DIGITAL GAME BUILDING IN THE TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMME: HOW IS IT PERCEIVED?

As educational technology is rapidly changing, greater emphasis has been placed on preparing the next generation of teachers for effective technology integration into the classroom. This paper describes the design, implementation and evaluation of a course on digital game building (DGB). The course, tailor-made for student-teachers, is one of the main deliverables of MAGICAL (MAking Games In CollaborAtion for Learning), a project that was funded in 2011 under the LLP transversal ICT Programme. The project aims to generate tools, resources and teacher know-how for implementing collaborative DGB activities, and to verify the validity and applicability of the methodology in primary and lower secondary school. At this stage, training materials have been developed and we’re now running game-building courses for student teachers in partner countries. These cover the theoretical side of game based learning and teaching with games, as well as practical aspects like how to design and manage classroom activities based on game design and development using different authoring tools. Preferences and attitudes of student teachers following the course in two partner countries will be presented, as well as lessons learned from their experiences.