news

News

15th November 2021 – Handbook Creation
We are in the last stages of our project and in the process of finalizing our handbook: LET THEM PLAY – A Journey to Game-Based Learning. After collecting all the materials and contributions that we would like to share with the world, we still had to translate everything to German, Danish and Romanian. All project partners helped getting this little handbook together and after all the hard work, we finally hold the printed version in our hands. In the book, international education professionals and practitioners share their expertise in the application of Game-Based Learning principles. Educational researchers and game designers introduce concepts, trends and effects of Game-Based Learning as well as provide their perspectives on the topic. In addition to the theoretical background, you will find practical examples and resources that will enrich your teaching.
Copies will be sent to all project partners and shared with VET teachers in the partnering institutions. In addition, a few lucky winners were picked in a little Facebook competition and will also receive their copies of our handbook. For everyone who cannot get a hardcopy of our publication, all contents are also available in the online version of the handbook: https://www.let-them-play.eu/.

15th June 2021
Last week, we hosted our final multiplier event of the project – the European Gamification in Education Conference. The virtual event took place in gather.town, where we created a space that lived up to the experience of a face-to-face conference. Numerous informal and moderated exchanges and, of course, presentations with Q&A sessions provided opportunities to engage with others on the topic of GBL. The free 1-day event presented expert perspectives on the practice and theory of Game-Based Learning. The program included keynotes by internationally acclaimed researchers Jan L. Plass (Paulette Goddard Professor in Digital Media and Learning Sciences at New York University) and Sylvester Arnab (Professor in Game Science - Applied Games at Coventry University).
Speakers from across Europe delivered engaging presentations, with room for interaction and opportunities for networking. Education professionals and practitioners shared their expertise in the application of Game-Based Learning principles. Educational researchers and game designers introduced concepts, trends and effects of Game-Based Learning and explored questions including: How can educators implement game-based learning activities in their classroom? What do they need to know to successfully gamify their teaching practice? Why is it a good idea to engage students in learning with games?
We thank everybody who contributed to the success of this event, especially our speakers, and we would love to connect with you again – on facebook or on our Wiki.

7th June 2021
We are excited to share with you that our GATE:VET App is now available!

It follows the same structure as our wiki, thus you will find theoretical definitions and explanations on game-based learning as well as practical examples.
The GATE:VET app is itself gamified and based on a micro learning approach. Organized as a toolbox, short articles on relevant topics as well as mini-games, flash cards and quizzes are available to help you better understand game-based learning. Diverse activities are designed to develop your abilities to implement gamified activities in your teaching practice. The activities require minimal time and you can monitor your progression on the leader board. You can also collect points, badges and awards.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

17th February 2021
We are delighted to announce that our GATE:VET Wiki is now up and running! On this free site, teachers have the opportunity to find game-based teaching materials, develop and adapt them to their needs and then use them in their own lessons. The theoretical definitions and explanations of game-theoretical content are linked to a variety of practical examples. Furthermore, users can interact with each other on the platform by adding comments or questions to existing entries and also share their own ideas with other educational professionals. The wiki already contains some exciting resources and you can get started right away.

We look forward to you joining our GATE:VET community and are interested in your thoughts, questions and suggestions.

8th - 11th February 2021
From 8th-11th of February 2021, our training-of-trainers workshop took place. Instead of welcoming our participants in Dresden, we carried the event out online but the contents did not change. Eight teachers from Denmark, Romania and Germany were introduced to the basics of game-based learning and learned how to implement basic gamification components in their daily teaching practice. They also tried out the platforms developed in the project, our Wiki and App and learned how to create, find and use content on there. In addition to providing insights into gamification theory, the workshop was dedicated to let the teachers try out game-based learning scenarios themselves and get inspiration for their own teaching. Now these teachers are equipped to act as multipliers for teaching game-based-learning among peers at their schools or in their region.

5th November 2020
On 5th November we held our first Multiplier Event to present our wiki to VET teachers. While initially intended as a face-to-face event in October, due to current travel restrictions, the event was changed into a fully online format. The event was planned as an interactive workshop that would give participants time to explore and a space for exchange. In three short presentations the project partners introduced GBL in general, the GATE:VET project the wiki and the app to VET teachers. In facilitated, interactive breakout workshops, participants exchanged their experiences with implementing GBL activities in their practice, explored the functionalities and contents of the wiki and provided feedback on the wiki and app. With the feedback collected from VET teachers, we are now working on refining some components of the wiki and app.

7th - 9th October 2020
From 7th -9th October we attended the GeNeMe (Gemeinschaften in neuen Medien) annual conference in Dresden and presented our project to a local, regional and national audience. The hybrid event was taking place for the 20th year and focuses on online communities from an interdisciplinary perspective. It was fascinating to exchange experiences and knowledge with professionals from such a wide range of backgrounds, organisations and institutions. The paper we presented there will also be available in their upcoming conference proceedings.

5th October 2020
On 5th October we presented GATE:VET to the research cluster Digitale Lern- und Spielkulturen at the media centre of the Technical University of Dresden. The researchers at the centre are interested in investigating digital learning and game cultures from an interdisciplinary perspective, and have great interest in exchanging ideas and networking with peers in the field.

Community Building
One of the main objectives of GATE:VET is the establishment of a community that enables peer learning and knowledge transfer on the topics Game Based Learning (GBL) and Gamification between educational staff in vocational schools. As we are trying to connect many people across all of Europe, the best 'place' for the community is online. This is where our wiki and app come into play. We are planning to create a self-motivating online community that can not only learn about and practice their knowledge of GBL on the wiki and in the app. Moreover, members of the community can engage with each other, share ideas and gain feedback for peers on the wiki.

Teachers interested in the subject matter may not just come across our platforms. Thus, we developed a Community Building Strategy to reach as many relevant networks as possible. Based on existing networks and communities used by teachers to connect with peers, share ideas and/or collect materials, we identified two social media platforms as particularly suitable for directly reaching VET teachers: Facebook and Pinterest. In contrast to other forms of social media (such as Twitter or Instagram), these platforms are already used by very active communities of teachers. We established a Pinterest account early to start connecting with people there. We also created a Facebook Page and are looking forward to meeting interested people.

Platform Creation & Content Collection
The project's main objective is the creation of an online platform that introduces VET teachers to the principles of GBL and at the same time creating a space for collaborative exchange for these teachers. At the beginning of the project, project partners conducted a number of surveys with teachers, which showed that the desired functionalities of such a platform for learning about and exchanging information on GBL are varied. Considering the insights gained in these interviews, the project consortium decided that two platforms were needed to cover all requirements as identified by the teachers. In addition to a mobile telephone app (that has already been developed and used in advance and is made available by Manzavision), a project wiki will be developed.

While the app mostly needs some adjustments to suit our project's needs, the wiki needs to be built from scratch. The open source software TikiWiki was chosen as the most suitable hosting platform. In two online workshops, partners were introduced to the content creation processes for the wiki and the app. At this stage, we are still fine-tuning certain aspects of the wiki (such as user-friendliness and accessibility). However, partners are already adding contents and we are trying to populate the wiki and the app at the same time.

We are looking forward to our Multiplier Event in October to trial our two platforms. After that, we hope to implement the received feedback quickly and go public!

31th March 2020
Partners, under the lead of Manzalab, worked on the Deliverable 1.1: the analysis of the platform requirements. Different methods were combined to find out what the platform should look like and which features teachers would like to find there.