point to connect between mobile games and outdoor education.
Well Done Group! Apologies for the late post. I did go through your project a few days ago, but there was so much material, I had to return, and I still wasn’t able to go through all of it, but it is a great resource. I like the outdoor education concept especially as a science teacher where so many learning outcomes can be addressed hands on, and the gamification aspect makes it all the more exciting.
I remember our administration using Goosechase as an ice-breaker at the first staff meeting of the year (back when staff meetings were still in person), and I immediately thought of so many ways that could be incorporated in my classroom. An example is learning about safety equipment in the lab, or finding specific species of plants outside (for a biology class). There are many possibilities.
As far as I’m concerned, the more learning is active, the better. I will be returning to your site. Thank you for the resource.
Hi Marlis,
Thank you for perusing our site! I had not thought about mobile games as adult staff breakers, or team building exercises, so thank you very much for that. I think I might steal this idea for a future year.
Hi Group 11:
You have a lot of information and activities for you Movable Feast. A job well done. I had no idea that OE for the mobile world was this complex. I’m still having to work through the information because you have concepts that bridge. Particularly the pillars, motivations, this balance between fun and educational etc. I can see your work being very beneficial as a contribution to this blog for Mobile and Open Learning. Your work is very organized and also raises significant pedagogical questions about the how and what? How can we get there for gamified apps? What type of mobile tools will be necessary to do so? These questions keep educational experts on their toes and open to new possibilities. This is the first Movable Feast where I really want to explore beyond the research. Excellent work!
Brittany,
Thanks for the feedback! I am glad you were able to review the information we presented and that you found it valuable. Trying to bridge those concepts is definitely difficult, but that is what makes mobile games for OE so exciting! The various ways in which a mobile game or gamified app can provide a fun and educational learning experience requires an open mind, a good grounding in the framework of outdoor education and gamification, and some creativity. I know when we were thinking of the sample lesson plans for environmental science we went through multiple iterations of brainstorming, designing, and editing before finalizing our sample lesson. I am happy to hear we have sparked your interest in mobile games and grateful for your feedback. Thanks again!
Hi Brittany,
Thank you for your enthusiasm on our Jamboard: “Mobility and beyond!” I really grinned at that!
Very nice! Also, very timely, as the pandemic and the arrival of spring urge us to get out and get a bit of fresh air! I think that using gamification as an incentive to learning, and harnessing the native computing, communication and location technologies of a smartphone — WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope, camera, etc. — to make that gamification truly interactive (both with peers and the environment) is a natural fit for mobile technology. And while the category of “games” several decades ago would have been subdivided into “children’s” games (board games and similar) and “adult” games (card games, chess, etc.) I think that mobile games currently appeal to people of all ages, so this approach need not be restricted to primary education. I wonder how much “under the radar” learning about history might occur if popular games like Assassin’s Creed were simply historically accurate? There’s so much potential here, if someone is willing to make the investment.
I noticed a comment in an earlier post regarding the limitations of Wi-Fi when out in the natural world — interestingly, Google is currently developing technology that could make Wi-Fi function in a peer-to-peer way, similar to Bluetooth, but able to function over much greater distances (check it out here: https://tinyurl.com/39522xzd). If successful, this or similar technology could “cut the cord” on typical Wi-Fi networks and re-enable peer-to-peer collaboration and communication even in the middle of nowhere.
Hi Sean
Thanks for your thoughts! The idea of game really intrigues me because like you said, it could be used for so many different purposes. As a frequent boardgamer, I feel like the idea of dividing between children’s games and adult games are getting smaller. With a well designed game, differentiation of the skill required could open up the mechanics to all ages. I think Pokemon Go is one of the best examples that we found as I know that as an adult, I played differently than the students that I taught, but they were able to play in their own way.
As for the historical accurate games, I find that there are many out there, but the gamification of history typically includes some inaccuracies. A recent game that I finished called “A Plague Tale: Innocence” that has very strong ties to the black death and medieval Europe. The experience wouldn’t be something that’s possible with a mobile device unfortunately with the amount of specifications needed to play the game, but it could be something for older students to try out to experience the learning.
Hi Team!
I am impressed by the level of engagement, interactiveness and the user-friendliness of your OER. The gamification of the learning process with the inclusion of incentives will play a major role in enhancing the problem-solving, critical, analytical and collaboration skills of learners.Since Generation Z learners are more prone to using technology for learning; providing the right gamification environment to them will help them in a better form of differentiated and personalized learning.
Thank you for sharing with us your OER!
Loveleen,
Thank you for the praise! We took a lot of time and care when considering how to design our OER and are glad that it has been well received. As I had the joy of using some of these games when I was in primary and secondary school (namely geocaching before it was a mobile app) I was really excited to be assigned to the mobile games team. Thanks again for the feedback!
Sorry for my response at the end of the week here. It has been a busy week (even with spring break going on).
