TECHNOLOGIES

LOCATION BASED GAMES

The Location Based Games are games that can be played in a real environment on mobile devices and follow the steps of a fantasy story.

Before starting to design a game, one should think about the following questions:
·         What is the goal of your game?
·         Is there a learning objective? How will you accomplish it?
·         How many users and age groups will be involved?
·         How long will the game last?
·         What game mechanics will you use (points, scoreboards, escalation, narrative goals)
·         Will your game require Wi-Fi/cellular coverage? Will you use QR codes instead?

More information about how to develop a Location Based Game are in the Methodology Guidelines; then, follow the instructions of the chosen platform.

Training materials on how to produce a Location Based Game are also available at this link: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1TfoGQ1cpXgZ7k7f0pQ_cjeBHuQDfgFA

HOW TO CREATE A LBG:

Approximately, the creation of a Location Based Game may take 4-10 hours, in three main phases:

Phase A: development of the content: the storyboard. A group of students (or the class) skilled in storytelling design the ‘story of the game’. They decide the objective of the game, the player, how the player reaches the objective. This means deciding about:
– the interaction between the player and the virtual characters and objects (scoring, quizzes and dialogues between characters, dropping or taking objects etc.);
– the route of the game in the real environment;
Most of the games need simple and short texts such as introduction, description of places/artefacts at the relevant points, etc.) and dialogues between the player and the characters.
The game might be potentially a tourist route on foot or by other transport means. It doesn’t need to be long!  

Phase B: development of the game in an open-source platform. A group of interested or skilled students in informatics, build a Location Based Game in an open source platform with the contents made by their classmates during Phase A. Easy platforms to learn are: Enigmapp (App for iOS), Arisgames (App for iOS and Android), Taleblazer (App for iOS and Android), Actionbound (App for iOS and Android).

Phase C: Test of the game. This phase is useful to test the mechanics of the game and make any needed corrections.

 

 

GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS

As a technology, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have the capability to expand the topics students can explore to a virtually limitless extent, promoting interdisciplinary learning and changing the way students approach and think about the geographic space and the objects it contains.  

 The use of GIS tools fosters the development of geospatial thinking competences, enabling the students to:

1. Develop spatial thinking skills: spatial visualization, spatial orientation, and spatial relations;

2. Critically read and interpret cartographic data and other visualizations of geospatial objects and their relationships in different media;

3. Be aware of geographic information and its representation through GIS;

4. Visually communicate spatial information, developing a language to transmit and exchange basic geographic information with others;

5.  Describe and use examples of GI application in daily life and in society, relating the features of the geographic space and their changes to the past and current dynamics in society;

6. Tackle a number of spatially based problems, address conflicts at different spatial scales from local to global, and explore space-dependent dynamics over time from a multidisciplinary perspective;

7. Use (freely available) GI interfaces and Web-based map services along with other kinds of mobile devices (smartphone, tablets).

DAYLIGHTING RIVERS offers training materials on QGIS (using the open source software QGIS) at this link: https://www.qgis.org/en/site/