Remco

Game-example: Once upon a tile

Once Upon a Tile is a prototype for a mobile game about peace and sustainable development where players manage an evolving world by matching resource tiles and generating new results and products.

The game educates about the relationship between resources, production, growth, knowledge, and communities. Players learn about the matching logic and its immediate effect of generating products, about the effects of such products on the simulated community, about the community’s dynamics in different contexts. Players will discover connections to real-world situations, the emergence of diversity, and the range of possibilities. Via gameplay repetition, players develop familiarity with the diverse situations and the effects of their choices.

Present the students with dilemmas related to social justice, peace and conflict or institution building. For example, to address homelessness: Should we provide a shelter away from the city which hides the problem, or do we allow people to sleep rough in shop doorways? This raises awareness of the issue. The students should identify the course of action they would take in the given dilemmas and provide a rationale explaining their decision in each case.

Learners in groups are asked to enter in the Environmental Justice Atlas and look for socio-environmental conflicts around biodiversity. They are asked to choose one, and gather the information and arguments of each side of the conflict (i.e. company extracting natural resource, government, local community and activist, foreign NGOs, etc.). Each member of the group takes the role of an actor and analyses the arguments of this actor, building a SWOT analysis grid (Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities; Threats). The groups present their analysis to the class.

Learners are then asked to produce a compromise solution from the perspective of their actor in the role-play. These solutions are discussed among the members of the group to make them stronger: what negative impacts are reduced? What potential benefits? How to hold accountability?

Finally, the whole group of learners assesses the solutions presented in terms of their credibility and plausibility. For this assessment, the barometer activity will be applied, in which learners distribute physically in the space according to their degree of agreement.

Each group will then go to the “Classroom Environmental Justice Court” to defend their solution to one of the courtrooms formed by fellow classmates (e.g. another group working on a different conflict). Then the “Classroom Environmental Justice Court”, after hearing all the stakeholders will have to take a decision and justify why it has taken that decision.

Ask each student to think about their own social or peer group and identify one positive situation (e.g. where the group worked together effectively or supported the wider institution such as the school) and one negative situation (e.g. when there was conflict, bullying or exclusion of individuals). Ask them to write a reflective account in which they consider their own role in each situation and consider whether they could have done anything differently to achieve a more positive outcome.

Learners are then asked to produce a compromise solution from the perspective of their actor in the roleplay. These solutions are discussed among the members of the group to make them stronger: what negative impacts are reduced? What potential benefits? How to hold accountability?

Students are presented with – or select – a current conflict situation (this could be local or international). They should research the background to the conflict, how it came about and look for different perspectives or positions in relation to the issue using contrasting sources (e.g. newspapers, social media, journal articles, political statements).They should make a presentation (e.g. poster, slides, article) that highlights the different views in relation to the conflict and explains their own conclusions.

Learners in groups are asked to enter in the Environmental Justice Atlas and look for socio-environmental conflicts around biodiversity. They are asked to choose one and gather the information and arguments of each side of the conflict (i.e. company extracting natural resource, government, local community and activist, foreign NGOs, etc.). Each member of the group takes the role of an actor and analyses the arguments of this actor, building a SWOT (Strengths; Weaknesses; Opportunities; Threats) analysis grid. The groups present their analysis to the class.

Working in groups, students select a local social justice-related issue (it may be related to the organisation that is mentioned under Innovation for SDG 16). They should consider how they might bring about positive change, choose an action to help make this happen and then implement the action, possibly with the support of other stakeholders. They should reflect critically on what change occurred as a result of this action; this could be changes within themselves as well as in relation to their chosen issue.

Conduct a fieldtrip to a nearby rural community. Visit the community and talk with local residents and authorities about the impact of the transformation of the community (e.g. rural tourism, abandoning of cultivation, abandoning of local varieties, reduction of farm land, etc.). Research alternative practices. Learners also meet with local and non-local activists and authorities and gather secondary data on the region and the main problems. Each group prepare a report of findings and conclusions drawn.

Introduce the concept of grassroots innovation and some of their examples such as l’atelier paysan (or others in the field of seeds, rural development, maker spaces, etc.). Discuss what grassroots innovation means and how it can be applied to the case study.

Engage with stakeholders in the fieldwork case and, using critical design thinking and grassroots innovation methodologies, involve the local community of the fieldwork in designing a solution for one of the issues raised in the previous stages.

Students select a group or organisation of which they are a member (e.g. school, youth group, sports club). Consider the demographic make up of the group and identify people who are under-represented. Brainstorm ways in which such people could be encouraged to join the group and feel supported within it.