We invite you to read some reflections upon gamification and her experience in a international project from Elsa García a participant in the Training Course Break Out Box host in the Czech Republic by our friends Be International
Elsa García:
Learning may not be always engaging. Children, teenagers, people in general tend to get bored when they need to focus on activities that are often repetitive, stuffy and that have to be done mainly in a specific way.
This training course has offered me the chance to combine all the little potential activities I have performed in class along the year and turn them into an educational escape box. In this way you are not using games just as a motivational resource but as a bigger project that leads to reflection and to a meaningful way of learning.
I have realised the huge potential of games but also I have learned how to get the most out of them. That’s why I feel this course has helped me to enhance some activities and learn how to implement the debriefing part that sometimes may not be fulfilled. I consider that now I am more able to set a session where students can learn Mathematics and also relate this knowledge with a game they have gone through. Make them conscious of what they have learnt by solving the educational box.
Furthermore, this course has brought me the chance to take profit of all my knowledge about Maths and use it to develop different puzzles. In that way Mathematics are not only the topic of the escape box but also the tool students need to use in order to move forward during the game. Therefore, even I cannot take educational escape boxes into a daily resource, I feel like using them as a motivational approach of different topics.
And finally, I am just so thanked about the people I had the chance to work with. People that no matter their age, nationality or background because they do believe in the power of education, in the power of improvement, in the need of searching different resources to achieve meaningful learning and in the developing, creation and communication with the help of other educators.
Thank you all
Leonor Rodriguez
The Erasmus+ Project Training Course Breakout Box exceed the expectations I have. I’m very glad to have participated at this project leaded by Filip, Pavel and Olalla with a high level of professionalism and expertise and an excellent ability to make us develop competencies in order to facilitate these educational escape games.
After a reflexion about the GBL concepts, we played through and get involved to facilitate debriefings. It was a very practical course: everything we learned we tested it before and we created our own Breakout Box according to our educational needs, our aims and the target group.
This training course will help me a lot in my work practice: first of all, we’re going to try them in our high school in some special days for example during “The international day for the elimination of violence against women”, we’d like to play first with some students in order to make them facilitators to another group.
Finally, we would like to promote a training course for teachers about these dynamics in order to make them know this innovative educational method.
It was definitively worth it!
Alba Fuentes Sanchez
This week in Brno learning to teach has been very rewarding, starting with the professionalism of the trainers, the organisation of activities and the diversity of the group, all this has ensured that through the common thread «game» I have learned not only new learning methodologies but also to obtain new skills both personal and professional.
As for the professional ones, I would like to highlight the planning and sequencing of activities to achieve the final objective, in such a way that we go from less to more difficult and complex steps, always accompanied by the help and support of the facilitators, seasoned with dynamics that allow the relaxation and relaxation of the working group.
And from a personal point of view I have verified once again that working with diversity is enriching to improve human qualities, sometimes to accompany and sometimes to be accompanied, specifically in this small team gathered in Brno could not be more different (different countries, ages, characters, knowledge, skills …) but at the same time with the same common goal «to improve our skills to be able to help others). So what I take away from this experience are like the ingredients of a cooking recipe: a spoonful of discipline, a quarter of new dynamics, a liter of fun, half a kilo of patience and a good cup of keep working.
Thanks to all of you
Alba Minguez
As a future educator, thanks to this amazing experience not only have I expanded my
knowledge in the field of education but also I have learnt to watch things from another
perspective in order to reach a better educational process. More than ever, I am now
convinced that with game-based learning, students from all ages can be benefited and, most
importantly, they will absolutely enjoy the whole process of learning.
Talking about the knowledge that I have acquired, I must confess that before coming to this
course I never had prepared an escape room and I wasn’t really specialized in gaming. I am
studying a double degree in early children education and primary education but the
formation is mainly theoretical, mostly in the first years you don’t necessarily work with
children neither you learn practical and efficient games or activities. This is why I would
firmily recommend this course to other students of my field, and to any person that works
with young people. Focusing on the things that I learnt, I mustn’t forget to remark on the
great methodology that the instructors have, the way that you receive a bit of theory, just the
absolutely necessary, and then you are completely free to explore and learn all by yourself,
practicing. I also really appreciated the calm environment and the magic of discovering the
different games, sharing the surprises and amazement with my partners.
On a personal level, I was really comfortable with all the people, instructors and partners,
and I enjoyed walking through the forest, discovering the caves and the beautiful venue and
surroundings… I loved the free evenings, even if we were tired we made the most of them,
playing even more games and tasting various foods and drinks… I was particularly engaged
in the intercultural discussions, the conversations about typical things of each country, and
getting to know the differences between us but also the things that we had in common… All
of it was very enriching.
All in all, I had a great time and I learnt a lot. This was an experience that I would be eager to
repeat, because there are always more things that you can learn when a group of
enthusiastic people that are obsessed with games meet up and start to discuss education.
