Investigating the "MAGICAL" Effects of Game Building on the Development of 21st Century Skills

This paper tackles the issue of ICT-enhanced development of so-called 21st Century skills. In doing so, it draws on the experience gained in the framework of MAGICAL (MAking Games In CollAboration for Learning), an EU project funded in 2011 under the LLP transversal ICT Programme. The core mission of MAGICAL is to exploit the potential of collaborative game building as an innovative learning approach for primary school students. The paper first analyses the concept of 21st Century skills and goes on to propose and explore the idea that game building activities can contribute to the development of a variety of such abilities. The paper also offers some reflections on the key role of teachers in guiding and monitoring the entailed learning processes, and briefly discusses some ideas on the new competences demanded of teachers.