Workshop – Using Games to Learn Cyber Security and Misinformation

Workshop about using games in educational process was organized as part of the project “Using games to learn cyber security and misinformation”. Participants at the workshop, around 30, were educational professionals that work in different educational levels.

During the first day of the workshop, project activities and project outcomes were presented. Created educational games in Scratch concerning cyber security and misinformation were presented to the participants by the students from participating schools. Students have discussed about the whole process of gathering new knowledge and skills on the topics, creation of educational materials and giving lectures to the students from lower grades. It was interesting to hear their opinion and listen their attitudes toward peer learning and creation of educational materials and games on these topics.

Award ceremony of the best games created in Scratch concerning cyber security and misinformation, as a result of the Competition announced by Dig-Ed in May 2022, has followed. Results of the competition can be found at the following link: results Workshop participants have been introduced with these open educational resources and the possibility for their re-use in educational process.

The second day of the workshop has started with the discussion among the participants about the advantages and disadvantages from using games in educational process and general opportunities and challenges in local context. The presentation about the type of educational activities that can be implemented through games, educational value of the used games as well as needed features was made.

Participants divided according to the subjects that they teach tried to create class activities for learning about cyber security and misinformation using games. They have presented created activities in front of the other groups and discussion about these activities has followed.

At the end of the workshop some specific challenges for presented activities in classroom context were discussed (mostly connected with school infrastructure) and ideas how to overcome them were shared among participants. It should be noticed that teachers are enthusiastic about implementing this kind of activities in their classrooms and they are convinced in the benefits from game based learning approach in order to empower students knowledge and skills concerning cyber security and misinformation.