Abstract:

There is an increasing call for the introduction of emergent technologies in schools in order to promote students’ interest to learn about curricula contents. In particular, mobile technologies are gaining prominence in education because of its increasing capabilities and accessibility. Furthermore, augmented reality is recommended in the literature to engage students and improve their learning achievement. The PlanetarySystemGO is an information system that includes a location-based mobile augmented reality game designed to promote learning about the Universe. When playing the game, in addition to exploring planetary systems, the players have access to information about the learning objects and also need to answer multiple-choice questions about them. Moreover, at each stage of the game such as finding celestial bodies and answering correctly to the questions about them, the players gain points. The information system also includes a back-office that communicates with the mobile application. Through the back-office, teachers may introduce information about the celestial bodies and the set of multiple-choice questions that they intent their students to answer. In addition, they may create different planetary systems by introducing their planets and the respective information and characteristics. In this regard, the PlanetarySystemGO may be introduced in any level of school syllabus. This paper presents the implementation of the PlanetarySystemGO information system in a professional development programme and teachers’ perceptions about this tool to motivate students to learn about the Universe. Based on this experience, we conclude that this information system is adequate to be implemented in schools and to engage the students to learn about the Universe.

Keywords:

Mobile technologies, augmented reality, gamification, game based-learning, planetary systems.