Why check in with location for learning? Good question. In higher education these geographically social resources connect our students on campus, share information and encourage community participation. Location-based services provide a game-like challenges for students within higher education. These location applications provide interaction, establish online identities and create a “home” feeling for many higher education institutions.
Geosocial applications create an emerging online learning environment for our students. Gowalla offers programmed trips that include highlights, challenges and items to collect. Foursquare offers incentives, discounts and fun badges to its users. A variety of student affair departments are beginning to experiment and play with the location-based apps on campus – are you one of them? If so, please share.
Earlier this year the Campus Tech Connection chatted with a few people about location-based applications and how they impact our campus communities. I am not using location based applications for learning just yet, but I am interested in exploring the possibilities. These podcasts delve into a few ideas and examples of how location-based resources are being used on campus:
Here are just a few examples of universities and colleges who are utilizing location applications on campus:
- Foursquare University Program
- Harvard on Foursquare
- University Introduces Foursquare Collegiate Badges
- Texas A & M encourages students to explore campus with social media scavenger hunt
- Top 25 Gowalla Check-in Challenge
- University of Florida + More Gowalla U Fun
- SCVNGR & what it’s all about
- SCVNGR Campus Partners
- SCVNGR at William Paterson University’s Orientation
- SCVNGR Announces New University Program To Help Students
- SCVNGR hunt: using geosocial gaming for orientation and education
Other Location-based applications to check out…
TriOut http://trioutnc.com/
Whrrl http://whrrl.com/
Facebook Places http://www.facebook.com/places/
Google Places with Hotpot http://www.google.com/places/
BrightKite http://brightkite.com/
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