Teaching 1984 through Play: Literary Literacy in the Age of Game-Based Learning

With this work, we will try to provide a theoretical framework for the experiential learning environment in a Secondary School, by promoting the interconnection and collaboration of educators from different scientific fields, the Modern Greek Language and Informatics, in a way that utilizes the teaching of an extensive literary work [1984, George Orwell]. We aimed in our teaching practice to achieve a substantial degree of participation of students through exploratory learning experience. Our starting point was the systematic study of 1984, through which students focused and reflected on critical concepts that promote active citizenship (power, control, authoritarianism, language of power). Then they were encouraged to co-form an extensive bank of interpretive, evaluative, and narrative questions. The latter formed the cognitive and playful foundation for the creation of a comprehensive digital board game, designed under the systematic guidance and supervision of the Informatics educator in the corresponding laboratory. This work aims to demonstrate that a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to Literature can enhance the mental and emotional engagement of students and strengthen their metacognitive skills, making the literary work an aid to reflection and authentic creation. In addition, the pedagogical value of interconnecting Humanitarian Studies with New Technologies is highlighted. We are optimistic about contributing to the development of the complex skills that the 21st century thinking citizens must have, because we believe that modern schools have a formal and informal obligation to provide them.