Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fernández presented their experience developing a mobile application to organize scavenger hunt-style games called gymkhanas using smartphones. Their application allows organizers to create challenges involving text, photos, geolocation and augmented reality for participant groups to complete. It provides real-time tracking of groups' progress and classifications. They tested the application in three experiments with over 40 volunteers total. They have since organized official gymkhanas using the application and believe it reduces costs and resources needed for organizing such events while enabling new types of mobile learning challenges.

1. An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with
smartphones
eMadrid Seminar on ”Games, Learning and Mobility”
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a
grex@gsyc.urjc.es
GSyC/LibreSoft, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Madrid, Oct 15th, 2010
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

2. c 2010 Gregorio Robles, Jorge Fern´ndez Gonz´lez.
a a
Some rights reserved. This presentation is distributed under the
“Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0” license, by Creative Commons, available at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

3. This is joint work
Figure: Authors: Jorge Fern´ndez and Gregorio Robles.
a
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

4. Gymkhanas?
Figure: Gymkhanas are group activities. A challenge has to be solved to
obtain the next one.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

5. I know them from the Scout movement
Figure: Scouting group.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

6. Scenario
Technology cannot only make
organizing gymkhanas easier, it
offers new possibilities!
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

7. The Android smartphone
Figure: Device emulator for Android.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

8. The Android Market
Figure: Example screenshots of the Android Market as it can be observed
in an Android phone.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

9. libregeosocial
Figure: libregeosocial: Social network and augmented reality library for
Android phones.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

10. General architecture
Figure: General architecture of the system, including the technologies
that have been used for its implementation.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

11. Administration
Administrating a gymkhana
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

12. Gymkhana Round-trip
Figure: Example of a scenario of gymkhana with several groups and a
circular path for challenges.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

13. Geolocalizing groups in real-time
Figure: Mash-up with Google Maps offering geopositioning and
information of participating groups.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

14. Classifications in real-time
Figure: Table with the classification of the participating groups in the
gymkhana.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

15. Creating a Gymkhana
Figure: Web page for the creation of events (in this case showing a
Javascript alert due to the introduction of a wrong format).
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

16. Introducing a new challenge
Figure: HTML form for the creation of gymkhana challenges. smartphones
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with

17. Instant messages
Figure: Instant messages can be sent to participants.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

18. Challenges
Types of challenges
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

19. Text challenges
Figure: Screenshot of a textual response challenge.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

20. Geopositioning challenge
Figure: Screenshot of the presentation of a geopositioning challenge and
map with the current position of the participant and the destination.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

21. Photo challenge
Figure: Screenshots of a photographic challenge, before and after the
user has selected a picture to be sent as response.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

22. Augmented Reality challenge
Figure: Tagging of a new virtual resource by means of the LibreGeoSocial
augmented reality interface.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

23. Experiments
The gymkhana application has been tested three times before
being released.
Experiment 1: Feb 11 2010 - 8 volunteers
Experiment 2: Mar 25 2010 - 22 volunteers
Experiment 3: Apr 16 2010 - 18 volunteers (San Teleco)
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

24. “Official” Gymkhanas
“Noche de los investigadores” - 24 Sep 2010
“Semana de la Ciencia” - November 2010 (To be held)
Organized under the umbrella of the eMadrid project!
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

25. Costs
This is a low-cost activity (given that you have the smartphones).
You need one smartphone per group
Although it seems this is becoming a commodity
Network access: we bought 20 pre-paid cards per phone.
With one pre-paid card you can have 50h of gymkhana.
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

26. Next future
Gymkhana application in the Android market
Create community around the application
Have easy-to-organize (almost ad-hoc) gymkhanas
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

27. Results
New types of challenges made possible by technology
Reduction of human resources
More control on the participating groups
Permanent, immediate and distance communication
Dynamic real-time modification of a gymkhana
Less time to organize a gymkhana
Reduction in cost
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones

28. An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with
smartphones
eMadrid Seminar on ”Games, Learning and Mobility”
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a
grex@gsyc.urjc.es
GSyC/LibreSoft, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Madrid, Oct 15th, 2010
Gregorio Robles and Jorge Fern´ndez
a An experience of m-learning: gymkhanas with smartphones