Rome (I), April 2013 - MAGICAL is a European project that's exploring collaborative design of educational games by primary and lower-secondary students. It's a European project co-funded under the Lifelong Learning Programme (KA3) that's proposing this collaborative effort as an innovative learning-by-doing approach. Led by the Institute for Educational Technology, CNR (Italy), the consortium comprises partners from Belgium, Italy, Finland, and the UK who are particularly interested in how collaborative game making impacts on learners' key transversal skills, like creativity, problem solving, and digital literacy.
An intrinsic part of the project’s mission is the design and orchestration of learning activities based on collaborative game making, which means it also encompasses teacher education and the training of professionals.
To pursue its aims, MAGICAL is developing a collaborative game-authoring environment for learners and educators called MAGOS. This innovative tool with real-time collaboration features is currently undergoing beta testing and will be employed in MAGICAL field tests to be carried out in various educational contexts. At the conclusion of the project, MAGOS will be made available to the entire education community as open-source software. It will form part of a comprehensive package that includes resources and tools to inspire practitioners and guide them in implementing collaborative game making with their students.
