Art and Education: Cultivating Active Citizenship through Game-based Storytelling

Abstract

This paper presents “The Other Half”, a collective game aiming on the one hand to encourage creative expression through the writing of dialogues, and on the other to foster students’ understanding of and critical reflection on aspects of the democratic citizenship education. The game was played within two teaching sessions of the course “Art Didactics and Creative Technologies”, which is taught by the authors as part of the "Special Program of Studies for the Pedagogical and Didactical Sufficiency Certification" (PDSP) at the Department of Audio and Visual Arts of the Ionian University. The authors employed mechanics that require players to first complete individual and collaborative creative assignments and then negotiate in the context of secret and open voting sessions to weave them into a common work, while given the ability to modify the game’s own rules and scope. E-learning affordances facilitated the coexistence of both physically present and remote players. Emphasis was placed on the role of the majority and the importance of participation in decision-making, as well as on flexibility and agreement in the process of dynamically exploring a common goal. The game was evaluated through a focus group discussion, whose thematic analysis suggests that the game was found interesting and creative, especially in terms of voting for dialogues and changing rules, and suitable for use in the classroom. However, the total freedom to shape the game’s end-goal, the complexity of rules, and the time constraints resulted in some cases in confusion and anxiety, whereas the game’s hybrid form was found to weaken participation.