Location Based Mobile Games as educational means. The case of The Fellowship of the Umbrella

The paper discusses how Location-Based Mobile Games can successfully support informal educational activities. Looking at them as meaning-making tools, the paper frames the field of action and then explains the peculiarities that make such games powerful means for informal learning: the different levels of learning conveyed by the activity of designing and playing LBMGs; their communicative nature; the implication of being situated and of including physical/spatial activities in the process of interiorizing the experience and realising its sense in a personal way; the meaningful relationship among the game magic circle, the fictional world, and the situated space; the open and free state of mind of the learners-players coming from wearing a mask and hence play a role during the game; and the effectiveness of stealth approaches to foster engagement and, therefore, deeper understanding. The value and opportunities coming from such features in terms of both design and learning are presented and discussed through a case study: The Fellowship of the Umbrella, a LBMG developed during the academic course of Augmented Reality and Mobile Experience at Politecnico di Milano.