An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas withsmartphones

eMadrid Seminar on ”Games, Learning and Mobility”

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez

grex@gsyc.urjc.esGSyC/LibreSoft, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Madrid, Oct 15th, 2010

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

c©2010 Gregorio Robles, Jorge Fernandez Gonzalez.Some rights reserved. This presentation is distributed under the

“Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0” license, by Creative Commons, available athttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

This is joint work

Figure: Authors: Jorge Fernandez and Gregorio Robles.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Gymkhanas?

Figure: Gymkhanas are group activities. A challenge has to be solved toobtain the next one.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

I know them from the Scout movement

Figure: Scouting group.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Scenario

Technology cannot only makeorganizing gymkhanas easier, it

offers new possibilities!

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

The Android smartphone

Figure: Device emulator for Android.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

The Android Market

Figure: Example screenshots of the Android Market as it can be observedin an Android phone.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

libregeosocial

Figure: libregeosocial: Social network and augmented reality library forAndroid phones.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

General architecture

Figure: General architecture of the system, including the technologiesthat have been used for its implementation.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Administration

Administrating a gymkhana

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Gymkhana Round-trip

Figure: Example of a scenario of gymkhana with several groups and acircular path for challenges.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Geolocalizing groups in real-time

Figure: Mash-up with Google Maps offering geopositioning andinformation of participating groups.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Classifications in real-time

Figure: Table with the classification of the participating groups in thegymkhana.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Creating a Gymkhana

Figure: Web page for the creation of events (in this case showing aJavascript alert due to the introduction of a wrong format).

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Introducing a new challenge

Figure: HTML form for the creation of gymkhana challenges.Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Instant messages

Figure: Instant messages can be sent to participants.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Challenges

Types of challenges

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Text challenges

Figure: Screenshot of a textual response challenge.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Geopositioning challenge

Figure: Screenshot of the presentation of a geopositioning challenge andmap with the current position of the participant and the destination.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Photo challenge

Figure: Screenshots of a photographic challenge, before and after theuser has selected a picture to be sent as response.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Augmented Reality challenge

Figure: Tagging of a new virtual resource by means of the LibreGeoSocialaugmented reality interface.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Experiments

The gymkhana application has been tested three times beforebeing released.

Experiment 1: Feb 11 2010 - 8 volunteers

Experiment 2: Mar 25 2010 - 22 volunteers

Experiment 3: Apr 16 2010 - 18 volunteers (San Teleco)

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

“Official” Gymkhanas

“Noche de los investigadores” - 24 Sep 2010

“Semana de la Ciencia” - November 2010 (To be held)

Organized under the umbrella of the eMadrid project!

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Costs

This is a low-cost activity (given that you have the smartphones).

You need one smartphone per group

Although it seems this is becoming a commodity

Network access: we bought 20 pre-paid cards per phone.With one pre-paid card you can have 50h of gymkhana.

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Next future

Gymkhana application in the Android market

Create community around the application

Have easy-to-organize (almost ad-hoc) gymkhanas

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

Results

New types of challenges made possible by technology

Reduction of human resources

More control on the participating groups

Permanent, immediate and distance communication

Dynamic real-time modification of a gymkhana

Less time to organize a gymkhana

Reduction in cost

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas withsmartphones

eMadrid Seminar on ”Games, Learning and Mobility”

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez

grex@gsyc.urjc.esGSyC/LibreSoft, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos

Madrid, Oct 15th, 2010

Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernandez An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones