Seeing New in the Familiar: Intensifying Aesthetic Engagement with the City through New Location-Based Technologies

Understanding better the effects of the use of mobile apps to the use and appreciation of urban environments has been gaining more prominence as a research topic recently due to the increasing everyday use of these apps. Whether this type of digital mediation changes the lived experience is of interest in this article. The intention is to show that besides changing the prevailing practices and behaviour, new technologies also enhance and add positive value to the everyday urban experience. This positive experiential value is approached with the framework consisting of recent advances in philosophical urban and everyday aesthetics, which put emphasis on both familiarity and fun as important qualities that describe the everyday experience in urban environments. We claim that new digital tools increase the quality of fun when moving in familiar surroundings. Fun, understood through the lens of the aesthetic, precedes the experienced quality of playfulness. It alters the existing affordances of the urban environment in a way that make more complex aesthetic qualities emerge. The case examples are GPS-based wayfinding applications such as route planners and navigation tools for pedestrian use and related AR applications such as the popular game app Pok?mon GO.Peer reviewe

Real-Time, Real World Learning—Capitalising on Mobile Technology

This chapter explores the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies to promote active learning by students and to both mediate and enhance classroom instruction. Web 2.0 refers to open source, web-enabled applications (apps) that are driven by user-manipulated and user-generated content (Kassens-Noor, 2012). These apps are often rich in user participation, have dynamic content, and harness the collective intelligence of users (Chen, Hwang, & Wang, 2012). As such, these processes create “active, context based, personalised learning experiences” (Kaldoudi, Konstantinidis, & Bamidis, 2010, p. 130) that prioritise learning ahead of teaching. By putting the learner at the centre of the education process educators can provide environments that enhance employability prospects and spark a passion for learning that, hopefully, lasts a lifetime. As such, we critique an active learning approach that makes use of technology such as mobile applications (apps), Twitter, and augmented reality to enhance students’ real world learning. Dunlap and Lowenthal (2009) argue that social media can facilitate active learning as they recreate informal, free-flowing communications that allow students and academics to connect on a more emotional level. Furthermore, their use upskills students in the technical complexities of the digital world and also the specialised discourses that are associated with online participation, suitable for real world learning and working (Fig. 16.1). Three case studies explore the benefits of Web 2.0 processes. The first details the use of Twitter chats to connect students, academics, and industry professionals via online synchronous discussions that offer a number of benefits such as encouraging concise writing from students and maintaining on-going relationships between staff, students, and industry contacts. The second details a location-based mobile app that delivers content to students when they enter a defined geographical boundary linked to an area of a sports precinct. Finally, we explore the use of augmented reality apps to enhance teaching in Human Geography and Urban Studies

Pokémon Go as palimpsest: Creating layers of meaning through augmented reality

In this paper, I employ the concept of the palimpsest of meaning (Bailey, 2007) to illustrate how Pokémon Go shapes and produces relations to place. Using ethnographic data from student players at the University of Guelph, I demonstrate how augmented reality (AR) gaming constructs a curated layer of place meaning that influences players’ knowledge of, relationships to, and movement through space. In so doing, I argue that we should not ignore the potential of AR technology to influence how we come to know place, emphasizing the impacts that biases, which are coded into this technology, might have on subaltern narratives of place and for marginalized communities

A multi-analytical approach to studying customers motivations to use innovative totally autonomous vehicles

Increasing technological innovation means level 5 fully autonomous vehicle pods (AVPs) that do not require a human driver are approaching reality. However, the adoption of AVPs continues to lag behind predictions. In this paper, we draw on Mowen's (2000) 3M model taking a multi-analytical approach utilising PLS-SEM and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, to investigate how personality trait sets motivate consumers to adopt AVPs. Based on a survey of 551 US respondents, we identify four necessary traits and five combinations of traits that predict adoption. We contribute to consumer psychology theory by advancing the understanding of the motivational mechanisms of consumers’ adoption of autonomous vehicles that are triggered and operationalised by personality traits and conceptualising innovativeness as a complex multidimensional construct. From a managerial perspective, our findings highlight the significance of incorporating elements that are congruent with target customers’ personality traits, when designing, manufacturing and commercializing innovative products

Continuance use intention with mobile augmented reality games: Overall and multigroup analyses on Pokémon Go

As mobile augmented reality (AR) games enter the maturity stage, understanding how to improve players’ continuance use intention with mobile AR games is critical. Drawing upon the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, we investigated the effects of four major gratifications – content, process, social, and technology – and other factors on continuance intention to play mobile AR games. Data collected from 280 Pokémon Go players were used to address research questions. Partial least squares method was employed to assess the relationships in the model and multigroup analysis was conducted based on survey participants’ demographics and their gaming experience. Content gratification (i.e., catching Pokémon), process gratification (i.e., entertainment), game knowledge, and achievement drive players’ continuance use intention. However, social and technology gratifications do not influence players’ continuance use intention. Multigroup analysis suggests that mobile AR game developers should capitalize on the fact that different types of gratifications prompt continuance use intention of different user segments in terms of demographics and experience in general mobile games and Pokémon Go. User behavior of mobile AR games has been studied at the early stage of the games, with less attention to variable continuance use intentions across different user segments. This study attempts to fill the gap by extending the U&G theory to continuance use intention with mobile AR games at the maturity stage and further investigating the importance of player heterogeneity in continuance use intention with mobile AR games. Findings of this study contribute to the literature on U&G, continuance use intention and mobile AR games