I decided to try Zombie, Run while I went for my usual jog. I like how the “zombie story”, the objectives, my playlist and my running distance announcement was blended together. As I was running, I remember my first year of teaching and having to cover a sort of P.E. class at the last second. I can’t remember what the name of the course was, but the class did not play typical sports during class time. The course was more focused on healthy living. Students would do things such as nature walks, yoga, or games that got them moving in some manner. Well, I had no idea it was this type of class, and when I suggested basketball they all looked at me as if I was crazy. Anyways, I was going for my jog I kept thinking how this app would have been neat to try with that particular group and see if they took to it. Your OER did a nice job of shedding a light on some educational tools I could use if I end up in a similar position in the future.
Also, the app informed me I collected 2 cans of tinned food, batteries, 3 first aid kits, dentistry equipment, anti-depressants and underwear on my run. I had a good chuckle with the underwear.
Michael,
Thank you for the feedback! That is the beauty of online courses– you can do them at the time that works best for you. I am glad to hear that you enjoyed Zombies, Run! and that you can see the applicability of the app to your own teaching experiences. I too enjoyed the apps inclusion of collecting items like underwear as it reminds me that even in a zombie apocalypse, it’s still the small things that make you smile 🙂
Your section on Limitations and The Future is a good place to start thinking about how outdoor mobile games of the future can be directed to learning and motivations. I’m not sure that an educational game needs to be fun in the sense that it contains ludic elements if there are motivational hooks like competition and compelling challenges. Students will play video games for hours even if the challenges are difficult.
There is an interesting book, Beavis, C., Dezuanni, M., & O’Mara, J. (2017). Serious play: Literacy, learning and digital games, that documents how teachers and students incorporated educational games into classroom learning. While it’s focus is on the class, I think an extension to outdoor education would work. Mapping the skills in games to curriculum standards is an important part of the exercise to demonstrate support for a curriculum-driven learning process, but teachers in the study agree that the approach should not be over-designed and systematically administered, and that not everything that flowed from games needed to be assessed. There are other associated benefits, such as the development of confidence, critical thinking, numeracy, personal and social capability, and the freedom for creative teaching with the use of games.
If the barriers to device use and data availability that Neill mentioned in his comments could be removed, a mobile experience could really make science at the edge of a field quite exciting.
Hi Ben,
I suppose fun means different things to different people. I think some people would define fun being engaged in a challenging task. In that sense, I think all games have at least one fun element to everyone. Great that you brought up assessment! I totally agree that not everything needs to be assessed. We know that assessment should be done OF learning, but also should be done FOR learning. Not all assessment need to be entered into a gradebook either. I imagine that gameplay is a ripe opportunity for formative assessment. Students should receive feedback before they are assessed summatively.
Regarding the barriers resulting form accessibility, while I did not look into how many students have access to internet on their mobile devices, I did, however, look at how many students have a smartphone. StatCan reported in 2017 that 95% of 15-34 year olds own a smartphone. I imagine that that figure has only gone up since then as the market is pretty saturated with second hand smartphones which are reasonably priced. At least in Canada, it seems that accessibility is not as a huge of a problem as we may think it is. When we think Smartphone, we think of data plans. True that some people don’t have data and rely on free wifi across the city, but I think it is fair to assume that a good proportion of that 95% do have access to data. If not all students have a smartphone with data, perhaps some in a class do and we can design activities for team-based engagement. What do you think?
Hello Team Mobile Games,
I really appreciated that you created lesson plans to illustrate how we can teach the curriculum using mobile games that students actually use rather than using the strictly educational ones. When you pointed out that integration of games in the curriculum may not be engaging for all students and should not be forced on them was a very good point. Providing us with many app options to explore was mindful considering that you are not forcing us to play one particular game to analyze its integration into the curriculum.
The increased use of modern mobile technology does distract us from engaging with our natural environment but I think we can minimize the interaction of the phone by using the affordances to sense the world around us. In our A2 project, we designed an app that uses its AI capability to sense the world around you with or without touching the phone. The gamification part comes in when the AI notices that you, for example, bought beef and then suggests an alternative. Then it would prompt you to play with the community to see who can save the most money and make the biggest environmental impact. This encourages interaction with the real world rather than staring at the phone to get more points. Your interaction with the world around you is the gamification part.
I wonder how we can use AI to remove our dependence on being physically tethered to our phones in all games? Maybe, like we did, the AI notices what we do and automatically places you in a challenge and reminds you through sounds or voice. We would not be tied necessarily to our phone but instead would be like a “90’s pager” of sorts. Fitness apps do this – it uses its location ability and built-in motion sensors to determine if you are exercising enough non intrusively. How can we bring all gaming to that level?
In spite of the challenges mentioned in your assignment of integrating mobile phone apps into the health and outdoor curriculum, gamification does work and is therapy for a lot of people. If apps encourage students to be more engaged with the outdoors and health then it should be supported.
Hi Andrea!
Hmm, how do we remove our dependence on being physically tethered to our phones in all games? That’s an interesting question. Is this something that you think is needed? Some of the most popular games today are still on the computer or TV with complex controllers. I think there is a place for games that do keep us physically tethered. I think in the future, the tethering will just become smaller as wearable mobile devices become more elegant. We are coming up with smaller and smaller data storage technology. I suppose all that’s left to address is the size of a battery. I am not up to date on research in that field. Have they figured out wireless, contact-less charging yet? I suppose to “feel” like we are not tethered, we will wait for tiny implants, like smart contact lenses and chips in our head! I think before we consider how AI will remove our dependence on being physically tethered, we should look at the practicality of it and if it is something we wish to do entirely. Thank you for your thought-provoking question!
