Students as Game Designers vs. ‘Just’ Players: Comparison of Two Different Approaches to Location-Based Games Implementation into School Curricula

This paper compares two kinds of educational treatment within location-based game approach; learning by playing a location-based game and learning by designing a location-based game. Two parallel elementary school classes were included in our study (N=27; age 14-15). The ‘designers’ class took part in the whole process of game design except the technical part (programming and content implementation), the ‘players’ class did not get any special treatment but played the game made by their fellow-students. The study describes possibilities and limitations of those two implementation approaches and measures effectiveness of knowledge acquisition and future interests in the game topic. The data revealed positive effect of the active approach (designing location-based game) within the knowledge acquisition. The further qualitative study showed that the active approach brings some unique benefits to the students and could be widely supported by the teachers and national educational systems