1st General Lyceum of Ilion
“Preparing for life in the 21st century”
by Vasiliki Kosmatou
64cosmvan@gmail.com
Name: “Children who shipwrecked on the shore”
Developing solidarity through Serious Games at school.
Scenario:
Mediterranean : the sea that unites us . The sea of light, traveling and exile Mediterranean Sea…the Sea of poets and writers , of religions and philosophical thoughts , of art and beauty , of music and cultures…
The sea that hosted some of the greatest civilizations that appeared on earth. The sea that kept in her arms ships and gave life to travel adventures from antiquity until today, the Mediterranean Sea is the most important road of communication between peoples and their cultures.
But…This sea today groans from the crowd of persecuted from their homes people : are they looking drops of freedom and hope in European countries. With old tubs and cheap boats with inflatables and unscrupulous smugglers , take risks for an uncertain future.The Migration is a social phenomenon which differs from society to society and from season to season while constructing and particular attitudes of the population towards immigrants.When we talk about immigrants and immigration, the media usually referred to illegal immigrants and threats faced by the host country and not for the benefits that the country has. So, the question to our students are: Why happens migration ? Why people migrate? Is it because of poverty? Uneployment? War? Political Situation?Natural couses?How do we handle all these people , who are so different from us ? How do we handle our people, our family , when they are immigrants to other countries?How our students handle these students that their family comes from an other country?Our society becomes more multi-cultural and we need to raise awareness and promote understanding people who choose or are forced to leave their own Students will be face prejudices and stereotypes, which should address. They have to understand different attitudes.
Topic: human rights, refugees, immigrants, history, civil rights, sociology
Materials: tablets, smartphones,pc
Learning time:90min
Designing time:230min
Number of students : 20
AIMS: Games in school are designed to foster the learning of 21st century skills of students which are:
- critical thinking
- creativity
- communication
- collaboration
- ICT literacy
- problem solving.
Basic idea of this lesson plan, based on serious games, is students approach experiential and interdisciplinary identity of immigrants and refugees , realize that we are all potential refugees or immigrants and thus remove prejudices and divisions , initially within the school environment and then to our city and people we know.
OUTCOMES
Comprehension: Students will be able to define the terms “immigrant”, “refugee”, “xenophobia”, ‘ and may use it in the debate, to argue about issues around them. Be able to show, without bias, the new conditions shaped by immigration in the economic, employment, cultural and educational level.
Synthesis: Students will develop their critical thinking.
Build knowledge through the composition and organization of information, and finally generate different genres.
Psychomotorskills: Cultivation of empathy.
Bringing in externalizing their feelings
Gaining the ability of conflict management within the school environment with their classmates and then to community.
Knowledge: Develop the 21st century skills. Critical thinking, creativity, communication, collaboration, global awareness and citizenship. Develop their ICT skills.
Evaluation: The project will be announced in the school newspaper and webpage, at school’s facebook group.
Description: This lesson plan describes how can we use educational serious games and interactive, virtual worlds in our lesson and how can offer engaging , effective, innovative and alternative teaching and learning methods in our school. Both games are very well designed in a way that can foster students’ critical thinking skills which are needed for problem solving, decision making and creative collaboration.
Design: Students will design a game using scratch and unity. They are going to use their tablets and smartphones.
Lesson plan
PREPARATION BEFORE THE CLASS
Throught the game engagement students will be able to develop basic skills like critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and problem solving.
I work in a public school .In my class there are 20 students, aged 17, boys and girls. Three of them are not greeks and their families are financial immigrants from other counry. We are going to use schools pc lab,an interactive white board, tablets and smartphones.
Students have some knowledge concerning immigrants and refugees from texts taught in lesson of Literature, History,Sociology, Law and of course from media.
In this lesson we will use two serious games. Students have to answer in questions like:
What’s the difference between immigrants and refugees?
