The meeting in a nutshell

The first meeting of the GAMES project took place in Laa an der Thaya. Austria from January 29–February 2, 2018. This was a training event where teachers learnt:

• what game-based education is and how it works in practice (Sonja Gabriel from KPH/WIEN was responsible for these sessions).
• what is required in order to build a simple game using HTML5 and related technologies (Apostolos Syropoulos was responsible for these sessions).
• what is needed in order to successfully coach pupils in their task to create simple video games (both Sonja Gabriel and Apostolos Syropoulos were responsible for this session).

Presentations

• Digital Game-Based Learning by Sonja Gabriel.


• Introduction to HTML5: Part I by Apostolos Syropoulos.


• Introduction to HTML5: Part II by Apostolos Syropoulos.


• Introduction to JavaScript by Apostolos Syropoulos.


• The HTML5 Canvas Element by Apostolos Syropoulos.

Minutes

Arrival
Sunday, 28th of January, 2018
Each team was welcomed at the airport. Due to the arrival times the Turkish and the Lithuanian teacm has enough time to wander around the city center.

Monday, 29th of January, 2018
Program session:

1. Official Welcome: The opening ceremony started with the school principal's welcoming speech. The participants at the mobility were: Greece (Apostolos Syropoulos, Eleni Tatsiou, Kyriaki Athanassiadou), Lithuania (Lilija Dailidaitė, Aušra Pangonienė, Irmantas Grimalauskas), Romania (Ilona Chiriac, Alexandria Roca) and Turkey (Sibel Altan, Banu Özdemir, Semiha Yavuz, Adviye Mutlu). Our hosts were Gerald Solic and Renate Wachter. The project's application was discussed, objectives and a working session focused on using Moodle tool, which the participants think to be the best for working and documenting.
2. Training session: Presentation by Apostolos Syropoulos who talked abouth HTML5 in general, mark-up languages, the HTML5 document structure and basic tags. Participants had to practice their understanding by creating simple web pages.

In the afternoon, cultural activities took place for teachers. Cultural activities: Guided tour through Laa an der Thaya, presenting the main cultural attractions of the area.



Tuesday, 30th of January, 2018
Program session:


1. Training session: Sonja Gabriel presented Game-based education theory. Introduction on learning potential of digital games, choosing and using games in lessons.
2. Training session: Apostolos Syropoulos presented JavaScript.

Cultural activities: Night walk with a night watchman presenting the local history.



Wednesday, 31th of January, 2018
Program session:


1. Practical activity&endash;Application: Game based learning in museums. Visit the Time Travel Museum in Vienna (a modern game-based museum) and Knowledge transfer in the NHM Vienna (how to present information in an attractive way in a traditional museum).

Cultural activities: Guided tour through Vienna.



Thursday, 1st of February, 2018
Program session:


1. Training session: Sonja Gabriel presented Game-based education theory. Game-design basics and teaching concepts based on applications paper design game.
2. Practical activity: Selection of official logo.

Cultural activities: Guided tour to local brewery in the evening.



Friday, 2th of February, 2018
Program session:


1. Training session: Apostolos Syropoulos presented HTML5 Canvas element.
2. Practical activity: Summary, decisions regarding the next steps of the project implementation.

Cultural activities: Visit to Znojmo, Czech Republic.

Dissemination

The first meeting of our project was presented in a Laa newspaper.

Pictures

Here are some pictures from the activities during the meeting (click images to enlarge and use arrow keys to navigate).