Finding Foursquare

The topic for this week's entry jumped off the screen at me tonight as I was out at trivia night with friends at a local Raleigh establishment.  As I checked the time on my phone, I was reminded by a friendly little icon to "check-in" and suddenly last week's topic of mobile technologies on 21st Century learning came flooding back to me, so without further ado I give you.... Finding Foursquare.

What is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a social networking service that uses smartphones and GPS to allow users to "check in" to locations they're frequenting.  In addition to checking in, the service allows users to leave tips or messages along with their check-ins and share their activity with friends through Foursquare, Twitter followers or Facebook.  All of this is accomplished through smartphone apps for all major smartphones including the iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows phones. 

The way the service works is simple.  The user opens up the app using their smartphone and the app allows the user to see the status of their friends, view their own profile including their check in statistics, shows them local places to explore based on categories and distance, and the app allows users to view lists created by other users that are local to the area they're in.

Foursquare motivates users to participate in a few ways.  First, users can earn badges for their user profile for completing certain achievements.  For example, the first time a user checks in they earn the "Newbie" badge and other badges can be earned by checking into specific types of venues such as the "Gym Rat" badge for checking into a gym 3x in a week.

Next, Foursquare encourages users to check in by allowing users to become "mayors" of specific venues.  The user with the most check-ins at a location in the span of two months time becomes the mayor of that venue.

Foursquare can also be viewed as a competition between friends.  Each check-in earns the user points based on the following criteria:

•  First time check-in at a venue = 5points
•  Adding a venue to the Foursquare database = 5 points
• Being the first in your group of friends to check-in at a location = 3points
• Checking in at a place you've already visited before = 1 point
• Location multiplier for each place a user goes in a day = 1 point per location
• Checking in at a location with a friend also checking in = BFF Bonus

The points allow users to compare their activity with their friends and points are counted in a seven day rolling total.

Finally, Foursquare has paired with businesses to create specials for check-ins.  Some specials are unlocked based on just checking in while others are unlocked based on number of check-ins, whether you are the mayor of a venue or partnerships between businesses.  For example, American Express currently has discount specials for users linking their credit cards to their Foursquare account, checking in while checking out at specific venues. 

Could aid education by replacing or enhancing the field trip?

As you can see, Foursquare turns the world into a playground for users with a smartphone, but savy teachers can adapt this technology for use in education.  The easiest way to use Foursquare seems to be through field trips.  A savy teacher might use the ability to leave tips at specific venues to turn a field trip into a scavenger hunt.  The teacher could tell students to check-in at the field trip destination leaving a tip with a riddle or clue to follow.  Students could then follow this trail to find successive check points.  Then back at school they would have a record of their field trip to reflect upon once they logged back into the Foursquare website. 

The other way I could see this being used in class is through the list feature.  Students could use the list feature to research their towns, then create a list of local attractions or historic sites for the area to visit.  The students could also research these locations and add helpful tips.  These lists could be shared with their classmates creating a virtual field trip.

So far these are mostly social studies applications but what about health and Foursquare?  Health teachers could use Foursquare to encourage students to become more active.  Students could check-in and share their after school workouts and encourage each other to become more fit.  Also, students could create lists of healthy dining establishments and leave healthy living tips at locations.

Other potential applications for Foursquare in educational settings could be fundraising.  Perhaps schools could contact Foursquare and local businesses to come up with a plan to raise extra funding.  This could be very beneficial to all groups involved since it would help Foursquare grow their business to older adults, businesses to simply make money through new customers and schools by receiving extra income for their programs.  These ventures could be similar to the current education nights held by several chain restaurants like McDonalds or Chick-fil-A.  

                     

Conclusions

Foursquare is a tool that requires some imagination to make use of in the classroom.  Communication seems to be the major area of focus for Foursquare as it applies to 21st century learning.  Foursquare features allow for communication of ideas through the tips, lists, and status updates.  Foursquare apps also allow users to broadcast their check-ins to Twitter and Facebook so this also enhances its communication capability.  Foursquare isn't perfect but perhaps it can find a place in education.