Designing Learning Experiences in Zoos: A Location-Based Game Development Toolkit

It is becoming the norm that learners with their personal devices take an active role through accessing, interpreting and processing informational artifacts on the go, transforming them into various representational states, or creating entirely new ones. Such a development holds the potential to take learning experiences from the classroom into the real world, but also supports the educational vision of adventure learning and learning through design and creation. This challenges current learning and teaching practices, requiring new pedagogical models and different perspectives on designing learning experiences and appropriate technological tools. This paper discusses the theoretical assumptions and design aspects of developing a toolkit that supports adventure learning. The SmartZoos project aims to design and develop a toolset which allows teachers, but also students, to take an active role in designing location-based games, adventure trails and other challenges (quizzes, assignments, etc.) with personal mobile devices.