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This article presents the features, design and architecture of the Myst pervasive game platform that has been applied in creating pervasive mobile learning games in various contexts such as science festivals and museums in Finland. Based on our experiences with the development, we draw a set of design principles for creating successfully a pervasive game platform that can be easily ported to various contexts. These principles advocate openness, flexibility, interaction models, connections to the outside world, and participatory design of the game content. In the evaluation part we present preliminary results of tests conducted in Finland at the SciFest 2008 festival in Joensuu and at the Museum of Technology in Helsinki. The results suggest that games built with the Myst platform are particularly suitable for children and young adults, and these games motivate players to interact with the environment and help to learn by discovering new things. The Myst platform has clearly potential for similar success in other environments due to easy portability and extensibility.

A Hypercontextualized Game (HCG) is a locally designed game that supports its players in gathering context-specific information and in-depth understanding and knowledge regarding the context of a site. LIEKSAMYST, an exciting mobile application, with which visitors can play various games based on stories, was originally developed for the open-air section of the Pielinen Museum and is an example of such a hypercontextualized game. Each individual game (which together make up LIEKSAMYST) was developed in, for and with the co-operation of the Pielinen Museum. In its design, LIEKSAMYST purposefully attempts to connect users to the local history and thus promote affective engagement. With the co-operation of both a local school (Lieksan Keskuskoulu) and the museum authorities, we set out to discover how LIEKSAMYST guides the informal learning experience of Grade 7 pupils. We gathered information from 101 pupils on-site (through questionnaires) and used this data, as well as the pupils’ academic grades, to elucidate our study by investigating the relationship between engagement and motivation. The data were analyzed using a quantitative method guided by a qualitative interpretational approach and we found a significant correlation between (a) fantasy and (b) affective and cognitive engagement. The study highlighted the importance of evoking and harnessing both affective and cognitive engagement, through the fundamental element of fantasy, in the game narrative.

In many parts of Africa the application of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in higher education institutions offers a particularly interesting research problem. This is because of the far-reaching consequences that information and communication technology (ICT) services and education have on the university graduates during their careers in African societies. Our extensive and well-documented experience of utilizing ICTs in a Tanzanian private university has lead us to propose a four-level approach, called CATI model, that can be used as the basis for implementing new ICTs, for evaluating how ICT is used, and for planning ICT education in developing countries. We conceptually categorize the four levels that we use in our model -contextualize, apply, transfer and import -as an ethnocomputing approach. This four-level model enable educators to use ICT services and ICT education in African universities in a way that will prepare university graduates to make a positive contribution to their own societies. The success of this model is attributable to the emphasis that we placed on local needs and creativity and on applications of ICTs that were sensitive to local culture, conditions and understanding.