University of São Paulo: Games for Change goes beyond entertainment and seeks intellectual development
The development of games can be a way to stimulate different areas of knowledge, not only related to technology or software development, but artistic (design) and languages (audio, video, narration). The Games For Change Latin America network was created with this in mind.
In an interview with Jornal da USP in Ar 1st Edition , professor Gilson Schwartz, from the School of Communications and Arts (ECA) at USP, president of Games for Change Latin America, creator of the Cidade do Conhecimento Research Group, at the IEA, and columnist from Rádio USP, explains that the objective of the initiative is to create games not only for consumption and entertainment, but to “attack any social, environmental or health problem. So, more and more people say that the game is a playful, critical attitude, it is part of a transforming behavior”.
Create games and learning
For the teacher, with the pandemic, there was a pedagogical delay and children and adolescents had their learning impaired. Game development would be a way to make up for lost time. “Creating a game is that: it makes time go by fast and, in that time, you learn more” and have fun too.
Schwartz highlights that we are entering a stage in education that even changes the school’s own vision of the curriculum. “We are talking about languages, opening up to knowledge trails and the game, especially the online game, is a curious object, because it has technology, but it has narrative.” It has software, but it also has visuals and it has audio. “So, it is a complex object, which combines several languages”, he emphasizes.
In this process of playing, creating and learning, the teacher states that “it is as if each child, each student, had the opportunity to remake an experience of discovery” and, when things are discovered, “this stays in memory”, which it will really awaken vocations.
Online Games, Childhood and Adolescence Seminar Cycle (JOIA 2022)
The Games For Change Latin America network will hold the JOIA Online Games, Childhood and Adolescence Seminar Cycle for professionals, educators, game creators, students, families and managers, in a meeting that provides an unprecedented cycle of lectures and participation in study groups , communities of practice and collaborative mentoring.