Hello Mobile Games,
I liked how you laid out your content and the design of your website. I also liked how you tied in gamification and outdoor ed principles into your examination of mobile games. I like how you reviewed some mobile games within their category of Outdoor ed or Environmental Science. I thought your sample lesson plans were great. I appreciated seeing how you envisioned a teacher adapting the apps to connect them more tightly to L.O.’s. At first I didn’t see tight connections to L.O.’s in many of the apps, but the lesson plans helped me see how they could be adapted. I also thought the decision tree was useful to give further context to an app such as “Picture This”.
In your Theory section, I wonder if you could make the benefits of mobile learning more evident? Could you also make the connection between mobile games and mobile learning more explicit as well? How does mobile enhance or support learning? How would this be evident in an app such as “Picture This”? I wonder if a limitation on students using mobile games for learning is student access to data/mobile phones? Or, teachers attitudes towards using mobile phones?
Good work.
Hi Toby,
Thank you for your feedback! The theory pages were to provide frameworks and researched information directly related to our topic and our examples were to focus specifically on mobile games and gamified apps for Physical Education and Outdoor Education. We, therefore, used interactivities to open opportunities for discussion and for our peers to use the provided frameworks and examples to make connections to their fields of learning. Limitations and future applications would vary depending on how and what location-based games are used and we also have our Jamboard to allow for discussion on this topic. The topic of mobile games was HUGE and we really focused on narrowing down our topic to allow for discussion on mobility and mobile learning.
I hope you enjoyed playing Picture This! As a Science and Math teacher, I see a lot of applications for it not just in PHE or OE but in other curricular contents.
Hi Toby,
Thank you for your questions!
Regarding the first question, we made a decision to leave the benefits of mobile learning for the class to discuss. Not sure when you accessed the Jamboard, but now that it is the end of our week, have a look and you will see some very good ideas form our peers! Regarding the second question, are you asking how mobile games leads to learning? If so, our team found that gamification supports social-emotional development, increases intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and adds flexibility to lessons. Having gamification executed through mobile means that learning is no longer constrained inside a physical classroom. It also takes advantage of technology that students already are familiar with and love to use. Since our project was done within the scope of K-12 education, we only addressed this question within the classroom context. There is definitely a multitude of other advantages of mobile learning if we were to look into other sectors of learning, such as informal learning or job training, as examples.
In regards to your question on teacher attitudes towards mobile learning, we have only looked into this from an OE standpoint as defined by our project. I invite you to read this paper with us: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14729679.2020.1730204 Let me know if the link works for you. This is a study from 2020 which examined the perceptions of 151 OE teachers on using mobile devices outdoors.
Regarding the limitation of access, while I did not look into how many students have access to internet on their mobile devices, I did, however, look at how many students have a smartphone. StatCan reported in 2017 that 95% of 15-34 year olds own a smartphone. I imagine that that figure has only gone up since then as the market is pretty saturated with second hand smartphones which are reasonably priced. At least in Canada, it seems that accessibility is not as a huge of a problem as we may think it is. When we think Smartphone, we think of data plans. True that some people don’t have data and rely on free wifi across the city, but I think it is fair to assume that a good proportion of that 95% do have access to data. If you find the stat on that, do let us know!
I really appreciate that the focus of your group’s OER was on outdoor education using mobile games because I can imagine the level of engagement, excitement, and wonder from the students, just being outside the classroom whether highly motivated or mathematically disengaged. The presentation was informative, and I am glad that I had opportunities to try a couple of location-based mobile games this week.
Hi Esther,
Thank you very much for engaging with us and sharing that math Geocache paper! We were very much in the zone with environmental science so it is great to see another subject represented on our site. I do not know if this is a problem at your school, but at my school, the math department is pretty divided between teachers who believe in traditional methods and teachers who disagree with it completely. We got two polar ends! What are your thoughts on math education? Is there a fine balance to strive for?
Group 11:
You sure jam packed your Movable Feast with content and activities. Please forgive me, I need the rest of the weekend to read your content. This is not a bad thing by any means.
Hi Brittany
Thanks for letting us know! I would encourage you to read as much as you could, but also leave time to try out the apps and to play a little. Our app selection aims to encourage people to get out doors and to use mobile games as a function to interaction and play with the environment.
Great work on this OER team! I loved the focus on OE – it is so timely given the current situation in our schools and workplaces. The more we can get people outside the better. As a Foods and PE teacher the Picture This app is the perfect marriage of both! Now if only there were more resources on preparing wild food – many of the resources are scattered, but maybe that’s something that could be added to the app. A recipe section for edible plants! Sometimes recipes for foraged, wild food are too “out there” for most people, but if there were more common recipes using these ingredients people may not be so opposed to it. I have taken my classes to explore some of the wild food in the Okanagan, but they are hesitate to try anything. Maybe the inclusion of technology will help broaden their thinking …
Hi Meg!
