Understanding pervasive games for purposes of learning

Among the manifold of approaches to technology enhanced learning, game based learning is very attractive. In game based learning, the technological systems employed for the purpose of learning are digital games. Stand-alone serious games are rare. Games deployed for learning need to be embedded into suitable contexts. A particular approach promising from certain didactic perspectives and driven by a variety of characteristics of learning contents and training requirements is embedding those games into the surrounding physical world. Games embedded into the physical world are called pervasive games. The ways of embedding are paramount. There have been numerous attempts to design and to implement pervasive games, in general, and to deploy pervasive games for learning purposes, in particular. The majority of those pervasive games failed quite badly. Storyboarding the interaction between the real world and the virtual world of a pervasive game reveals the essential strength s and weaknesses of the game concept and allows for diagnosing didactic flaws of game play. Beyond its diagnostic power, the approach supports the design of more affective and effective pervasive games. Storyboarding is a methodology of anticipating human experience and, thus, a methodology of didactic design.