Training Social Learning Skills

by Collaborative Mobile Gaming in Museums

Jolien Schroyen

ACE, December 3-5, 2008

Kris Gabriëls, Kris Luyten, Daniël Teunkens, Karel Robert, Karin Coninx, Eddy Flerackers, Elke Manshoven

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With regard to cultural experiences :

“Traditional museum visits rank among

the top five of ultimate horror for kids”

(Geert Sels, De Standaard, Febuary 27, 2007)

Mobile museum guide to :

- stimulate social interaction and interaction with objects

- offer a personalized museum tour and support the learning process

Training Social Learning Skills by Collaborative

Mobile Games

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ARCHIE Framework

Museum visit = a personal, interactive experience

Learning in museums – contextual model(Falk & Dierking)

Mobile museum guides for every specific context-of-use

ARCHIE - framework

Mobile museum guides for every specific target group

ARCHIE - framework

Mobile museum guides for every specific target group

ARCHIE - framework

Mobile museum guides for schoolgroups on a field trip

ARCHIE - framework

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Design for Playful Learning

Target group survey of children aged 10 – 14 years old

- Strong need for do (hands-on) activities

- Strongly experience-driven learning style

- Museum as amusement park

- Interests: multimedia, games

- Like to „explore‟

- Group together / competition

Gallo-Roman Museum visitor research (2005)

How to enrich the museum experience of

youngsters ?

- Target group survey

- Brainstorm session

- User evaluations

- Multidisciplinary team:

computer scientists, historians, graphic designers, in close collaboration

with educational staff museum

Providing a playful, interactive and social learning experience

Designing for the target group

- Learn key messages by playing

- Gradually developing skills

- Evocative graphical design

Inspired by design principles video games …

- Stimulate group interactions and competition

- „Relive‟ the museum content

Inspired by design principles video games …

Playing ARCHIE …

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Evaluation & Results

- Extensive user tests :- Trading game: 68 students

- Farming game: 92 students

- Roman game: 137 students

- Observations/video recordings and logging of user

interactions, followed by questionnaire

- Evaluation of :- Usability and playability

- Training of social skills (social interaction)

- Training of cognitive skills (interaction with museum environment,

interpretation and observation, …)

- Learning key messages museum narrative

Evaluation

- PDA does stimulate social interaction and exploration of

the museum environment

- Supporting the learning experience

- 70-75% answer questions concerning key content correctly

- Differences between school groups

- In search for a stimulating challenge for every target group

Results

- Youngsters enthusiastic about medium PDA - over 90 % like the games (a lot)

- 85-90% say a PDA as a guide throughout the museum makes a

museum visit a lot more fun

- Handheld museum games as a way to increase

attractiveness of museum visits for youngsters

Conclusion

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Future Work

www.idiscover.bejolien.schroyen@uhasselt.be