The article presents a brief overview of the Neighborhood Game Design Project, a studio-based curriculum intervention aimed at engaging students in the design of place-based mobile games and interactive stories using geo-locative technologies (e.g., GPS enabled cell phones). It describes the three curricular components that defined the project, then highlights how a studio method was used to guide students’ design work and develop their design literacies. In particular, the article focuses on one of the main design activities students engaged in – collaboratively designing an Augmented Reality simulation – and explores how the embedded design practices align with a socio-cultural view of literacy (Gee, 2004; Jenkins, Purushotma, Clinton, Weigel, Robison, 2006; Lankshear and Knobel, 2007; Robison, 2009).
Examining controversial issues from multiple perspectives and learning how to collaboratively design solutions to complex social problems is necessary for participation in a pluralistic society (Barton & Levstik, 2004; Hess, 2009). We hope that the NGDP provides one model for how mobile media might be used to support this vision. In following the lead of the New London Group (1996), our interests lie in
exploring how mobile media might be used to engage students in new civic and social activities and literacy practices that allow them to more actively participate in and shape the future of their communities. As such, we believe in a form of mobile learning that not only aligns with the rapid changes occurring in the technological landscape, but also leverages new research around literacy and literacy pedagogy – a form of mobile-based learning that emphasizes participatory design, muliliteracies,
and local, as well as global civic engagement.