Game and storydoing: didactic tools for teaching history in primary school

Abstract

Today’s children, the so-called digital natives, live in a time when technology affects not only habits but also ways of learning. Schools do not always manage to keep up with the pace and, above all, for subjects such as History, whose content is often abstract and far removed from everyday life, this can be a major obstacle. Using game and storydoing practices can be an effective support to teaching and a useful expedient to involve children in learning. In this article, we present two different experiences that are based on this type of approach: a gamification laboratory and an educational video game (serious game). In both cases, interest in History is stimulated by game and identification; in doing so, children are transformed from passive storekeepers of knowledge into active players in the intellectual adventure of learning.