Serious Games and Intercultural Learning

Let's Play? Seriously! Intercultural learning requires exposure to unsafe situations and questioning habitual behaviors and expectations. This can be quite demanding and create resistance. While playing a game it is usually easier to leave your comfort zone. Combining the power of play with learning is what serious games do. On this page you can find some examples of serious intercultural learning games that we use in our courses. Movers and Shakers How can intercultural competence be promoted with serious computer games? Alexandra Schreiber asked this in her lecture at the e-didactics conference "Lehre auf neuen Wegen?" of the University of Göttingen on November 10, 2015. In response, she cited experiences with the tablet game Movers and Shakers, which challenges the players' communication skills through different perspectives within the game.

SumMit Interactive Tablet Game SumMit is an interactive multiplayer tablet game that supports players in exchanging ideas and learning more about themselves and culturally influenced communication structures. So the real game takes place between the players. We developed the SumMit project in cooperation with the Harz / Werningerode University of Applied Sciences, degree course in media informatics / applied games, over two semesters. After completing the first theory and test phase in the 2016/17 winter semester, we continued the project in the 2017 summer semester with further test runs and programming and thus also took part in the  Games for Change Migration Challenge. Alexandra Schreiber and Dominik Wilhelm presented the process, concept and design of the game in the article "Interaktive Serious Games: Kommunikation und Spiel zur Förderung interkultureller Kompetenz" (2017) in the magazine for university development ZfH. The trailer offers further insights: