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RESEARCH PROJECT: « GBL (Game-Based Learning) Baseline: Play-based learning in the School Context. State of the Art of Educational Games in Schools and Future Prospects »
ABSTRACT
Background: The systemic integration of Game-Based Learning (GBL) and gamification in compulsory education requires shifting from theoretical optimism to empirical validation. This study evaluates the operational implications of these methodologies: teacher usability, learner engagement, accessibility via Universal Design for Learning (UDL) / Conception universelle de l’apprentissage (CUA), multidisciplinary adaptability, and sustainability of involvement.
Objectives and Methodology: Drawing upon a transnational comparative framework, this research analyzes the practical outcomes of GBL models in Italy and another school system. It examines how isolated pedagogical and institutional variables yield divergent results within these two educational infrastructures.
Main Deliverables: The study provides an empirical "snapshot" of GBL and gamification implementations in real-world contexts, correlating curricular objectives, teacher planning, and student benefits. The collected data serve a dual objective:
To model institutional teacher training using evidence-based data.
To guide practitioners in aligning playful tools with immediate pedagogical needs through operational protocols.
The conclusions are transposed onto the evolving web platform — The GBL Baseline — designed to evaluate the relevance of games. It focuses on the intersection between game design and classroom space, learning psychology, interactions induced by game mechanics, systemic deployment, and educational policies.
Limitations and Scope: The study highlights the practical constraints of utilizing games in education (cognitive objectives, depth of knowledge, usability, group dynamics). On a broader scale, these findings establish an essential, evidence-based baseline to analyze the future trajectory of gamification and GBL, thereby guiding subsequent academic research and teacher training.
DIGITAL-ENABLED EDUCATION: ICF AND CLASSROOM 3.0
The 3.0 classroom responds to the needs of a new generation of learners, who are no longer categorized according to their specific needs or learning difficulties, but rather defined by diversity as a catalyst for engagement and personal growth. This framework relies on:
sharing educational materials;
simplifying texts to ensure universal accessibility, addressing not only content-level comprehension (through key words and core concepts) but also structural and presentation formats (via text-to-speech technologies, visual iconography, conceptual maps, and explanatory video resources);
organizing collaborative groups and breaking down collective objectives into manageable micro-goals;
re-consolidating achieved outcomes within a centralized repository of educational content, accessible to all users at any time and from any location;
integrating formative assessments directly into lessons, thereby encouraging self-correction, independent extension, and autonomous reinforcement.
Just as traditional classroom configurations—assigned statically to specific class groups where students remain throughout the school day—are progressively evolving toward a dynamic model of schooling, in which spaces are allocated according to academic disciplines to optimize setting functionality and foster flexible methodologies such as brainstorming, so too must students with disabilities no longer be restricted to a static workstation, even one equipped with assistive devices, compensatory tools, and specialized support teachers. Instead, learners must be empowered to express their diverse abilities freely and through varied modalities, actively contributing at multiple levels to the growth of their educational community.
Consequently, within the context of innovative pedagogical practices, as the paradigm shifts from content-driven, transmissive instruction to scenario-based learning, technological tools provide the necessary flexibility and specificity to adapt each scenario to diverse requests and requirements. This approach fosters direct, participatory engagement among all students, who, in becoming the authors of their own study materials and shared resources, learn to take an active and autonomous role in shaping their own educational and personal trajectories.
Augmented Reality is a technology that allows for the enhancement, amplification, and expansion of existing reality by linking various types of informational layers to what our senses naturally perceive, thereby achieving what can be defined as 'perceptual enhancement.' By focusing a networked smartphone or tablet on a photo or a static object, users receive a video presentation of the targeted item: while the object remains stationary, the screen comes to life.
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