Playground Europe Creating and performing an adaptable game with Apps to connect the curricula of different countries

Playground Europe Creating and performing an adaptable game with Apps to connect the curricula of different countries For most of our students Europe will be the place where they will arrange their lives. Their future is closely connected to the prosperity of the European Union. On the other hand Europe relies on well qualified and active citizens who are ready to work for the 21st century. Our project aims at the students' competences to succeed in being an active and qualified citizen for the 12st century. The project fosters: - the ability to communicate in mother tongue and foreign languages - the readiness to cooperate locally and internationally - creativity & entrepreneurship - problem solving capacity - openness for new technologies - willingness for lifelong learning In our project we have developed games that combine a classical board game with a smartphone app. The board (the playground) is a big map of Europe. In this map QR-codes are placed. When you have installed the game's app you read the QR code and an information sheet, a task, a picture, a speech a questionnaire or combination appears on your phone. The game is adaptable in many ways. For instance you can use it as - an information board where you can call information about different schools and countries in Europe - a sort of adventure game. You must find treasures, solve riddles, answer questions to get energy for your flight to the next town - learning game that offers information and tasks from different subjects. All the information can easily be changed, QR codes can be altered or added, connected to other topics and a lot of different activities can be combined with the same board. For us, a group of five schools from Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Germany, the project was a possibility to introduce a new methodology to the teaching/learning process and to prove a new technology for its usage in the classroom. The international context enhances the diversity of ideas and offers the opportunity to invent, to test and to upgrade the game and the apps on different levels. Each year about 100 students have formed the main project team. They started their work locally to first learn how to program apps. Beside this they started to collect information about inventors, cultures, traditions, countries and games After the first two terms 30 representatives from all participating countries met to create the game and its rules, program a first set of easy apps with texts and questionnaires about all the information they have collected about the inventors, cultures, traditions, countries and games and prepared the playground. After the meeting they finished the work locally. Beside the project group we formed another group of about 50 students from Germany and Spain who learned each other language. We called them the language team. They met after the third term to test the game, translate the rules and give feedback. On a last meeting at the end of the year the project team met again to finalize the games and the apps. In the second project year we worked with new groups of students. In this year we produced more complex apps that include media like pictures and movies about inventors, cultures, traditions, countries and alternative games to develop new sets of apps. At the end of the project we have - a "playground" in each school with several sets of apps that can be used in lessons. - pre-prepared apps that can be used to add own contents to the game, - experiences and worksheets about using apps, QR codes in a teaching environment - students and teachers who have learned to configure new technology - students who have creatively worked in international surroundings