“YES! GAM-EU : Youth Engagement Strategies and Gamification in the EU” project closed on March 31st, 2021, after a 2,5 year bumpy but unforgettable journey of YEU and its partner organisations. This project has contributed to bringing closer gamification as a concept to youth organisations, youth work and non-formal education.
These 2,5 years have provided us significant outcomes and resources which can be found on our new updated website www.gamifyeu.org.
There you will find more information on the project and our activities as well as important educational resources and our outcomes around the topic of gamification.
More specifically, throughout the GamifyEU project, we had the chance to produce and implement many various learning and development activities to achieve the goals of bringing the young people of Europe closer together and strengthen their relation to Europe itself.
Due to the many challenges caused by the pandemic, we had to re-create each activity and transfer most of it online, therefore we had to be very creative and innovative to be able not only to achieve the main goals, but to keep young people on board and engaged as much as possible. We have focused on co-creation and learner-centered approach, using many relevant online platforms and digital tools to support the exchange and facilitate the learning through different digital and online methods as small group work, discussions, moving debates, stimuli and content reflection and expression, drawing and writing, presentation, real life practice and various creative processes. It is important to mention that, whenever the situation and conditions allowed, we experimented and implemented the hybrid and blended types of activities, where the national teams could occasionally meet in person, and then exchange the views with their European peers online.
Moreover, as for the outcomes of this project, our website includes our Publication on Gamification in non-formal education and youth work, our Guidelines on how to use online games in youth work for Human Rights Education (HRE) and our Recommendations for a better Europe as inspired by our 40 young people who participated in GamifyEU Ideathon.
More specifically, the Guidelines on how to use online games in youth work for HRE include a presentation of the notions of youth work, human rights education and gamification, underlining that gamification can easily create synergy with the youth work approach and values. In this document, the use of gamification in HRE through the youth work and youth training practice is explored and following this line, what gamification is and is not is being touched upon. The guidelines include the essential components of a gamification model which are action, challenge and reward and we are reminded that gaming is a serious business. Finally, how gamification can be used as a new concept & tool in promoting inclusion of young people is elaborated on, putting emphasis on the fact that it can motivate disadvantaged youth to stay involved. By merging the experience and knowledge of youth organisations on the tools, methods and approaches for social inclusion, with the various benefits and opportunities of gamification, a real impact can be done for empowering disadvantaged groups of young people. In the guidelines, you can also find some tips and tricks on how to be inclusive when developing and implementing your gamified youth work process as well as a list of recommendations on how to use online games.
Additionally, our Recommendations for a better Europe are the result of the GamifyEU Ideathon, a 48-hour online event that took place from 26th – 28th March 2021, organized by YEU International and DYPALL Network. The participants were called through Zoom to answer this simple but with many responsibilities question: “what if you were in charge of the EU for 48 Hours?” During these hours of gamification, workshops, inspiring speakers and a whole lot of fun, our participants were divided into 9 teams, each assigned a current EU topic based on the European Youth Goals for which they were guided in proposing a final project idea. With the support of facilitators, MIRO, as an interactive online tool and Discord, as a communication platform, the teams learned new things, developed an idea, prepared a pitch and competed with each other. Through this process the recommendations were born concerning the following topics: Meaningful digital youth participation, Youth Unemployment, Eco-Friendly Europe, Social Inclusion, Quality Learning, Equality of all genders, Mental Health and Wellbeing, Fighting fake news and the Participation of young people from rural areas in European Mobilities.
Finally, the Publication holds all the relevant information on the Project including the guidelines on how to use online games in youth work for HRE and the Recommendations for a better Europe as well as the story behind our games, a methodological approach and presentation of all the activities that took place, locally and internationally as well as the sources produced during the activities such as the videos and memes participants created during the GamifyEU Virtual Youth Exchange.
But all these are just a small part of this immense (quality and quantity wise) project.
So, what are you waiting for? You are just a click away from finding out how our project was implemented and making gamification part of your life.
Don’t forget to check out our exciting games as well.