ARGuing for Multilingual Motivation in Web 2.0

Description

The potential of Alternate Reality Games (ARGs) within education has been discussed in a number of forums, see ARGs In Charity And Education for Research , An alternative way to play with real-world problems and Alternate Reality Games SIG/Whitepaper/ARGs but current research has indicated that this game is the first instance of an Alternate Reality Game being used within education to promote language learning.
The aims of the project were:
*to bring about a more flexible and inclusive approach to teaching languages and linguistic diversity by supporting teachers to use innovative, collaborative approaches to motivate and engage students.
*to help promote language learning and linguistic diversity at secondary school level across Europe
The objectives of the project were:
*to develop a collaborative, technology-based approach to teaching languages and linguistic diversity at secondary school level utilising Web 2.0
*to train and support teachers
*to develop a practical methodology
*to disseminate the results of the project across Europe
The project developed an Alternate Reality Game, called the Tower of Babel The Tower of Babel. This game consisted of:
*Storyline
*Guilds
*Quests
*Participant profiles
*Forums
*Interactivity
The game required participants to use 3 different European languages.
The game was played 3 times, twice as testing pilots (mini-pilots). Finally on a large scale over 8 days, with 328 students, 95 teachers from 28 schools in 17 countries.
The ARGuing project and Tower of Babel game are the subject of 4 academic papers being presented at the forthcoming, 3rd European Conference on Games Based Learning.
Partners
The ARGuing project consisted of partners from:
*University of the West of Scotland, Scotland - coordinator
*Kindersite Project, UK
*Centro Navarro De Autoaprendizaje De Idiomas, Pamplona, Spain
*Ahead of the Game,Amsterdam, Netherlands
*Sofia University, “St Kliment Ohridski” Department of Information and In-service Training of Teachers, Sofia, Bulgaria
*Rousse University, "Angel Kanchev" Rousse, Bulgaria
Funding
ARGuing for Multilingual Motivation in Web 2.0 was a European Union funded project within the Lifelong learning programme - specifically the Comenius multilateral programme for education in Europe.

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