The University of Malta's Institute of Digital Games invites the public to the kick-off of the "Europe in Crisis" (eCrisis) project.

The Minister for Education and Employment, Evarist Bartolo, will officially open the event on Friday, the 21st of October, while Prof. Alfred Vella, Rector of the University of Malta, will deliver the opening speech.

The eCrisis project aims to enable inclusive education through playful and game-based learning and teaching. The project proposes the use of game-based learning to foster the development of social, civic and intercultural competences such as conflict resolution, creative thinking, and reflective debate in primary and secondary education students.

The relationship between play and culture has been analysed as early as 1938 by John Huizinga in his book Homo Ludens and the potential impact of game-based learning and teaching will be explored in the eCrisis project to address the unprecedented crisis of multifaceted nature that Europe is currently facing.

The last decade of European history has been characterised by serious societal challenges and conflicts which occur as emergent by-products of economic recession, social structure instabilities, and most recently, the refugee crisis.

An increasing number of citizens in Europe are still nowadays culturally, socially, and educationally excluded. The vision of a healthy and stable socioeconomic structure which brings together people from diverse ethnical backgrounds, societal values, religions and cultures under a European umbrella of societal justice, inclusion and rapid integration is threatened by the current situation.

The eCrisis project will use playful and game-based learning and teaching to work towards this vision of an inclusive society for all of Europe's citizens.

The kick-off will be held at the Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta, Msida Campus, between 16:00-18:00 and will showcase some of the games that play a part in the project.

Guests will also have the opportunity to try out the games and are encouraged to connect with the game designers and developers who will be responsible for the implementation of this project across three countries, Malta, Austria and Greece.

Please register for the event by Monday, 17th October by filling in the form online here

. Registration to the event is free, but places are limited therefore registrations are on a first-come first-served basis. eCrisis Info Day – 21st October – 16:00-18:00 Institute of Digital Games, University of Malta

16:00 Opening by Evarist Bartolo, Minister for Education and Employment

16:15 Speech by Prof. Vella, Rector of the University of Malta

16:30 Europe in Crisis: The eCrisis Project – Prof. Georgios N. Yannakakis and Dr Vanessa Camilleri (University of Malta, MT)

16:45 Iconoscope: A game for creative thinking – Prof. Georgios N. Yannakakis (University of Malta, MT)

17:00 Village Voices: A game for conflict resolution – Dr Kostas Karpouzis (National Technical University of Athens, GR)

17:15 Coffee break

17:30 The wider pedagogical framework – Dr Michelle Proyer and Mr Alexander Schmoelz (University of Vienna, AT)

17:45 Bringing eCrisis game-based learning in class – Mr Elias Stouraitis (Ellinogermaniki Agogi, GR) and Ms Maria Pace (St. Ignatius College, MT)

18:00 Play time! – Guests will have an opportunity to try the games and interact with the game designers and developers.

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