How can we face these facts? Name some problems. Humanity. Human rights. Children’s dreams. Refugee’s policy from government. People attitude. Xenophobia. Unknown cultures and habits. Unknown religions.
Each student will answer in a short survey in which he will write down his attitude towards immigrants and refugees. He will answer a second one survey after the end of the unit, writing his evaluation. So we can compare the answers.
The games students will play are:
1) Cloud Chasers – Journey of Hope. Is a game about immigrants.
2) Play Against all odds, A game designed by the UNHCR.
DISCUSS
Time:15 minutes
I discuss with students about games. What kind of games they play. Most of them like digital games but they also like playing board games with their elder bros and sis and their parents. I present them the term of serious games. I explain them the role of an educational game in their learning development.
INVESTIGATE
Time:20 minutes
I give them some time to search in the web on serious games .Half students do a Google research and the rest ask a question on twitter using the hustag #seriousgames.
They create serious games boards on pinterest.
Later I ask them to concentrate in games based on human rights .
We discuss about the Universal Declaration of Human Rights . Students discuss in small groups examples of the importance of specific articles in their daily life . They also discuss whether there are social disparities between different population groups or whether the same rights apply to everyone. The aim of the exercise : Understanding that a person’s life in a country that does not maintain democratic values and not respects human rights can become unbearable for him and for his family.( reference: UNHCR
READ WATCH LISTEN
Time:25minutes
Presentation of scenario
Immigrants and refugees is an issue for the greek society but also young people in Greece. We have a short discuss if they know the difference between an immigrant and a refugee.(10 min)
They have to submit in a short survey created with google forms by answering in questions showing their attitude on immigrants and refugees, based on their knowledge of articles in newspapers, on television, in personally possible experiences but also the lessons of history, literature, sociology and law which they have taught at school.(10min)
Two videos presented by Medecins Du Monde ( Doctors of the World)give us the chance to deal with this issue.
https://youtu.be/57juGksmA1Q children who shipwrecked in the shore (time:1.09)
https://youtu.be/h9Av_HRAl1k the child and the wave (time:1.23)_
DISCUSS
Time:30minutes
- After finishing the survey they will have a short discussion and debate. The class will be divided into pairs of two students(15minutes)..
- Half of pairs will engage with the refugees games and the other half with the immigrants games.
As a follow-up activity, I ask from students to visit the following CNN webpage and choose a photo.
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/03/world/gallery/europes-refugee-crisis/
Using their tablets and smart phones and answergarden application they write a word that describes best the photo which has been chosen.(10minutes)
PRACTICE
Time:45minutes
https://youtu.be/0XaGBl_O5zo immigrants
http://www.playagainstallodds.ca/game_us.html refugees
They play the games. They write in a text document an article up to 100 words about children’s human rights when they leave their home. They upload it in the project’s wiki space (15 minutes)
PRODUCE A GAME
Time: minutes 75
- After playing the games, students will answer in the second survey, in which we will investigate if there was any change in their attitude towards refugees and immigrants.(time 15 minutes)
- Students will start create their games using tools like scratch or unity the most advanced students helping by the informatics teacher.(time:60minutes)
The final product will be delivered by students in the end of the school year and will be extended for use during the closing school ceremony day.
Our games scenario. Both games were designed in school but students will continue working and finish it as homework.
- In scratch students will create a game Q and A using the knowledge they obtained during the lessons.
- In unity a group of students will create a game where the hero is a child and has to pass through waves using a small boat and has to jump over fishes or wreckage from other boats or pirates etc. The difficulty of each level will be the waves hight. Students will have to decide on the number of playing levels and difficulties, how many lives will have the hero, which will be the final destination, who is going to help him , if there will be enemies following him and prison him, how he will escape etc.
Evaluation
The learning approach proved a real success and achieved significant learning in personal, learning and thinking skills.
They fill an evaluation survey.
The project will be announced in the school webpage, at school’s facebook group .
