Merging digital and urban play spaces: Learning by playing and creating location-based games in secondary education

With handhelds, it is possible to mix virtual with real-world data (i.e. locations and contexts) connecting virtual worlds to real life. Handheld games can be used to engage students with learning in their (school) environment. In a project called 'Games Atelier' innovative pedagogy was developed that stimulated students to create content with the use of mobile technology. The premise underlying Games Atelier is that the process of creating games improves students' learning experiences. In this paper experiences of 80 students from both pre-vocational and lower secondary education working with 7scenes (a platform to create games) were described. The aim of this investigation was to indicate how 7scenes was used in secondary education, how many lessons were needed to create a meaningful game, how students experienced working with seven scenes and what students and teachers perceived as possible learning outcomes of creating and playing games. Preliminary results showed that in 12-14 lessons a meaningful game can be created. For the students it was hard to place themselves in the position of the player of the game when creating the assignments and they needed more guidance from their teacher especially in formulating the questions in a way that they would be clear to the player. Students mostly learned technically how to design a game. In addition to these technical skills, students learned very few other things such as measuring the temperature of water and the meaning of traffic signs. Several improvements were suggested such as working in two consecutive lessons, use of planning and pre-defined assessment and making the platform more user-friendly