MobileMath

In early 2008, the schools Pieter Nieuwland (Amsterdam), Via Nova (Utrecht), Vathorst (Amersfoort) have been piloting MobileMath, a first step into using mobile gaming for maths education in secondary education, developed by the Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht, and the Waag, Amsterdam.

Students had to score as much points as possible by walking along imagined quadrangles, squares or parallelograms in the area around their schools. They used mobile phones with GPS receivers to upload the corners of the geometrical figures to the game server. At the end of the game, the map with the figures was available from the EduGIS portal to be used in class or to be shown to parents and friends.

Educationists are seeking for new educational formats to match the 'digital life style' of students, particularly in settings that are based on competence-based education. Gaming is a way of making students discover new insights within a rich context. Explorative city-games are such a new, stimulating educational format. Students play an active role when playing the games, and they use the communicative and creative potential of mobile technology and the Internet. MobileMath will deliver insights into how such a modern, mobile and social game can contribute to the learning process, to intrinsic motivation and to an positive attitude towards learning.

 MobileMath was an extension to the Dutch EduGIS portal and was partly funded by the innovation programme Ruimte voor Geo-Informatie (RGI).