“Pokémon GO” e Sintomatologia Psicopatológica: correlatos clínicos da utilização de um jogo de realidade virtual aumentada

Objetivos: Este estudo teve por objectivo descrever os padrões ou perfil de utilização do jogo Pokémon GO numa amostra de jogadores da população portuguesa, assim como explorar a (in)existência de diferenças sociodemográficas nos comportamentos de jogo e analisar as relações entre características ou comportamentos do utilizador e sintomatologia psicopatológica, nas suas múltiplas dimensões. Metodologia: A amostra foi constituída por 480 jogadores com idades entre os 18 e os 60 anos, residentes nos diversos distritos de Portugal Continental e regiões autónomas dos Açores e da Madeira, que responderam a um protocolo disponibilizado online composto por: Questionário sociodemográfico e de utilização do jogo “Pokémon GO”, NEO-FFI (NEO-Five Factor Inventory) e BSI (Brief Symptom Inventory). Resultados: A maioria dos jogadores que integram a amostra joga há 2 anos ou mais e encontra-se em níveis elevados, ou seja, são jogadores de longa duração que manifestam um elevado investimento no “Pokémon GO”. Apesar disso, não parece haver uma diminuição da sociabilidade (online e com familiares/amigos) e uma elevada percentagem até indicou ter feito novos amigos através do jogo. As mulheres efetuam mais caminhadas do que os homens de modo a alcançar os objetivos no jogo. No sentido inverso, são os homens que mais investem dinheiro no jogo e que capturam em média mais criaturas por dia. As médias em todas as dimensões sintomatológicas não parecem distanciar-se dos dados normativos e encontram-se significativamente distantes dos níveis de sintomatologia em pessoas com perturbações emocionais. Algumas variáveis de jogo encontram-se associadas a menores níveis de sintomatologia. Discussão e Conclusões: os dados do presente estudo não sustentam, nem a hipótese que o jogo contribui para um melhoria substantiva da saúde mental dos seus praticantes, nem a hipótese de que este tem sobre ela efeitos deletérios. Contudo, importa assinalar que a associação positiva entre algumas variáveis de jogo e menor sintomatologia psicopatológica poderá indicar um efeito positivo limitado/reduzido no bem-estar do utilizador. / Objectives: Describe gaming patterns and profiles of Pokémon GO in a sample of Portuguese players; explore the (in)existence of sociodemographic differences in gaming behaviours; analyse the relationship between user characteristics or behaviours and psychopathological symptomatology. Methodology: The sample comprises 480 players, aged from 18 to 60 years and residing in various districts of continental Portugal and autonomous regions (Azores and Madeira). Each participant completed the online data collection protocol which was composed by: a sociodomegraphic and Pokémon GO usage questionnaire usi; the NEO-FFI (NEO-Five Factor) and the BSI (Brief Symptom Inventory). Results: The majority of participants played continuously for 2 or more years and reached the game’s highest levels, which makes them long-term and high-investment users. Nevertheless, this doesn’t appear to negatively influence the participants’ sociability, and most even made new friends through the game. Women make more walks to reach the game’s objectives; men invest more money in the game and capture more creatures per day. The levels of psychopatological symptomatology are similar to the Portuguese population normative values and are significantly distant from levels found in people with emotional disorders. Additionally, some game variables are associated withlower symptomatology levels. Discussion and Conclusions: The results do not provide empirical support, either to the hypothesis that Pokémon GO gaming contributes to a substantial improvement of users’ mental health, nor to the hypothesis that this gaming behavior has deleterious effects. However, it should be noted that the association between some game variables and lower levels psychopathological symptoms may indicate a limited/reduced positive effect on users well-being

Applied Pedagogies for Higher Education: Real World Learning and Innovation across the Curriculum

This open access book critiques real world learning across both the curriculum and extracurricular activities

Applied Pedagogies for Higher Education

This open access book critiques real world learning across both the curriculum and extracurricular activities. Drawing on disciplines as diverse as business, health, fashion, sociology and geography, the editors and authors employ a cross-disciplinary approach to examine how this concept is being applied in higher education. Divided into three parts, the authors and contributors analyse broader applications of real world learning, student experience of practicing in a real world setting, and how learning strategies can be employed to engage students in real world learning. The editors and contributors provide up-to-date, cross-disciplinary and international insights into how real world learning could be integrated into the higher education curriculum to support effective, relevant and life-long learning for 21st century students

Applied Pedagogies for Higher Education

This open access book critiques real world learning across both the curriculum and extracurricular activities. Drawing on disciplines as diverse as business, health, fashion, sociology and geography, the editors and authors employ a cross-disciplinary approach to examine how this concept is being applied in higher education. Divided into three parts, the authors and contributors analyse broader applications of real world learning, student experience of practicing in a real world setting, and how learning strategies can be employed to engage students in real world learning. The editors and contributors provide up-to-date, cross-disciplinary and international insights into how real world learning could be integrated into the higher education curriculum to support effective, relevant and life-long learning for 21st century students