I enjoyed reading your ideas on our website about using Picture This for foods class! I am a giant foodie so I am glad that someone has brought up Home Ec! While I do not have any resources for wild food, I have seen some local companies offer wild foraged food boxes. One example is https://wcwf.ca/about-us/ . I bet you could contact them and see if they are willing to collaborate with you on designing some lessons, or have them as guest speakers. I am an optimist so I’m envisioning them coming in with one of their boxes and cooking up something for your class. If you contact them, let me know!
I found your group’s topic very exciting and interesting. I am very interested in location-based education and gamification. Since my passion is cultural and language revitalization, I am learning mobile technology can add a level of excitement and new path of exploration. Location-based education will enhance any educational experience in the field. I have tried the traditional scavenger hunt method with students and teachers, which forced both group’s to physical move through the school. I have always wondered if there was a faster and more interactive method to scavenger hunts. The Picture This app is perfect for a lesson activity or ice-breaker. The issue with cultural and language revitalization is the strong apprehension to technology. Meaning, majority of Indigenous group’s fear culture’s and language’s will be used to help others profit or improve individual careers. The introduction of location-based education has changed the mentality of technology and its’ use in cultural and language revitalization. Location-based education has assisted many Indigenous communities in creating numerous VR programs and apps.
Location-based learning and gamification adds an emotional and social based understanding to education. Students become more interested and engaged in lessons when games are introduced. When combined with location-based learning lessons become a positive emotional attachment, which in most cases invokes inquiry and the critical thinking process. The traditional method of teaching has changed dramatically from the chalkboard to AR devices in the classroom. As technology, more importantly mobile technology, continues to develop on a daily bases it is my opinion that education should follow suit. I love your project! I was very engaged and found myself sharing information with my science and math teachers.
Hi Tyrone, thanks for sharing your thoughts!
It’s very interesting that the incorporation of location-based education has opened up some flexibility and acceptance for Indigenous groups. I don’t think there are outdoor games that are specifically focused on Indigenous cultures and languages but if we did have something like that, it would be a fantastic educational tool. I find that sometimes, I don’t know enough or feel confident enough to teach Indigenous cultures to my students and hoping more gamification technologies focused on Indigenous cultures will be developed in the future.
Hi Tyrone,
Thank you for bringing up Indigenous curriculum on our website! As Seo-Whi correctly states, a significant number of teachers are uncomfortable with teaching Indigenous ways of knowing. We fear of teaching it inauthentically, or making unintentional mistakes. It is definitely tough to teach a culture when we have not lived it. The beauty of these location-based apps is that they can be developed by experts. I think this could be a great opportunity for community outreach. A school could work with local Indigenous communities to build meaningful Geocache activities, as an example.
Thanks for an interesting and thought provoking OER. I have downloaded Zombies, Run! App and can’t wait to try it out, I don’t run with headphones very often and just have to wait until I’m heading to the treadmill or for an area where I don’t have to worry about traffic. I can see something like that being good for repetitive runs in safe spaces (e.g. running around a soccer field at school or on a track).
I appreciate your focus on outdoor education and think this is such an important part of developing an appreciation for nature and an interest in lifelong activity. I see great value in being able to leave the technology behind sometimes but also agree that it can enhance and support learning and experience and shouldn’t always be frowned upon as a distraction. When it can enable people to become learners in their current environment and to become more engaged with their surroundings, then that seems like a positive.
Hi Janice,
Thank you for the feedback and I hope you enjoy playing Zombies, Run!
I agree with you, being in a safe outdoor environment for these location-based apps is a very important factor we should add to our checklists! As someone who hates running and doing cardio, I noticed playing these location-based games almost forces me to go outside and be active. I agree with you, it does have the potential to make repetitive physical activities that students don’t want to do into something more enjoyable and engaging! Thanks for your input.
Nicely done Mobile Games crew! This is a terrific resource and I am looking forward to trying the apps I haven’t gotten to yet. Right now I’m thinking about all of the possibilities for incorporating the Picture This (or the iNaturalist) app into outdoor biology lessons. I appreciate that outdoor ed was your focus for this OER, as it directly relates to what I’m currently teaching, and with our almost 3-hour classes, I’m finding myself outdoors a lot more and trying to change things up. I also appreciated that the focus of your site is how mobile games can enhance a lesson, rather than replace it. I think there’s a danger in bringing too much technology to the outdoors without carefully considering how it will be used there.
While looking at your list of available OE programs in BC, I wondered how many locally developed programs there are in BC that might have been overlooked. For example, my school has run a locally developed outdoor education course called ‘Sports and Recreation’ for almost 20 years, but it’s not advertised on our district website and its name doesn’t immediately make you think of outdoor education. Other programs that are gaining momentum in BC include several outdoor kindergartens and in our district, an outdoor grade 7 program that has run for a few years.
Hi Lori
We’re glad that you found it useful! We definitely find that Mobile Apps have a certain power to bring more engagement and authentic learning to our students! I always imagine gamification as the same input, but in a more attractive way. In this sense, PictureThis was one of our favorite ecology-based apps/games. Depending on your grade level/environment, we would also like you to try out GeoCaching via . We found that it was a great way for students to engage with the more hidden parts of their local fauna. If you input the clues with concepts from biology to tell stories or to review/introduce new concepts.
