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experiences evoked, as they had received feedback
from the users during the trial, and had observed
the users on a day-to-day basis.
The log and questionnaire data was analysed
with basic statistical methods, and used for pro-
ducing charts and other visualizations of data for
interpretation. Observation, interviews and feed-
back were analysed with content-based qualitative
methods, where the main goal was to interpret and
analyze descriptions of the subjective user experi-
ence, and find relationships and explanations with
findings based on quantitative data.
to acquire the information needed to answer the
question. For example, at the social insurance in-
stitution, the pupils had to browse the web service
of the institution to access information required
to answer the question correctly. During the les-
son, the teachers were able to follow in real time
via a web-based interface how the pairs of pupils
proceeded through the adventure track. Also, the
pupils were advised to use the mobile phone to
call the teacher in case of problems or questions.
In Figure 4, the pupils try Amazing NFC at the
city hall of Oulu. This situation was photographed
in the design phase to get feedback from the pupils.
In the actual trial, the visual outlook of the tag was
richer and more colourful, the tag was located in
the entrance hall instead of auditorium, and the
pupils were wearing their outdoor clothing.
The educational goals of the lesson were to
provide the pupils with skills related to landmarks,
public buildings and offices in their hometown,
and practical skills related to dealing with public
authorities in the course of mundane everyday
tasks. The locations chosen as control points were
the city information centre, fire station, swimming
hall, police station, museum, city hall, youth and
culture centre, zoological museum (requiring a
bus journey to the museum and back), city library,
theatre and the social insurance institution. The
control points, with the exception of the zoo-
logical museum, were located in the city centre
Mobile Learning Trial
Our second field trial was implemented in the
school environment. The users were 14 to 15
year old pupils of schools located in the Oulu
district. A total of 228 pupils attended the trial
during May 2008. Participating pupils were from
multiple classes of four different schools. The
mobile learning concept used in the trial was
called “Amazing NFC” after the well known TV
series called “The Amazing Race”.
Over the course of the field trial, each pupil
participated in one Amazing NFC lesson, during
which the pupils were guided through an urban
adventure track with the help of mobile phone
and related Mobile Internet content. On each trial
day only one lesson was organized, in which two
classes participated at a time. Eleven locations
around the city of Oulu were each marked with
an NFC-marker, and pupils were to visit all the
eleven locations during the lesson. Here, we call
these locations “control points”. The pupils were
grouped into small groups of two, and all were
provided with NFC-enabled mobile phones for the
duration of the lesson, which lasted an average
of three hours. By touching the NFC tag at each
control point, the pupils received information
about the place where the control point was located
(e.g. a fire station), and given a related question
that required an answer. In some locations, the
question required the user to perform some tasks
Figure 4. Pupils trying out Amazing NFC at the
city hall of Oulu
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