GAMES
The meeting in a nutshell
The sixth meeting of the GAMES project took place in
Istanbul,
Turkey, December 17–19, 2019. This was a transnational meeting.
In particular:
- Monday, 16/12/2019
-
All teams arrived on Monday. For various reasons no one from the
Greek team could make it there.
- Tuesday, 17/12/2019
- At the entrance of the school, the guest teachers were welcomed by Turkish
teachers and pupils who weared traditional folk costumes from each project
country. The guest teachers were Renate Wachter and Gerald Solic from Austria,
Lilija Dailidaitie from Lithuania, and Ilona Chiriac from Romania. The principal
of the host school, Fevzi Karaca, delivered a speech in which he stated how
happy he and colleagues were to host the guest teachers and to be partners with
our guest. He stated also that they as Turkish team got lots of experiences and
learnt a lot of things about the countries with which they cooperated and also
about technology and games in education. Next, the hosts presented the school
to the guests. In addition, guest teachewrs learnt things about education in
Turkey. Then, the Austrian and Lithuanian teams presented the final versions of
their games and all participants examined and discussed about them. In the afternoon,
teachers visisted the Hisart Live History and Diorama Museum and the Miniatürk, which
a Small model of a big country. They played a game which was prepared by our teachers
and students on Actionbound to learn and enjoy Miniatürk.
- Wednesday, 18/12/2019
-
The day started with a visit to the special need classes and to the preschool classes.
During the working session the Romanian and the Turkish teams presented the final
version of their games. Then all partners presented to each other the analysis of
their games so that people could discuss about the games. This way people could see
and understand why the games were important to provide to students a better learning
experience. Next, teachers shared their opinions about game-based learning and
gamification. They shared their experiences about teaching with games and discussed
the effects of educational games, in particular, and video games, in general.
All agreed that all pupils are really interested in video games and they learn things
much better while playing a game. That's the reason why now it is not dispensable to
avoid using technology and especially games from a teaching environment. Next, teachers
met with the National Education Directorate of the school's district. Hosts introduced
the guests and presented the project. All teachers shared their opinions and experiences
with the directorate. After that, host teachers showed Istanbul to guest teachers and
presented its beauties and history. Teachers used the Marmaray, which is a train going
through a tube under the sea. Also they paid a visit to the Maiden Tower.
- Thursday, 19/12/2019
-
The day started with a working session in which we concluded that since even adults
play games and can learn from them new thing, teachers should use educational games in
their classrooms to create the best learning and teaching environment for pupils.
Ilona Chiriac, a colleague from Romanai, presented some examples of games she
plays both for herself and for her students, such as
https://c82.net,
https://www.mathsisfun.com,
etc. In addition, all teachers agreed that the technology can be a great way to teach
effectively if it is used properly. The hosts shared the video games and programs they
use while they are teaching (e,g., kahoot, google forms, actionbound, animatoo). They
shared their experience on using them, and they stated how people can use them and
how effective they are. Furthermore, all teachers admitted that they had some
difficulties during the implementation of the project. Teachers shared them and explained
how they overcame them. In the end everyone stated that the project was a great success
for both pupils and teachers. A quiz was prepared about this mobility and all partners
answered it and learnt more about the project and the host city. During the closing
ceremony, techers shared their feelings about concluding this project and working
together and how much they have learnt through these almost three years. They got also
the certificates of attendance to the participants.
- Friday, 20/12/2019
-
All participants departed on Friday.