Hi Lori,
That is a really good point, that there are probably many OE programs in BC that we could not find as they are not advertised. I certainly do think that OE is very common in BC as we are surrounded by such amazing mountains and forests. I am glad that people on this discussion forum are highlighting additional programs that everyone can explore, so thank you for that!
Hello Mobile Games group!
I wanted to thankyou for creating such a beautiful OER. The colours and graphics you chose were really pleasing to look at, and made me forget I was looking at indepth research!
I really enjoyed all of the infographics you created and how you tied together outdoor education and gaming pedagogy so well. I thought your OER was organized well and, as a teacher, I appreciated the inclusion of the sample unit plan, which really helped to make everything click into place. I found that your OER had little details that kept bringing the reader back to the cross-curricular nature of outdoor mobile games, such as the ‘level of autonomy’ section of the PHE app page. I also liked how you carefully weighed the pros and cons of outdoor games and found that your ‘room for growth’ column on your Pokemon Go chart highlighted how no integration of technology into education is perfect, but needs to be implemented with clear plans and room to adapt when issues arise. My only suggestion for improvement would be to double check the infographic font sizes, as I found that some of them were small, and when I went to expand the screen they became a bit blurry.
Wonderful work!
-Jen
Hi Jen,
Thank you for your in depth, positive feedback! We are so happy to hear that you found our OER useful. In response to your discussion on the Jamboard, I never thought about how OE can help children with social phobias and anxiety! Thank you for that valuable contribution. I also never thought about the tactile aspect of environmental education. I think I was working with tunnel vision in only thinking that the environment should be seen. I was thinking about how many neat things a child can see just by looking closely and carefully at flora and fauna. I remember when I was a kid, I was pretty intrigued by what I saw on the underside of fern leaves, and by their extremely organized arrangement. You are absolutely right that the environment should be touched as well. As a kid, what else would I have learned if I had taken some of those seeds off the fern and felt how tiny they were? I suppose this means that a lesson should include some safety guidelines too, about what students should and should not be touching. With the trend of mobile devices getting increasingly smaller, and one day, they may just become wearables, I think mobile devices will not get in the way of tactile education, unless the students are jumping into water!
Oops, forgot to ask one thing. Which infographics did you find to have blurry text? Our team built the site for smartphone viewing and thought that all the graphics were okay when pinched zoomed. Please let us know!
Hello Team Mobile Games!
Nice job on such a big subject! You brought great videos and infographics together for a valuable OER that merged two big topics. The titles for each page were intuitive both on desktop and on mobile. I liked how the feedback interactives were also opportunities for discussion, especially your JamBoard of Future & Limitations.
I found your Genial.ly app selector to be a fun way to explore the apps on your site, but was surprised that your Apps page did not showcase all of them. The Apps pages were fabulous for showing the details of each app, from requirements to summary. It would have been nice to be able to select an app from both the Genial.ly interactive or the Apps page.
I spent quite some time perusing all of the information, and was quickly fatigued because… of my eyes. As always, I look for the dark mode to help me read the screen more comfortably. The bright white page with the thin pale text, and the header text without a solid background behind it was at times quite harsh for me. I do not think that Weebly offers a free dark-mode, unless you preselect it as your theme. This will always be my bane of technology!
The gamification of therapy and outdoor education was very new to me, and I appreciate your analysis of its positive and negative impacts. I agree with the statement about lack of adequate technology in all schools to be able to run mobile apps as a consistent part of the the program. It could, however, become a frequent activity using shared devices within the school, especially if the apps do not require wifi or other data connections while out in the field.
Did you look into any citizen science apps? There are many apps that come with teacher resource guides so that students can collaborate with a scientist while collecting and analysing data for a real experiment. (e.g. iNaturalist: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/teacher%27s+guide) I would think that the inclusion of such apps would be an easier sell for for certain schoolboards to uptick their technology. There are also suggestions for students to capture the outdoors with pen and paper, and then to use mobile stations.
Well done, and thanks for the lessons!
Evelyne,
Thank you for your response and feedback! I am sorry to hear your experience viewing fatigue, but I am glad that you otherwise enjoyed the videos and infographics.
Regarding the Genial.ly interactive and Apps pages not having all the same apps available– we did that on purpose to give viewers a chance to formulate their own response to our discussion questions using an app we hadn’t already explained its potential PHE/Environmental Science applications. That being said, many of the apps present in the Genial.ly app did overlap with those on the apps pages for PHE and Environmental Science.
Additionally, we did consider citizen science apps, but wanted to differentiate our project from previous A1s and posts discussing citizen science apps to bring unique value to our knowledge mill. A concern of mine too when considering whether to include citizen science apps is if the gamification of those would detract from their scientific validity. What do you think about that?
I hope that help answer your questions! Thanks again for the feedback!
