Dungeons and Librarians: the Quest for Gamified Reading Promotion in Youth
The Erasmus+ “Dungeons and Librarians: the Quest for Gamified Reading” training event took place on November 21-25 in the Povilas Višinskis Public Library of Šiauliai County in Lithuania. The Project manager of “Dungeons and Librarians: the Quest for Gamified Reading” is Gintautas Jazdauskas – young person whose professional interests are devoted to make the youngsters read. The training event targeted specialists from different public libraries in Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Bulgaria.
The purpose of the event was to create modern practices of reading promotion initiatives in libraries through an innovative gamification method. As the traditional methods of reading stimulation started to fade and lose their efficiency, the library specialist faced no other opportunity but to bring new ones. As librarians and university teachers, we know how essential reading is for future generations. In our work, no aim weights more than enkindle the young’s passion for reading.
The participants joined diverse activities for five days. They learned and tested good examples of gamification methods and incorporated them into their perception while performing practical tasks. Through the training, the participants had the opportunity to learn from professional lecturers Laimonas Ragauskas and Romanas Šarpanovs. The most valuable experience for the trainees was learning from each other by sharing and collaborating.
The trainees were divided into groups multiple times until they felt comfortable working with an international team. After the adaptation, the participants formed their final teams and started creating their own games. By the end of the week, each group had to prepare one project based on the promotion of reading through the gamification methods they learned. The presented gamification projects were creative and engaging: escape room, literary bingo, memes trivia, a mysterious reading club for introverts, and treasure hunting in the library. All the concepts had a unique approach to promoting reading and offered an effective way to increase interest in books.
Librarians who participated in the training event acknowledged the need to encourage young people to read more, but indeed the most important insight was: the abyss between the act of promotion and the positive influence over people needs an extraordinary bridge. Places and activities where youngsters can express their self and enjoy the library without being told to do so.
The TLIT4U team shares the same values and considers that sharing successful initiatives such as the project “Dungeons and Librarians: The Quest for Gamified Reading” is the key to achieving the common goal.
And the goal is to create a modern young society that is literate, curious, imaginative, and ready to face life.
High5 project aims to implement a new methodology – Integrated Design- based on existing methods and approaches. Integrated Design combines valuable areas such as problem-solving methodologies (Design Thinking and Problem-Based Learning), sustainable development, circular economy, innovation thinking, and entrepreneurial skills
Integrated Design is an answer to the complexity of the world referring to projects undertaken at universities, in companies, and various institutions. The metodology also has its roots in the requirements of the European labor market where people have to be able to analyze a situation, define a correct problem, provide suitable solutions and be aware of all consequences of the implementation of the chosen solution. This wide perspective is covered by Integrated Design.
The High5 project is coordinated by the DT4U group, which exists at Lodz University of Technology, Poland since 2013.
High5 project: http://high5project.eu/
Textbook is coming soon …
