@inproceedings{Heljakka2018f,

title = {Out of the Classroom, into the Park: Gamified Art Experiences and Learning through Play in Urban Playscapes},

author = {Katriina Heljakka and Pirita Ihamäki},

url = {http://hichumanities.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/AH2018.pdf},

year  = {2018},

date = {2018-01-01},

urldate = {2018-01-01},

booktitle = {Hawaii International Conference on Arts & Humanities – 2018 Conference Proceedings},

abstract = {According to the current curricular plan, learning outside of the traditional educational setting e.g. in outdoor environments, is encouraged. There is a focused movement from the traditional classroom paradigm to a trend driven by the influence of innovative learning approaches. Changing school culture is one of Finland’s four curriculum reform areas, and one of them is learning environments. One direction of the reform is to foster innovative school models that link the subject matter to the real world by engaging school children in learning activities outside of the classroom (NMC Horizon Project Regional Report 2017).



This study explores the educational potential of an urban gamified art experience based in Finland, which provides physical, mental and social well-being through play in a park environment. The goal of this study is to investigate the opportunities for education and learning by a visually and digitally enriched geocaching trail offers.

Based on previous research, the gamified art experience, Sigrid-Secrets geocaching trail presented in the paper, provides experiences of physical, mental and social well-being through play in a park environment. The purpose of the paper at hand is to develop understandings of the capacities of convergent urban experiences like the geocaching trail introduced here, by an exploration of its educational implementations.},

keywords = {Art experience, Educational implementations, Educational setting, Geocaching, Mobile learning, Playful learning},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {inproceedings}

}