Exploiting the WeAreEurope Game for teaching

Following the structure of the game, ideally it should be played in groups of four students, each undertaking one of the aforementioned roles. For that to occur, the infrastructure of the classroom and/or the school should be adequate be allowing each student group to be able to use at least one computer with internet access, but also access to other informative resources, such as books in the classroom or the school library. Furthermore, the classroom setting should allow the groups to be separated physically, so as to don’t interfere with each other while playing the game.

The key is to form groups with multiples of four and thus form sub-groups which correspond to each of the aforementioned game roles. So, for example, in the case of 12 children, they can form groups of 3 and thus 3 will operate as the Person of Letters and so on.

This might be the ideal situation in most of the schools and thus it will be further elaborated. An example is provided, concerning a group of 3 students (Scientists’ Group). One can be assigned to search for information online and one in books, available in the classroom or the school library (or even the official textbook), in order to solve a challenge. The third student can analyze the challenge and provide instructions to the “information-seekers”, but also input all the game actions through the user interface. All three can argument and reach consensus regarding the answer to the provided challenge, thus exercising their collaboration-related skills. Of course, many variations of the role distribution can be realized, based on what the teacher wishes to achieve or the background and the potential of the students. Also other roles can be introduced, such as “secretary”, “information analyzer”, “illustrator”, “editor”, “journal keeper”, etc. When more than 12 children are engaged, they can undertake primary and secondary roles, or even take interchangeable turns in applying their role actions.

On an opposite perspective, the game can be played by less than 4 players (e.g. when played in a computer laboratory with adequate computers or as a home-assignment). In this case, 2 players can undertake 2 game-roles each or just 1 player can undertake all the roles and play the game individually.

In any case, the teacher can decide upon the role distribution, based on the class dynamics, the age level of the children and their cognitive level. For example, considering that 1st grade children need more support by the teacher, operating as a facilitator (e.g. most of them are not able to read), it seems practically impossible to have separate groups playing the game simultaneously and thus a whole-classroom approach would be more appropriate in which various roles can be assigned. Thus, the teacher should rely on his/her experience and perspective of the classroom in order to form groups and assign roles in the most effective way.
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Finally, in many classrooms one can find children with special needs or learning disorders. It is not uncommon to find a child with dyslexia, mild ADSD, mobility problems, vision and hearing impairments. As the variety of cases can be very big and each one of them be actually very unique in matters of symptoms and attention needed, it is up to the teacher to decide which is the optimal way of including such a child in the game-related learning activities. It is only to be noted that such an action is definitely feasible and encouraged, as the game may facilitate the inclusion of such children in the classroom activities and their interaction with their peers (the game includes voice-over, pause and other options that can follow the pace of children).