Our school’s plan for European mobility and partnerships aims to create highly qualified teachers capable of making the best use of digital technologies, adopting with critical thinking, knowledge, method and proper preparation the games of serious purpose and gamefication as a dynamic and interactive learning and socialization tool which promotes collaboration, communication, critical thinking and creativity,skills necessary in an intercultural classroom. In job shadowing trips in schools of other countries our teachers will be acquainted with the best practical approaches and examples of how to use tools and methods based on digital game and will be able to introduce and adapt them to the learning environment of our school. The participants will act as multipliers so that the whole school community will get to know the new approaches and practices in order to make the best use of digital games in terms of school development , improvement as well as intercultural interaction, in a way that matches the needs of students in a multicultural class.
During the last few years our school had to face two important challenges. The first one concerned the acceptance and inclusion of children of economic migrants and refugees and the second one the rapid growth and spread of ICTs. In order for our school to achieve this dual goal of smooth school and social inclusion of refugee children and the digital literacy, we decided to adopt learning tools and innovative teaching methods, both capable of responding to heterogeneous / mixed classes and leading to social integration through e-inclusion. Digital Games can function as reinforcement tools in order to support the policies and processes for social inclusion. They can encourage collaborative learning and promote intercultural interaction among children with different cultural backgrounds, overcoming language and communication barriers. The introduction of digital learning games in our school’s curriculum should be carried out after careful preparation and thinking. There is certainly a need for systematic teacher training and familiarity with examples and good practices at a European level.