Hi Dana,
I am definitely a proponent of citizen science! Since my A01 assignment analysing citizen science, I have continued gathering information on its potential as a teaching device. This article examined the benefits of citizen science in the K-12 context:
https://ktisis.cut.ac.cy/bitstream/10488/19384/1/JCOM_1904_2020_V01.pdf
This presentation offers an example of how citizen science can engage volunteers in physical activity, and as an end result it can improve the “walkability” of a neighbourhood:
https://www.otago.ac.nz/active-living/otago707246.pdf
What I find interesting is how any app must be considered a tool. It cannot replace a lesson plan; it can supplement it. In the case of gamified citizen science, I like how such apps help students participate in actual science research. With the guidance of their teacher and the site’s resources, the students can learn about the scientific process with the knowlege that their data is linked to a real-world scenario. This practical application is what makes citizen science such a great asset to teaching!
Thank you for explaining the app overlap between your interative and the Apps page. That makes sense now. I just really liked your summaries of the apps, and would have used the tables to make comparisons in order to choose an app to try. In a school context, I wonder if teachers could try one of these apps, and then give students the template you used on your Apps page to promote an app of their choosing, to be used a complement in the classroom.
Thanks Mobile Games group!
With such a vast topic that could have gone in so many different directions, I appreciated how you focused your efforts specifically to outdoor/ location based games that seemed to suit your team’s interests. With our lives becoming increasingly more tech-based, it is refreshing to see so many opportunities for ourselves and our students to get moving and get outside while still taking advantage of everything that mobile devices have to offer.
Even though it might not be feasible for all classrooms or age groups to use these apps on individual devices due to lack of resources or maturity, the ideas you put forward give educators a lot to think about as far as how we can adapt these ideas and make location-based/ outdoor mobile games a reality in whatever their situation may be.
Hi Erin!
Thank you so much for your positive feedback! We were concerned that we narrowed down the topic too much, but are glad that everyone seems to like it this way! I loved your idea on our Jamboard, about an interactive adventure to show what locations looked like in the past. I can see a huge potential in geography studies in such an app, as well as in Indigenous studies. And what if such an app was available in AR/VR/MR? Is this what you had in mind when you thought of this?
One of the units my students are currently learning in social studies is our community in the past so that is what made me think of that as a future prospect. There are cool videos on youtube that match dissolve photos from now vs 100-200 years ago taken in the exact same spot so you can really see the buildings and surroundings disappear and/ or change. If it were a mobile app I imagine it as something that would come with us on community walks and when you hold up the device it would bring up a photo of what that same spot looked like in the past (lots of archiving would be needed of course).
Hi Mobile Games team! I really enjoyed your OER, and found it had a good balance of the various factors at play regarding mobile games. I feel you provided some worthwhile food for thought in outlining the pros and cons of mobile games.
I believe there is great potential for teachers to use mobile games to augment the learning experience, and as we move into the era of 5G, the use of mobile games will become easier and more accessible. At the moment I could not use many of the apps you suggested with my students, due to connectivity limitations away from the school. But looking towards the future, this is bound to change. I’m excited by the possibility of tailoring mobile games such as GooseChase to the learning needs of my students, so that they can be outside and moving while learning, problem solving, and working with a team.
I also like the prospects for mobile games in Phys Ed. It can be challenging to get some students moving during an outdoor run or hike, but the added motivation they get from the right app could be just the thing to get them going. For students of all ages (my teenage son included), the lure of the screen often draws them away from moving outdoors during their free time, so I think mobile games can be really helpful in combining the two, where they can play on their device while moving around outside.
Hi Wendy, thank you for your feedback!
As a parent, do you see any potential drawbacks or hesitation coming from parents with outdoor mobile games? I teach grades 9-12 and I have had conversations with parents about screen time and concerns in regards to how attached their children are to technology and that it’s getting harder to control, as a lot of the learning is done through technology now.
Hi Seo-Whi,
You raise an important concern for parents of students of all ages these days. As a parent I’m definitely concerned about the amount of screen time my son has, but at the same time am realistic about the benefits of many of the things that can be achieved with screens these days. I’m helping my son learn to balance it by getting active every day after school.
So yes, I foresee parents having concerns about outdoor mobile games. I think it’s important to communicate to parents the benefits of whatever games one might be using, and the educational reasons for doing so. We need to ensure we’re using these games purposefully, to improve student learning, and be selective about the ones we use.
How have you dealt with parent concerns that have come to you?
Hi Wendy, thanks for your reply! How you are helping your son understand the balance instead of taking it away or providing some sort of an ultimatum for using technology is awesome! I also tell my students that technology is going to be a part of their lives and they need to learn how to use it in an accountable and responsible way.
When I’ve had parents communicating their concerns, the first thing I do is try to understand where the concern really comes from. Are students spending an unnecessary amount of time trying to do something online? And if this is the case, maybe they are doing something wrong, so I would look into ways to provide support for that student. Perhaps the concern is that when students are learning online, they are more prone to getting distracted, therefore increasing screentime and if there are ways to provide accommodations and/or alternative ways for students to learn, I would discuss that with the parents. I’ve also introduced the Screen Time function to parents and I was surprised that a lot of the parents weren’t aware of that function. As you’ve mentioned, I think it’s important to clearly communicate WHY different mobile tools/apps/technologies are being used and being flexible is key!
Great work on your A2, Mobile Games Group!
