This document discusses using augmented reality games to support historical inquiry in education. It describes how AR games are played using mobile devices and GPS to interact with the real world environment. The games aim to build students' historical empathy by having them take on roles, explore multiple perspectives, and interact with location-based historical content. The document presents an example AR game called "Dow Day" that situates students in the context of protests at UW-Madison in 1967. It finds that playing this site-based simulation helped students engage with history and develop more nuanced understandings of events from different points of view.

1. Exploring the potential of a place-based
Augmented Reality (AR) game to support
historical inquiry
James Mathews
University of Wisconsin
Local Games Lab
Games, Learning, and Society Research Group

2. Augmented Reality Games - The Basics
Played on a PDA/handheld
computer or smart phone
that is equipped
with a GPS unit.

3. The “Game Space”
The games are played
in the physical
environment.
The GPS tracks your
location as you explore
the “game space.”

4. Location Sensitive Content

5. What do AR games borrow from video games?
Role-playing / Differentiated Roles
Narrative Hook / Backstory
Problem Space / Master Goal / Sub-Tasks
Multi-modal Content
Collaboration / Competition
Contested Spaces
(Squire, 2004; Gee, 2003; Shaffer, 2006; Dickey, 2005)

6. Current Study: How might AR games be used
to build students’ capacity to
think empathetically?

7. Dow Day
October 18, 1967
A Place-based
AR Game

8. Game Context - “Contested Space”
Dow Chemical Company makes napalm
Dow Chemical plans to recruit students on the UW-Madison campus
Some students plan protests aimed at blocking the interviews…

9. The Mission
“Things are heating up on
Bascom Hill and we need a
story, and some photos by
3:00. Get up there and check
things out.”
“I set up an appointment with
an administrator from the UW
and a representative from Dow
Chemical. They will meet you
in front of Bascom Hall. Make
sure that you meet them on
time.”
“Got all that? You better
hurry…””
You are a reporter working
for the Capital Times.
Your editor just called and
told you to meet him at the
Memorial Union. He has an
important story for you to
cover.
He has arranged for a
photographer to help you
cover the story.
The Editor

10. Game Play
As students play the games they
use the PDA to…
Explore the
physical environment
Meet and interview
virtual characters
View photos and
video clips
Gather and read
primary documents
Take on roles + collaborate
with other players

11. Game-based Learning (Gee, 2003; Squire, 2007; Shaffer, 2006)
Historical Empathy / Perspective Taking
* Conceptualizing (Barton & Levstik, 2004; Davis, Yeager, & Foster, 2001)
* Designing for (Portal, 1998; Foster, 2001; Foster & Yeager, 1998)
* Assessing (Downey, 1995; Kohlmeier, 2006; Jensen, 2008)
Design / Theoretical Framework(s)
Historical
Empathy
Game-based
Learning

12. Intervention: 10-Day Game-based Curriculum
Phase Activities Sample:
1. Pre-game Generate initial inquiry
question(s)
Background / Context
Start inquiry journal
Introduce heuristics (corroboration,
sourcing, contextualizing)
2. Game Enter roles
“Situate” experience
Introduce complexities
“Simulate” event
Investigate in “real time”
Explore multiple perspective
3. Build on
game
experience
React
Revisit inquiry questions
Review game text and documents
Select and interpret new evidence
Practice heuristics
4. Synthesize Reconstruction /
Narrative
Write newspaper article
Choose photos to run with your story
5. Game design
session
Critique / “re-design” Analyze bias and propose additional
perspectives, experiences, +
resources

14. * 9 High School Students (2 Girls, 7 Boys)
* 7 failed at least one semester of U.S. History
* Reluctant readers in school-based context
* Limited background using document-based learning
* Limited contextual understanding
Participants

15. Data & Analysis
What did I look at?
* Artifacts that students created (journal, historical analysis sheets, news article)
* Pre- and post-historical inquiry tasks
* Pre- and post-surveys
* Interviews
* Classroom observations
What did I look for?
* Recognize that the past is different from the present
* Understand the context under which the historical events took place
* Recognize that there are various perspectives from the past
* Use historical evidence when making argument
* Recognize their own positionality and how it shapes their interpretation
(Downey, 1995; Kohlmeier, 2006; Jensen, 2008)

16. 1. Increased student motivation to complete pre- and post-game
reading, writing, and historical interpretation / analysis activities
2. Students identified (with increasing complexity) the multiple
perspectives surrounding the events.
3. Students “cared about” the events/actors, which increased
engagement, but interfered with historical empathy
4. Playing a site-based simulation impacted the types of questions
students asked --> The place became a source of evidence.
5. Students struggled to think of the past as different
Results

17. 5. Provided a space for “unpacking” the values at play
6. Newspaper article helped students move away from their own
positionality and focused them on the use of evidence
7. Students developed a more nuanced understanding of
photographic evidence as a “construction of reality”
8. Growth in students’ ability to use heuristics to interpret historical
documents
Results

18. Future Work?
1) Next iteration of Dow Day
2) Students (and teachers) designing AR games
3) AR games as assessment tools

19. Thanks
Contact Info
James Mathews
jmmathew@wisc.edu

21. Augmented Reality

22. Curriculum Overview
Played as part of a 10 day curriculum
Role play as a journalist
Investigate the event in “real time”
Develop basic news reporting skills
Explore point of view and bias in news
reporting

23. Augmented Reality Gaming on Handhelds, 1st
year Report
November 29, 2006
Lake Wingra
(Madison)
Mad City Mystery
(Madison)
South Shore
Beach
(Milwaukee)
Greenbush
(Madison)
Hip Hop
Tycoon
Place specific Place agnostic
Urban Ecology
Center
(Milwaukee)
Dow Day
Mystery Trip

24. Summer:
Teacher
Workshops
Fall:
implementations
Curriculum
design
Winter:
Redesign
Spring:
Implementations
Project
Refinement
STAR Schools Grant
• 3 years
• 30 teachers in Madison, Milwaukee, Boston
• Improving mathematics and literacy skills

25. A Sample Encounter

26. • Place-based historical
simulation
• Inquiry-based model
• Engages students in
“historical thinking”
(Wineburg,VanSledright)
Interpreting primary and
secondary resources
Identifying and analyzing
multiple perspectives
surrounding an historical
event
Gathering evidence and
developing historical
arguments
Design Principles
• Played as part of a
larger curricular unit

27. Sample Encounter
Description: You feel a buzzing in
your backpack. You take out your
Communicator, and tune in. It's
John Martin. His face is scratched
and bloody, battered and bruised.
Interview: Whoa! I didn't think
I'd get you! This Communicator is
whacked pretty badly. Hello?
Hello? Can you hear me? Well, it
says it's transmitting, so if you
can hear me, listen up. I'm not
sure what's going on, but don't
come back to camp! And stay low!
After you left, camp was overrun
by men in green tights. We tried
to fend them off. There were five
John
From “Mitchville:
Where the War Began”

28. Presentations should represent on the average a 7-10
minute summary of the paper. Highlights may be
given covering such points as the purpose of the
study, description of the sample, methodology,
problems, and major findings, conclusions, or
recommendations. The amount of time devoted to
each highlight will vary according to the author’s
evaluation of the importance of each area to the
paper.

29. Moving towards place specific games
xml
Game Editor
(xml generator)

30. Moving towards teacher and student designed games