Introduction
The greatest potential in mobile games is that they allow for mobility. Traditional games on the computer or on the table with piles of pieces fix students in place, which limits activities to be done indoors. The most exciting application of mobile games, then, is to bring the classroom outdoors to allow for movement, connect students with the environment, and perhaps to enable learning in informal settings. The increasing demand from parents and educators to break out from traditional classrooms, to make learning more fun, to emphasize character education (empathy, care, citizenship, etc.), and to address climate change in the curriculum have spurred this team to examine mobile games for use in Outdoor Education. We examine mobile games and location-based apps in Outdoor Education within the high school Physical Health Education (PHE) and Environmental Science curriculum context.
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About the Authors
Seo-Whi Kwon Math & SciencE Teacher Seo-Whi has been teaching grades 7-12 Math and Science for five years. She has worked with Project Based Learning and Distance Learning schools, where she participated in a variety of school-wide events including gamification and Project Week activities. She is currently teaching at an online school where she participated in assessing and choosing a Learning Management System for her school. She has also taken part in Professional Development workshops to support teachers with technology implementation. As a gamer herself, she is interested in incorporating edutainment strategies into her own teaching practices and passionate about learning ways to use technologies to offer engaging and meaningful learning opportunities for students. |
Ying Gu Senior science teacher Ying has been teaching high school science for seven years. She currently works at a school that has a robust Outdoor Education program for Gr. 8-9 students and has participated on their expeditions numerous times. Ying's philosophy to science education is "hands-on whenever and wherever possible". She is a leader in competency-based assessment at her school, having attended multiple workshops and professional development training on the topic. She is knee deep in BC's new curriculum and has developed an assessment gradebook and strategy for Chemistry 11 and 12. Before teaching, Ying spent a year working as a lab technician for Environment Canada, doing research on pesticides and heavy metals on fresh water crustaceans. She also worked at Science World designing experiential learning activities for visiting school groups. |
Dana Roach Educational Research Assistant Dana works at Washington State University (WSU) as an educational research assistant investigating student approaches to problem solving in large lecture biology classes. Prior to shifting to educational research, she earned a Bachelor of Science in Earth and Environmental Science at WSU, participated in ecological research with labs on campus, and worked as a naturalist hiking guide during summers. As a naturalist hiking guide she applied her knowledge of ecology by leading clients on educational hikes in the Olympic National Park and teaching them about the ecology of the Pacific Northwest. This inspired her interest in education and program evaluation. Dana is particularly interested in exploring how educational technology could support learning in environmental sciences when hands-on, in-the-field experiences were halted in response to the global pandemic. She has enjoyed applying her technical research skills to educational research, and looks forward to expanding her skillset and knowledge as a Master of Educational Technology graduate student at University of British Columbia. |
Wynn Zhang Middle school teacher Wynn has been teaching middle school for almost a year now! But despite being a newer teacher, he has been involved in numerous school projects such as yearbook, sport teams, gardening, and gaming clubs, both digital and analogue. The combination of technology and outdoor education has always been a career goal for him. Drawing on his experience as a professional gamer, he is able achieve a deeper understanding of game mechanics, and how the game elements contribute to the over quality of the game as well as what motivates people to continue playing. Wynn hopes to further combine his expertise on games with his interest in teaching STEM and PHE to develop his own system of using mobile games as a method to enrich education for intermediate students. With his philosophy play to understand and create, he has thoroughly tested out the games from both the perspectives of an educator as well as a gamer. |