PLAYING WITH THE PAST

This R&D project analyses and studies the role of video games and gamification in the critical understanding of history in museums and schools.

Playing with the past” is an initiative supported by the AEI, through the Next Generation Funds, EU, and has obtained funding of 136,000 euros. The research team, coordinated by M. Carretero and M. Asensio, is further enriched by the work of researchers from our team and other institutions: E. Gartner (UAM), E. Asenjo (UNIDMA), Y. Castro (Fundación Prodis), A. Ponce, Universidad Internacional de la Rioja (UNIR) P. Martín (Mitca Studio) and E. Pol (Intepretart).

The main goal of this project is to understand how digitalization processes are influencing new ways of making sense of the past, taking videogames and gamification as educational tools that intervene in the understanding of history. We focus above all on the opportunities and limitations inherent in these tools as they relate to young people’s learning of a critical and reflexive view of the past.

Are video games a limitation or an opportunity for the critical learning of history?

Can they help develop a more critical and reflective education?

Pursuing the objective of reformulating the traditional teaching of History, this research will focus mainly on video games with tasks or missions aimed at the colonisation of territories. Thus, the project has two main lines of research:

a) comparative analysis of inspiring practices that use video games in order to develop historical thinking.

b) experimental analysis of the appropriation processes of users of video games and gamification activities.