War Games

WHAT ABOUT "WAR GAMES"?

"War Games" is the third edition, funded by the Erasmus+ programme and promoted by the Italian NGO Cooperativa Sociale Muovimente, of a training format on Game-Based Learning targeting primarily youth and social workers and educators. The project is a 8-days residential training course aimed at exploring games and gaming methodologies of different types and on different platforms and their direct application in educational activities.

The course will take place in Sermugnano, a small village in central Italy, from the 22nd to the 30th of June 2019 (travel days included). It will involve 22 participants and 3 trainers from 11 different European countries (Italy, Czech Republic, Ireland, Greece, Romania, Portugal, Poland, Spain, Hungary, Turkey and UK).

AIMS and OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the training course are:

• to explore games as a medium through history in their different expressions and forms (from traditional games, outdoors, social and role-playing games, to creativity expression exercises, to boardgames and video and digital games);

• to explore the possibilities offered by Game-Based learning to develop political participation, leadershp, inclusion and non-violent communication;

• to introduce tips and principles of "gamification" in education and training, and to discuss potential negative side effects;

• to empower and endow educators, trainers, youth and social workers and leaders with applicable tools to increase young people's participation to political life, reduce radicalization and xenophobia and promote a less violent society.

A WORD ON THE APPROACH

The training course aims to support the participants to get a deep understanding of games and gamified systems, to apply them effectively in their work, and to design new ones, according to different settings and contexts. The project will specifically address topics such as:

- violent communication, "fake news" and propaganda;

- aggressive and autocratic leadership on the rise;

- decline in civic and political participation of youth;

through a programme that will be able to provide youth workers, educators and trainers with tools, theoretical background, motivation and empowerment to tackle these problems more effectively in their local work.

The course will have a very experiential character. It will produce a toolkit of games that will be published and shared on open source platforms, and will focus on the immediate applicability and replicability of all the learning outcomes.