Measuring group dynamics in an elementary school setting using mobile devices

Mobile instrumentation provides researchers and professionals the opportunity to collect data on several aspects of human life. In this paper we discuss our initial experiences on collecting data via mobile instrumentation in an elementary school. We augmented a classroom with mobile phones and Bluetooth beacons to capture student experiences as well as their relative distance to each other during a collaborative group project. We describe the study, and present lessons learned when instrumenting such a unique school setting with young participants.