The Center for Educational Regional Planning of Thessaly (PEKES Thessalias) and the Creative Technologies Learning Lab research group (http://ctll.e-ce.uth.gr) of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Thessaly (DECE) co-organizeδ an event on awareness raising and preparation for protection from natural disasters. The event took place in the computer lab of DECE on October 24, 2022 and addressed secondary school students.
The audience had the opportunity to use a digital educational application in the form of a learning game developed by the Creative Learning Technologies team as part of the Take It Serious (https://ctll.e-ce.uth.gr/index.php/tis/) research project funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Commission and implemented from 2020 to 2022. The research project aims to promote a culture of "disaster management" in Europe and to strengthen the resilience of communities against extreme natural events.
The digital game familiarizes users with the natural disaster management cycle that involves mitigation, preparation, recovery, and response. Users collaborate in groups on learning scenarios that simulate real life and involve the design of actions based on the natural disaster management cycle, aiming to effectively address natural phenomena such as earthquakes and droughts. For example, some of the actions that game users can implement for earthquake management are education planning, building reinforcement, installing a seismic activity detector, maintaining the operation of communication systems during the phenomenon, introducing emergency response services, damage repair, and future planning after the event.
In addition to the University of Thessaly, the Take It Serious research project engages educational and research organizations from the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, Spain, and Turkey.
