The shift in education brought about by the COVID19 pandemic has been enforcing a change in practices and pedagogies and it is requiring teachers and professionals to learn a new way to plan and deliver classes. This historical digital shift has taken aback most institutions and professionals, especially when we look at primary education.
The project Learn&Play: Home Edition aims at creating a set of activities and educational games for digital use responding to primary schools’ teachers’ needs. The Educational games toolkit and digitalized games will focus on the development of soft skills, emotional intelligence and resilience in the target group of pupils aged 6 to 10 year old.
Starting from the theoretical approach of Positive Psychology, the consortium will investigate which are the key soft skills for the full and healthy development of pupils, as well as the ones most at risk of being overlooked and not nurtured due to the digital revolution and shift in education. This will allow partners to develop a set of competences of extreme relevance today on which the Educational Games Toolkit and Digitalized Games will be based.
Thus, this project aims at equipping education systems to face the challenges presented by the recent sudden shift to online and distance learning, including supporting teachers to implement digital tools and safeguarding that soft skills continue to be developed during this period. Moreover, the project would like to design educational digital games that can be integrated into the platforms already in use in schools and contribute to making eLearning tools more attractive to learners.
Objectives
The project intends to:
- Develop digital tools, as online games, using gamification, online game design and soft skills expertise, to deliver quality and inclusive education through online/virtual means and to incorporate digital online technology into subject-specific teaching of soft skills that can be transferred to other classes and become sustainable;
- Activities to support learners and teachers in adapting to online/ distance learning, by training teachers based on the tools developed.
Results
The project aims at achieving the following tangible results:
- A detailed analysis on competencies’ crucial and/or in need of improvement for children in primary education, developed by the four partner countries;
- A competencies framework document focusing on social competencies and soft skills in pupils age 6 to 11;
- A database of games tailored to primary school contexts and/or non-formal contexts and adaptable to digital channels, part of the methodological design;
- A new innovative Digital Games Toolkit on the development of soft skills, based on the two previous results, to be used in the formal education with pupils between 6 and 11 years old;
Regarding intangible results, those are the following:
- Strong partnership among 4 European organizations from The Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain and Latvia;
- An enlarged network of formal education professionals promoting the development of soft skills and digital methodologies in the framework of formal education.
Useful links
Learn&Play Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LearnPlay-Home-Edition-104768788819410