STUDENTS MAKE SERIOUS GAMES FOR RAISING ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY

The use of new technologies and mobile devices nowadays are incredibly familiar in everyday life and kids, digital native, are amazingly skilled to use them. Among Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) available for didactic purposes, a platform for the development of Location Based Games for smartphones and tablets, which actually combines the use of computer and the mobile devices, was used in the frame of two European projects Involen and Raise. The methodology aims to raise environmental awareness in young generations using LBGs (Location Based Games), and more specifically, developing one LBG for a protected area within the local territory. It is based on different kinds of learning experiences (intergenerational learning, learning in natural environment, storytelling and game based learning) but also on environmental volunteering, for raising also the awareness on own skills. The methodology developed in these projects has been applied in three Tuscan schools and one ONG (Attivarti.org), among which the I.C. Sacchetti in San Miniato.