From 28th of November to 4th of December 2021, the DEMOGAMES project – Democracy and Games: Analog and Digital Game-Based Learning Tools for Youth Work (2019-2-DE04-KA205-018330) – has organized its youth training in Almuñécar hosted by DA2 Trucados. This is the second youth event after the digital experience hosted online by CGE Erfurt.
Involving a group of participants, organization volunteers and youth leaders from Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Romania and from Greece and Poland representing the DARE Network, during this meeting we had the opportunity to play for the first time some of the DEMOGAMES prototypes and and connect the learning processes of each game with the Competences for Democratic Culture.
In this youth event we had the privilege to try for the first time on the table Utopia Island, a long and complex game that shows players how to start a democracy after a dictatorship in an interesting island. At the same time, we continued developing the Competences for Democratic Culture Cards, recently designed, for which we are finding play modes that support the reflection on interactive and group ways.
Emotions and values came to the gaming tables and to the beach and countryside reflections after each day of gaming. It was a beautiful process that supported confirming the games rules and connecting the educational and gaming process to the young players needs.
The youth group shared interest in contributing to the design and feedback processes of DEMOGAMES. They received extra training on games facilitation and the added value of game based learning. We look forward to receiving their comments from the games they will play with their peers!
After the training ended, we celebrated a project management meeting where we could have a detailed review of the manual for youth workers and set deadlines for the next months of online collaboration towards the Training of Trainers, Manual and MOOC final stages.
(by Ramon Martinez)