news

5. 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.

7.-9. 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.

5. 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!

31. 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.