First Transnational Training Activity

Murcia Municipality hosted the First Transnational Training Activity about the online educational games on May 7-9, 2019. So, we had two days for specific training sessions, a half-day to visit the two preschools participating in the project and the other half-day to work on learning methodology for gender equality and to do a brief coordination meeting about the next project steps. At the beginning of the working programme, we had a formal reception by the City Hall Counsellor responsible for the European Projects.

All the training activity was very well organised: we had identification cards; we always had meals together – lunch and dinner – in different and previously booked restaurants; during the training sessions, we had nice coffee breaks; we had a minibus reserved for the study visits to the two preschools; all the speakers used the same presentation PowerPoint template with the city hall, project and Erasmus+ logos; the Spanish team video recorded all the activity.

About the specific training sessions, it was a half-day to learn about gender equality – main concepts –, and a day and a half to learn about how to do an online educational game, specifically about how to do a GDD (Game Design Document – the document where we define everything about a game). We did group exercises during the training sessions to practice and think critically about our learning. So, in groups, we answered different questions about gender equality and practised other moments and steps about how to do a GDD.

The speakers were experts, Mirta Sánchez Carrera, a master in gender equality, and Eduardo Saldaño, the owner of “Sons of a Bit” – a Spanish company that created a very famous online game in Spain “Isla Bomba”.

What the kindergarten teachers’ participants liked the most was the study visits to the two preschools participating in the project. We had a full guided tour in each preschool, we saw the dynamics of classrooms with children, and we had a beautiful musical presentation powered by children in each preschool.

Regarding the learning methodology for gender equality, Härryda Municipality presented the primary and common concepts (gender equality, gender mainstreaming and critical thinking). It explained the following steps to build the learning methodology.

To finish, Associação igualdade.pt presented the three evaluation questionnaires to be validated by the participants, explained the next steps of the project, mainly the dynamic of the local workshops and remembered the deadlines to create the online educational game.

In the end, all the participants filled out an evaluation questionnaire. With a brief analysis, we can say that the evaluation of the transnational training activity and the project was highly positive.

It was a good moment of learning and sharing teaching experiences. Everybody participating in that training activity was excited to energise the local workshops and start designing/creating the online educational games.