Computer Games as Traces. Field Trips, Location-Based Games, and Systems Theory

Field trips are firmly established in geography education. However, the constructivist turn in geography education poses new challenges, especially for the implementation of field trips. According to a constructivist theoretical approach, space is to be understood as a social construct and not only as a physical phenomenon. Consequently, the question arises as to how the implementation of a field trip can be theoretically justified. An answer to this question is given by the method of searching and reading traces according to Hard. In the context of a field trip on-site, traces are searched which then can be read and interpreted as consequences of human actions. At the same time, digital media and computer games are increasingly being used to enrich teaching and therefore field trips. Location-based games are a special form of computer game. With these games, a learning location can be explored interactively with the help of a computer game. Consequently, location-based games can also be used to search for traces in the sense of Hard’s theory. But is the use of a location-based game in this context a medium that enables a search for traces, or is the game itself moreover a trace, which needs to be analysed in the classroom? With recourse to recent contributions to systems theory, this contribution gives an answer to this question.