The game “Escape from Neon City” is about media literacy and is a hybrid between a web browser and a board game. In it, the players work together as a team to try to defeat Code Beasts and escape from the maze before it is too late!
Our team of facilitators, Kolia, Tanel and Krystyna, visited 6 different schools to play the game with youngsters during their English and Social Studies school lessons so that the students can not only learn about and practice media literacy, but also take a break from the standard curriculum and experience a new type of game. In the end, 7 playing sessions were carried out with a total of 120 individual players.
In retrospective, we learned that playing a game as a classroom activity can be unusual for school students, especially when they are not used to it. For the experience to be fruitful, it requires the facilitator to communicate clearly the purpose and goal of the game and its rules in order to get the most experience out of the session while also not forgetting to make it engaging for the class! To get the learning value, it is important for the game master to have a debriefing session planned and be flexible to lead the discussion, taking out key points relevant for the group.
“Gamify+” was a project coordinated by Cesta Rozvoje, co-funded by the European Union and implemented with the support of the Czech National Agency.