ICT tools and gamification an 21st century skills – European Teacher Academy in Valencia, Spain
written by: Andrea Juhász
I was participated the ICT tools and gamification an 21st century skills course in Valencia from 12 to 17 of May 2025. It was organized by the European Teacher Academy.
The course consisted of three different parts. First was we understood the gamification and learnt practica! strategies to use game elements in our pedagogical work. The gamification meens the teacher has to organize different types of games during the classwork. The games can motivate the students and can be the tool of the drill and method of the aquisition of the new matériái. The main impact of using the games is to teach imperceptibly.
The second part of the course was about the ICT tools which the teachers can use for gamification. In the lessons we worked somé interesting and useful webpages, applications. We created education materials, lesson plans with these new tools. I was introduced into somé very useful webpages and applications – for example – the genially.com, canva, book creator, bitmoji classroom, plickers, blooket, classtools, wordwall, virtual classroom, storyboard. The teacher can create impressive pictures with canva for the backgrounds of the lessons or any offline activites too. I started to use most of them after I came back into my school. I can use the book creater very useful during my creative writing lessons. It would be very motivated for the students write the stories online – but my aims to improve their creative writing skills. Fort he impressive backgrounds the teachers can use the virtual classroom, genially.com and wordwall too. Fort the whole class can play with the plickers which the teachers can use for the revisions or the practice tasks. The websites and the applications are big help to involve the students in different ways and teach them during and with the games. In my opinion the offline games which we did and learnt about consisted alsó this part of the course. We made pasta tower, we played boardgames, activity.
The third part of the course was about the soft skills of the pedagogical work. The soft skills are more important part of our work and there are more focus on them nowadays. One of the most important teachers’ aim to build the critical thinking of the students – the gamification could be an interesting tool for it. The other major purpose is to improve the empathy of the students. During the game they need their empathy so the gamification could help to cultivate their empathy skills.
In summary I can teli we made creative activites, we enhanced our 21st century skills, including critical thinking, collaboration and creativity, and understood best practicies for integration of ICT tools and gamification into the learning process. We talked a lot about the empathy, the understanding the students how the teacher can help them.
The members of our course arrived from Germany, Italy, Francé, Croatia, Románia and Greece – I was alone from Hungary. Our group was full of open hearted, communicative, active and cooperative people, so we worked with lot of motivation, empathy and enthusiastictly with each other. Our teacher was very lucky with this group – we work hard and focused and happy. The course was very useful for my pedagogical work since I came back I used lot of parts I Ihave lerned in Valencia.
The other best part of this Erasmus mobility was the city, Valencia. I liked a lot the city, becaus it was very beautiful, calme, full of joy and the most important part for me, full of culture. In the middle of the city there was a river, Turia, that wa dried after a flood at the end of 1960. Now there is a big, long park. In the old center of the city in almost every Street there is a museum. I visited as much as I could during the week. I was in a ceramic museum, the churches and cathedrals of the city, the silk museum, the extraordinary ethnographic museum, the galleries. I alsó visited the beach of Valencia – the sight of the see had a great affect on me. I attended in a catholic procession it was tremendous, I ate paella the most famous Valencián food and I drank horchata the traditional Valencián drink. There was a guided tour which was organised by the European Teacher Academy. Our guide was a local tourist guide, Adele – it was the best afternoon of the whole week – we learnt a lot about the history of Valencia from Adele.
This Erasmus mobility was one of the best among of my Erasmus trips.
written by: Andrea Juhász
25. May. 2025
