Activity for simulation of the democratic system using a commercial video game

Abstract

This report introduces a proposed educational activity aimed at educating the people, and more specifically, to instruct them about how the democratic system works, through the use of a commercial video game containing a simulation: Democracy 3, by the British company Positech Games. The requirement that school curricula guarantee knowledge which allows students to exercise their democratic citizenship, coupled with the difficulty youths have in understanding certain concepts related with political participation and the way the democratic system works have, in some cases, been quite successfully dealt with by way of educational simulations and the discovery learning methodology. When bearing in mind the advantages conferred by the entertainment factor and the use that video games for educational purposes may have in increasing motivation, developing skills and teaching digital literacy amongst students, the proposed activities have been designed to include guided group gaming sessions. This work has resulted from the educational activities undertaken during the course "History Didactics," which formed part of the Master's degree in Education given at the University of Barcelona, within the speciality of Social Sciences, and is oriented towards students in the final years of their Obligatory Secondary Schooling.