Trying to find a method which would turn school into a more delightful place, the English teacher Aniger Capano embraced technology to provoke and deepen knowledge learned by the Malba Tahan municipal school in Iraja, north zone of Rio de Janeiro. She is part of the Recode at schools, a program developed by the NGO Recode committed to preparing teachers from Government schools to use technology in planning and pedagogic practices.
Making the most of the project, Aniger created this year’s elective class, The Game Club, where those students who are interested in games, from the 7th, 8th and 9th Middle School grades make their first steps towards the development and programming of games at the same time as the learning of multidisciplinary contents. The young students make use of free tools on the Internet to program, thus, making the learned content more attractive.
At first, the teacher split the class into groups, distributed to create games for subjects such as mathematics, the Portuguese language and sciences. They played the quiz show “Do you know everything about games?” which had been created by Aniger on the free game-based learning platform Kahoot. After having had this initial contact, they were taught how to register and the basic principles of programming, from this each group started elaborating a prototype of a particular game with various themes. As the language used for Kahoot is English, they also ended up practicing their skills in the English language.
According to Aniger, students´ receptivity has been very encouraging. “They have become anxious, waiting in anticipation for the day of the elective class when they can share with their peers that which they have learned” said the teacher. She added that students are delighted to see the development of the games they have created, and that very same game being played by other students. “As a direct consequence, students learn a variety of subjects; without even realizing that they are indeed studying.”