GAME-BASED LEARNING WITH AUGMENTED REALITY - FROM TECHNOLOGY AFFORDANCES TO GAME DESIGN AND EDUCATIONAL SCENARIOS

The Augmented Reality (AR) is a computer technology which allows that on a camera live-view stream different computer-generated content is overlapped, in a dynamic manner, tracking the user's movements and change of view. AR is considered to support a new immersive visualization paradigm and a natural human-computer interaction. That is why the AR technology is adopted in educational projects to mediate an enhanced visual and cognitive perception. Recently it is used for entertainment purposes, including for creation of AR games, or in public installations using kinetic input devices. On the other side, the educational games are modern learning and training strategies for engaging learners and stimulate problem-solving learning through a game-like scenario. The AR technology is very promising and stable enough and in late 2012 the development tools and platforms had an unprecedented evolution, in relation with HTML 5, the new web standard for rich interactive content. Nevertheless there are only a few Augmented Reality implementations having a significant educational and learning impact. The paper analyzes how serious game concepts and design principles can be applied or adapted to AR, and how AR technology affordances can be leveraged in order to implement a new class of serious or simulation games. Specific educational uses and learning outcomes are analyzed. We focused on the case of Mobile Augmented Reality educational games that should combine graphics and sounds with user mobility, in situated and social learning contexts. The authors based their analysis on existing implementation examples but also present a concept for an AR simulation game for Android devices for teaching basic 3D graphics principles and develop at students the 3D spatial visualization.