23/07/2018

Let's play along to find out how can serious games have a positive impact on youth's behavioural changes!

eConfidence project representatives had the opportunity to take part chairing a discussion on serious games in an Open Space session at the Insafe Training Meeting in Copenhagen, 6-7 June 2018. The key topics of this discussion focused on the applicability of serious games as educational tools to tackle broad youth-related challenges, such as improving social competences and fostering positive behaviours.

eConfidence project representatives kicked-off the round table presenting some activities in the field and the approach of the eConfidence project and launching the key questions:
 

• Are serious games implemented in school activities or other youth activities in your context, country and organisation? Any game, resource or material you know?
• What are the needs and expectations in terms of educational resources and learning/teaching in relation with tackling bullying and safe use of the internet at school? Are there other bullying or safe use of internet serious games available and used in your context (school, national level etc.)?
• Do you have knowledge of results of implementing serious games in your context (research, report, practices etc.)?
• What would be the benefits of game-based learning and implementing serious games as learning and teaching support for these topics? And in comparison with other learning approaches?

Group discussion with online safety experts from around Europe made this open space experience very useful for eConfidence outreach. The take away messages of the discussion were also useful to improve and develop new activities in this area, highlighting the following:
 

• To use games in educational contexts and with the aims we discussed, it is important to embed and integrate different activities, for groups and at individual level.
• To foster these implementation methods, targeting teachers may be more useful, rather than students.
• Focus group-like activities should be also organised and they can be more general than the specific content of the games.
• To understand whether the teacher is ready to work with these methods and to provide them with appropriate resources.

For more information on how eConfidence implemented the serious game play in schools, stay tuned on our website for the pilot test report coming up soon.

Visit the Better Internet for Kids portal at www.betterinternetforkids.eu to discover more about the work of the Insafe network of Safer Internet Centres and wider stakeholders in the field, and subscribe to the quarterly Better Internet for Kids (BIK) bulletin for news and resources on the latest trends and challenges in online life.