Training social learning skills by collaborative mobile gaming in museums

Abstract

The use of handheld computers as a tool to enrich the museum experience has found its way into many museums, opening up new possibilities to increase the attractiveness of museum visits, especially for youngsters. We developed a mobile guide framework that supports the creation of mobile guides and adheres to social-constructivist principles of learning. The mobile museum game we created with this framework aims at developing the social, cognitive and technical skills of the users. Large scale evaluations show the potential power of our approach to stimulate interaction between youngsters and to create a playful learning experience.

Developing multiplayer pervasive games and networked interactive installations using ad hoc mobile sensor nets

“…Our work differs substantially in that it is meant to be used in engaging participants in a more interactive process with both e.g., the museum exhibit and the visitors themselves. There is also a certain body of work on using pervasive methods and tools for interactive installations with a certain museum orientation aspect to their use, e.g., [21,14,3,23,5]. Such works differ from our approach by not using multimodal sensor inputs in order to provide additional interaction with the users, they follow a much more centralized architecture than ours and also provide less capable services of synchronization and situation awareness.…”

Exhibition of lunar surface navigation system facilitating collaboration between children and parents in science museum

“…Mobile museum games have been used to create an interesting and amusing way to enhance visitors' interactions and promote their collaboration [Schroyen et al, 2008]. It was suggested that information about museum exhibits became meaningful and useful, if the information was used to play the games and achieve their goals.…”

MuseumScrabble

“…Museums and other places of culture are already acquainted with mobile technologies, as handheld guide assistants have already been used for creating visitor experiences, beyond the typical visit (Schauble et al, 2002). In recent years there has been a visible evolution in the way mobile guide systems are integrated in museums, with social interaction and collaboration increasingly gaining in importance (Schroyen et al, 2008). For instance, mobile guides designed for group interaction such as "Sotto Voce" show a shift from simple information delivery to collaboration.…”