Mobile urban drama for multimedia-based out-of-school learning

This paper describes the notion of Mobile Urban Drama and how a particular production is implemented to support engaging experiences via location-based mobile phone software. Mobile Urban Drama is a general concept that has been adapted for out-of-school learning projects by introducing support for solving assignments and producing multimedia-based documentation for learning purposes. Media production is seamlessly supported through a context-aware media management system. The Mobile Urban Drama project, "HasleInteractive", is presented. It supports biology, geography and math lessons for 7th to 9th graders in schools. The story is an environmental thriller that takes place partly on the pupils' mobile phones and partly in the real world - in nature, which must be investigated through exercises. The level of pupil engagement is evaluated through interviews with teachers and pupils, as well as an analysis of pupil productivity and produced media materials during the interactive Mobile Urban Drama experience. It is argued how the out-of-school learning features are successfully supported by the system, and we conclude that the level of productivity and engagement is higher than in usual pupil group work.

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