In the middle of December, surrounded by the picturesque Ardennes, 3 participants from Croatia explored the wonderful opportunity to learn and train their skills about educational games. In the small town of Gouvy, a group of 30 cheerful and well -prepared people were put together for a week to work and live under the same roof. These are our impressions of the fun and compelling challenges we’ve encountered.
The first part of this project was focused on an understanding of the Erasmus+ program, introduction to Youthpass and the importance of non-formal education. We established rules, communicated our expectations, fears and possible contributions. As a group we worked on getting to know each other, creating connections and bonds that will grow stronger day by day, getting comfortable with every participant even though all of us had their differences, we all quickly came together and created the team chemistry needed for the project to be successful. We met people and got to know all about their organisations and areas in which they work and/or volunteer. Once we had an amazing team we started learning from our mentors and our teammates; each person had something to share, everyone was very open-minded, full of positive energy, proactive approach and friendly attitude.
CREATE
Every day we created something new, we started with an introduction to educational games, theoretical part was very interactive and interesting, presented in a clear way and on point, followed by lots of examples and possible applications in everyday work. We worked in different teams, brainstormed about ideas, created drafts and developed framework for the big day when we were about to test our activities before we take them to Malle and show them to groups of kids we were spending a day with. But it wasn’t everything about teaching educational games as also we were learning how to develop our personalities and characters to become more adaptive, innovative and determined to new challenges and tasks that surround us.
LEARN
While creating games, teams, activities, workshops we were learning so much in different areas. We learned about other cultures, about our similarities and differences, about other countries, languages, traditions… we learned about game development, group work, project planning, structuring activities, time management, group facilitation and much much more. We also learned about a theory on educational and experiential games architecture and how to facilitate the whole process and make it fun and joyful for every target group. There was a variety of important topics we discussed all through the project including European and global politics, active participation, entrepreneurship, gender equality, climate crisis, educational system, different ways of learning and gaining skills…
PLAY
Finally, we got to use all the acquired knowledge and gained skills. After we created and tested our activities we went to Malle to visit Chiro youth centre and to spend a day working with kids of all ages. This was our goal that we were preparing for the whole training course and were excited and keen to show the activities we’ve come up with for the youth. We played games, we shared our knowledge, we did different activities and had an amazing experience and the most important thing is we all had FUN. Kids, team leaders, facilitators – altogether we had lots of fun and had a very productive time together.
THOUGHTS AND EXPERIENCE
Lana Podgoršek
“For me, this project fulfilled every expectation that I had when applying for the training course. I got an elaborate understanding of the topic and learned how I can make use of it in my environment. But in my opinion, the most significant feature is the new forged friendships and acquaintances met during the project. A lot of happy memories shared with new friends is what made this project so special and engaging. Can’t wait to repeat it next year! =)”
Ingrid Jakšić
“This year’s experience did not fall short for us who returned around. CODEC and its partners are incredible to work with and they give so much. They are extremely motivated people who have this incredible power of motivating us as both a group and individuals. Games are much more complex than I thought and I have a newfound appreciation for game makers. A big, no huge shout out to Pavel Vassiljev (we missed you on our last day). The last day was incredible thanks in great part to Chiro St Jan Meerle and their amazing volunteers. We got to use and test all of our newly acquired knowledge with the kids at Chiro. It was a success! The kids were receptive and even started giving their ideas. We were more than happy to make their wishes come true. Speaking of games, the Croatian team pulled a nice one for the intercultural evening. We improvised a bit and gave our friends a taste of Sinjska Alka. The energy and laughs we got in return were priceless.”
Dorian Šegović
“During this project we met incredible people from all around the world, we had amazing mentors who are experts in their areas of work and who were willing to share their knowledge, experience and great energy with all of us. We learned a lot, stepped out of our usual comfort zones, gained new skills, made friends and created memories that we will never forget. Big thank you to everyone who made this possible!”
Authors: Lana Podgoršek, Ingrid Jakšić, Dorian Šegović
Find out more about past projects in Belgium or share questions and thoughts in the comments sector. 😉
Stay updated with mobility opportunities joining Mobility Opportunities group. ? To check out participants stories through pictures, follow us on Instagram. ?