I just wanted to say that I appreciate your connection and focus on mobile games with outdoor education. In the grade 3 and grade 4 community that I work in, we just started providing outdoor education as an option for our physical activity time. It has been an amazing learning experience so far for the students and the educators, but I am looking forward to integrating gamification into this learning with the suggestions and app recommendations that you have made. Getting students outside to learn has amazing powers that already hooks them into engagement, but I look forward to continuing my professional development in the area of outdoor education by trying out some of the apps that you suggested. As already mentioned previously in this discussion, I am curious to see how collaboration looks while using gamification in an outdoor education setting. Device specific learning can sometimes lead to a focus on the device and take away from the learning that is happening in the surroundings, which is where the rich learning often occurs in outdoor education. I think a balance will be needed (as with all things in education) with the integration of gamification in an outdoor education setting.
Hi Kevin,
Thank you for sharing your thoughts! I agree with you, educators should carefully consider how much of the students’ time outdoors is guided by technology.
In terms of collaboration, this is something I was thinking of doing for my grade 9 science class. Students will use something like Geocache and go outdoors to find specific geotagged objects, and it’ll prompt subject-specific questions. Students can work in groups to find the objects and work on the prompted questions collaboratively. This scavenger hunt activity ultimately is in the form of formative assessment, but a slight change in the design of the activity to incorporate gamification as well as outdoor mobile games (instead of working on worksheets in a classroom).
Hi Kelvin
Thank you for your comment! I think that there’s a really fine balance between using technology, especially with younger students. For a term, I was doing the computer literacy class for an elementary school, so I have a bit of experience with younger students and introducing them to technology. There is so much learning at that age group that almost anything could be a “game” to them, such as an camera app or a voice recorder. One of my favorite activities with iPads is an environmental color matching activity in which you hand out paint chips and an iPad per student or group. Then their goal is to match the paint chip perfectly to a thing in their environment and to take a picture of it. My focus is always to interact with our environment through the usage of technology, so while they are taking photos, they will be exploring their environment and their school grounds. If you want to gamify it, you can always get them to find as many objects or to come back and switch out their paint chip for another one once they have find a matching object. I found that the students will also collaborate and help each other to show off their knowledge and discoveries as well!
Hey Mobile Games OER group!
Great OER, I enjoyed this one a lot. I really like how the website looks, great choice of colour, graphics, and images! I especially enjoyed the Outdoor Education page under Theory – there was a real wealth of information there, and I also appreciated those Outdoor Ed school links at the bottom, they turned out to be a bit of a rabbit hole for me! I have been pondering Gamification for some time and I know it sounds crazy but for some reason I never thought to utilize any apps or tech when thinking about how to carry it out, so now I have some more ideas I can incorporate into my gamification ideas, thanks for that. I think the activities were well thought out, making them easy to participate in, though there didn’t seem to be a place on the Padlet for Motivation Game, an app included in the Discussion Tree above it. Anyway, great job once again, thanks for the feast on Mobile Games!
Johannes,
Thank you for the feedback! I am glad that we could facilitate an OE rabbit hole journey for you. If you’d like, Neil’s response below also includes a link to another OE inspired program, “Farm Roots” that exists in BC as well. Feel free to go back down the rabbit hole and check it out 🙂
We also saw your comment about a lack of a Padlet section for the meditation game you tried, and we are going to set up another section. Thanks again for the feedback!
Hi Johanne,
Thank you so much for your kind comments. I am so happy to hear that you found our theory page useful! In response to your post on our website, you are absolutely right in saying that we must be very intentional with the tech selection so that our lessons remain intact and not sidelined by tech. Depending on what grade level social studies you teach, there might be some good location-based apps out there. I have heard of teachers using apps to get students to create stories that focuses on identity and place. I think they used a combination of apps for story making, video editing, and mapping. They probably used Google Maps for the mapping bit.
Great A2!
I really like the connection of outdoors and the mobile gaming experience. I use the AllTrails app and I gamify my hiking experiences in way by keeping track of where I hiked, for how long, and how much elevation gain. I like the inclusion of the story based games, “Zombies, Run” and “Earthquest.” I really like the aesthetics of the site as well, very easy on the eyes. Well done!
Mark
I also wanted to expand on the outdoor mobile gaming idea. When I think mobile games and education, I think of Duolingo, and Kahoot! I use those in my classes for music and French. But, I never thought about mobile gaming outdoors, other than Pokemon Go. So thank you for exposing us to these types of mobile games.
Mark
Hey Mark,
Thanks for sharing! I was on the same page as you. I use a lot of Kahoot, Blooket or other simulator games in my classroom but I have not used outdoor games yet. I can really see this redefining what engagement and outdoor education could look like and there is a lot of potentials. Although, I think it would be important for us to consider how much of the students’ outdoor experience is aided by using technology.
Mark,
Thank you for the feedback! AllTrails is an excellent app and could definitely be gamified and/or used in Outdoor Education. I worked as a naturalist hiking guide in the Olympic National Forest during summers while completing my undergrad. While I didn’t use AllTrails during my hikes, whenever clients asked for my hike recommendations I always referred them to that app. They joked that they just wished they could have recorded my commentary to have alongside the app! That is, at least for me, part of what inspired our focus on mobile games and gamified apps for OE!
