The Portuguese Maritime Voyages of Discovery - The exploration of the history of a city with an App as an educational resource

Oct 15, 2026

Paper evaluates a mobile app, “Roteiro dos Descobrimentos”, used as an educational digital resource for primary school students. The study includes 131 students and eight teachers, using participant observation, student questionnaires, and interviews. Students report learning new content linked to explored topics in an easy and enjoyable way, while valuing challenge-based activities that require mobilizing knowledge. Teachers highlight increased interest, stronger student-city relationships, improved collaboration, and greater autonomy, concluding that mobile integration is receptive with the teacher as mediator.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages15

Reading Time38 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

21st-century skills and competence-based education

Literacy development in elementary grades

Mobile technologies and digital natives

The Portuguese Maritime Voyages of Discovery: exploration of the history of a city with an App as an educational resource The Portuguese Maritime Voyages of Discovery: the exploration of the history of a city with an App as an educational resource Cláudia Faria [cbfaria@ie. ulisboa.pt](cbfaria@ie. ulisboa.pt) Elsa Guilherme [ecguilherme@ie. ulisboa.pt](ecguilherme@ie. ulisboa.pt) Joaquim Pintassilgo [japintassilgo@ie. ulisboa.pt](japintassilgo@ie. ulisboa.pt) Maria João Mogarro [mjmogarro@ie. ulisboa.pt](mjmogarro@ie. ulisboa.pt) Ana Sofia Pinho [aspinho@ie. ulisboa.pt](aspinho@ie. ulisboa.pt) Mónica Baptista mbaptista@ie. ulisboa.pt Isabel Chagas [michagas@ie. ulisboa.pt](michagas@ie. ulisboa.pt) Cecília Galvão [cgalvao@ie. ulisboa.pt](cgalvao@ie. ulisboa.pt) Instituto de Educação, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal Abstract In this paper we present an evaluation of an App for mobile devices, ‘Roteiro dos Descobrimentos’, as an educational digital resource for primary school students. The study involved the participation of 131 students and eight teachers . Data were collected from participant observation, students’questionnaires and interviews to students and teachers . According to students, they learned new things, related with the topics explored, in an easy and funny way. Students also emphasized as positive aspects the fact that they had to face different challenges and the need to mobilize their knowledge to solve them . Teachers referred that students showed great interest and enthusiasm during the activities . As main gains, teachers stressed that the application fosters the relationship of students with the city, facilitates collaboration, and promotes students’ autonomy. In resume, it seems that the playful and interactive dimension of the App promoted the development of important skills such as the ability to interact with the environment, collaborative work, autonomy, and reading and interpretation skills . As a conclusion, there is a great receptivity to integrate mobile technologies in the teaching and learning process, but the role of the teacher can’t be dismissed, as a mediator and educator . Keywords Digital educational resources; Mobile learning ; Mobile applications; Primary education . C. Faria, E. Guilherme, J. Pintassilgo, M.J. Mogarro, A.S. Pinho, M. Baptista, I. Chagas & C. Galvão Digital Education Review-Number 36, December 2019-[http://greav.ub.edu/der/](http://greav.ub.edu/der/ 85)[ 85](http://greav.ub.edu/der/ 85) I. Introduction The voyages of discovery, as revolutionary leaps in the technology of communication, reduced the distance between the world’s societies ... (Hess, 1970, p. 1892) . In nowadays society, in which technological and scientific knowledge assumes a leading role, it is important to form enlightened citizens, who are able to reflect critically about the world and to make both responsible and informed decisions concerning issues related to their lives (Holbrook & Rannikmae, 2007; Osborne & Dillon, 2008) . The skills needed for a citizen of the 21st century are based on critical thinking and problem solving, on effective communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation (AMA, 2010; EP&C, 2006) . How can school education contribute to achieve this goal? There has been a recent trend towards competence-based teaching and learning with very significant changes in school curricula . These changes involve more engaging cross-curriculum approaches emphasizing the development of different kinds of literacy, as well as an increased use of “real-life” applications, providing appealing learning contexts, meaningful and related with students’ social reality (Bybee, 2000, 2001) . In order to achieve high levels of literacy, international recommendations (Osborne and Dillon 2008) point out the need for teachers to develop a critical teaching strategy, organize challenging learning environments, both in formal as well as non-formal s

FAQs

What app is evaluated in the study?

The study evaluates the mobile app “Roteiro dos Descobrimentos” as an educational digital resource for primary school students.

How was the app’s impact assessed?

Impact was assessed with participant observation, students’ questionnaires, and interviews with both students and teachers.

What main benefits did teachers and students report?

Students reported learning new content in an easy and fun way and valued facing challenges that required using their knowledge. Teachers emphasized students’ interest and enthusiasm, stronger relationships with the city, collaboration, and increased autonomy.

Oct 15, 2026

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