Testing for project Joinclusion at the Istituto comprensivo Villaggio Prenestino in Rome.
The Istituto comprensivo Villaggio Prenestino, directed by Angela Giuseppina Ubriaco, is located in the “Villaggio Prenestino” neighbourhood in Eastern Rome, part of the Municipio VI. “In recent years, the growing level of urbanisation has modified the social order of the neighbourhood. Besides middle-class nuclear families, with positive scholastic expectations, immigrants from various countries have come to live in the area, mainly to provide services, as well as families from other areas looking for a more comfortable environment.” During the previous school year, the school also welcomed students from Ukraine (from the school academic plan). Overall, nearly 1200 children and preadolescents attend the school.
This is the context in which testing is being conducted by Project JOINclusion, funded as part of the Erasmus+ Programme. The objective is to include an application for mobile devices in didactic activities to promote the inclusion of primary and first-degree secondary school students (7-12) through learning strategies based on games and cognitive perspective taking. Besides Italy, testing is also ongoing in Greece and Holland.
The Fondazione Mondo Digitale is currently experimenting game scenarios with two year three classes at the Istituto comprensivo Villaggio Prenestino.
The head mistress, interviewed by Project Manager Annaleda Mazzucato, emphasises the importance of evaluating the pedagogic approach of learning mechanisms in games and videogames to improve the competences of students.
Prof. Barbara Russo describes the enthusiasm of students who participated in the activities with Coach Enrico Bersani. The ludic approach to didactic activities allows the students to easily comprehend dynamics related to exclusion and discrimination, as games allow them to look at history through the eyes of the protagonists and reflect on their emotions.
The game immersion mechanism and the personalization of the course of the scenarios will be the object of further development in the coming months to present the schools with an optimized version for the new school year.
Teachers with students aged 7-12 who are interested in experimenting the tools developed by JOINclusion should contact us via the following on-line form.
