We are European Citizens. Playing to learn to be european

Despite the efforts of the educational systems of different countries in recent years, European reports agree that students in schools of Primary and Secondary Europe still increase their level of knowledge about basic issues of European Union. To do this, initial and ongoing training of teachers remains a key issue, an also the material introduced into classrooms that have to be more innovative and attractive educational resources for students. We present the design process and development of two educational games aimed at students in Primary and Secondary Europe in order to improve their knowledge about the European Union through the game experience. Our work was developed in the 2013-14 course in 11 schools in the city of Vigo (Pontevedra), as part of a larger project, "We are European Citizens" funded by the EU within the Jean Monnet Programme "Learning Europe at School". We intended thereby answer the following questions: Is it possible that with new resources such as educational games with the EU as its main theme, students of Primary and Secondary Europe showing more interest in acquiring basic knowledge about it?; Improve this game with their level of knowledge about the EU ? In order to know the perception about European Union in the classrooms of Vigo, we made an initial diagnosis of attitudes and prior knowledge of students in Primary and Secondary educational materials and resources that are used for teachers and students for teaching and learning of this content. Once the baseline is established, a multidisciplinary team adapted academic learning content of European issues, launched courses of theoretical and practical training for teachers and project designed and developed an interactive entertainment for students consisting of two multilingual video games (an adventure game and a simulation). Finally we evaluate the level of satisfaction among students and teachers regarding training courses and new designed tools. In this course we are evaluating the knowledge acquired by students participating centers after improving the level of teacher training and the use and enjoyment of developed games. In the work presented now we focus on the creation phase and validation of these games and learning methodology based on experience in the design of interactive entertainment products. The conclusions we have reached after this work has been the use of game for learning as theoretical subjects such as knowledge of the European Union can be very motivating and effective for use in the classroom tools.