Thanks again for the feedback and happy hiking!
Mobile Games :
Mobile games have come a long way since the days of Gameboy when I was a kid. They have grown tremendously in diversity, audience and value but can they be educational? If the answer is yes, should they be integrated into the classroom by educators? it depends! After reflecting on the topic I have come to several conclusions.
Mobile games are often individually focused (such as the mentioned games: Jurassic World Alive, Pokemon Go…etc) and have anonymous online communities. I find it difficult to keep students working in groups with mobile games when outdoors as they tend to wander off on their own to play. Another common issue with these types of games is the level of physical activity or outdoor involvement. Pokemon Go does influence users to walk around but it also features activities that do not require players to move much at all and I know of several students that instead of walking our cycling outside will have their parents drive them around town during raids and other events daily while playing from inside a car.
Another issue of mobile games in education is access. Mobile devices for schools do not have data and work solely off of the school Wi-Fi network which sets limitations on the ability to be mobile for outdoor education. There are also the limitations of taking school owned devices outside of the physical school. It would also be unfair for teachers to depend on students to have their own devices to participate in class activities such as running outside.
Finally, there is the issue of signing up and registering for online games. Within many school districts it is not allowed for teachers to have students sign up for websites or games as a precaution to protect their personal information. Several mobile games track and share the exact location of users which would also put students at risk.
I believe that mobile games can be educational to some extent but because of the many roadblocks in place, they may best be used by students outside of school based on parent/guardian approval but not within the setting of a school unless many steps are taken to make it possible, safe and of educational value.
To fit the category of a mobile game with educational gamification and a focus on outdoor education, I would recommend “Seek” by iNaturalist. “Seek” is similar to “Picture This” but it helps educate about all types of living organisms (not just plants), allows use without the need to sign up for an account or data usage, features motivational challenges, and rewards users with badges for their efforts.
Seek IOS
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/seek-by-inaturalist/id1353224144
Seek Android
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.inaturalist.seek&hl=en_CA&gl=US
Outdoor Education:
Though several schools have outdoor education focused programs it would be fair to mention that educators working within a grade, course or club, can have a focus on outdoor education despite being classified within a different category.
I also wanted to mention an outdoor education program in the Delta School District in British Columbia, referred to as “Farm Roots” that allows students to earn core grade 10 to 12 course credits while also participating in outdoor education that focuses on agriculture (https://deltalearns.ca/farmroots/).
Neil,
Thank you for the very thorough response! I completely agree that, as with most things in education, usefulness and applicability depend on a variety of factors. These factors include student motivation and willingness to be physically active, their access (either personal or through school) to mobile devices, and district/school/parental/student views on privacy and data collection. We elected not to discuss in depth the issues relating to these, especially data collection, as we feel the other A2s this term have already done a great job on providing information about that. We wanted to a paint a picture of how it could be used in an ideal situation in various types of courses. We are glad that our discussion questions got you thinking and that you mentioned these limitations and the outdoor educational opportunities that other types of courses and educators include in (or outside) their own classroom and subject!
I remembered seeing your A1 analysis of iNaturalist and Toby’s A1 on Seek. Both were super interesting and I have been enjoying exploring them 🙂
Hi Neil,
I think you are not alone in finding “it difficult to keep students working in groups with mobile games when outdoors as they tend to wander off on their own to play”. We don’t even have to think about mobile games for this kind of behaviour. Every time I give my chemistry students model kits, I get all kinds of structures being built instead of actual ones that I want to look at in a lesson! I do think that while this kind of behaviour could disrupt a lesson, it is also something that we could work on harnessing for learning. Students wandering around to engage in the games is a sign of motivation, and if students are motivated, we just have to direct it onto something productive. I asked my students to draw the off-topic structures that they’ve built with the correct symbols learned in class and so their distraction was redirected into learning. It is also worth noting that in serious play, there has to be some elements for students to freely explore. Thinking about real, non-educational games out there, players are always allowed to explore, whether it be huge maps or quests. Without this freedom, can an activity truly emulate play? What is teaching if not controlled chaos?
Fantastic A2!
First off your website looks amazing with a nice balance of different media and activities. Very each to digest new information! Exploring the different location-based activities was a great interactive mobile task. Once again great work! Do any of you normally use this technology in your classroom?
Michael
Hi Michael,
Thanks so much for your feedback! I personally use mobile games quite a bit in my classroom but I have not used any location-based games for teaching.
When the weather gets a bit nicer here in Alberta, I will definitely look into incorporating this into my own teaching practices!
I also see that you tried Zombie Run which was the app I was most interested in as well! I’m glad you enjoyed trying it out.
Hi Michael,
So glad to see you enjoy trying Zombie Run and brainstorming about how location-based apps could be applicable to music education. Tricky for sure because musical instruments are typically found indoors. However, I have seen playgrounds where there are instruments made of metal bars, pipes, etc and depending on where you live, you may have community pianos scattered across the city. I live in Vancouver where I am spoiled by this. Around Science world are the pipes/bars and not too far from there is a community piano. I can see Geocaching working for this or perhaps a task can simply be, create a piece of music at these stations using what you see around you as inspiration.