Using a Studio-Based Pedagogy to Engage Students in the Design of Mobile-Based Media

The article presents a brief overview of the Neighbourhood 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 (for example, 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). (Contains 8 figures, 1 table, and 3 footnotes.)