The closing at the IES Leonardo Torres Quevedo will provide the first national data for the project.
Playcomp has completed its implementation at its center in Cantabria, the IES Leonardo Torres Quevedo, after ten sessions. The project, led by the University of the Balearic Islands and funded by the Spanish State Research Agency, combines the use of indie video games with a series of activities, with the aim of helping secondary school students develop socio-emotional and civic skills. The games used were different for each year group: Neva in 1.ºESO, Unpacking in 2.ºESO, Before Your Eyes in 3.ºESO, and Papers, Please in 4.ºESO. Through these games, students were able to explore values such as empathy, social commitment, and justice, among others.
Jorge Oceja is the project’s main investigator, a professor at the University of the Balearic Islands, and a member of the GTE, the educational technology research group at IRIE. Oceja states: “We are very excited that the pilot application has worked so well, and also to see the enthusiasm of the teachers and students for implementing the resource next year in the Balearic Islands and Galicia.”
Jorge Oceja and Raquel Palomera with three of the four teachers who have applied the resource at the IES Leonardo Torres Quevedo
The participating teachers received training between sessions from the Playcomp team throughout the implementation of the resource. During the training, they were shown how the video game works, including its more technical aspects, and how to plan the activities and discussions.
Eneko Vilches is one of the teachers who has used the resource in his classroom, specifically Neva. He says the experience has been very positive. He adds that the activities are good and generate very interesting discussions. Óscar Barros, who has used Unpacking, shares this opinion : “What I liked most were the discussions that arose around the topic.” Óscar and Eneko agree on how appealing the resource is and that the console and video games effectively capture the attention of teenagers.
Raquel Palomera has been responsible for the Cantabria region. It is worth noting that the closure of this center is significant because it will provide the first data for the project at the national level, which will be analyzed to assess improvements in socio-emotional and civic skills. The program has already been implemented at the Colégio das Terras de Santa Maria (Portugal) and will soon conclude at the Colegio Santa María la Real (Navarra). More data is expected to be collected during the next academic year, as the program will also be implemented at the Colegio Beato Ramon Llull (Mallorca) and the IES Plurilingüe Antón Losada Diéguez (Galicia).
Playcomp (PID2023-148476OA-I00) is a Knowledge Generation research project funded by MICIU/AEI /10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and led by the University of the Balearic Islands. Playcomp uses independent video games to develop the socio-emotional and civic skills of secondary school students. The project involves 17 researchers from 12 European universities, including the University of Cantabria, the University of Salamanca, and the Public University of Navarra, who are analyzing teachers’ video game literacy.
