The use of virtual reality and videogames to improve learning about Greek, Egyptian and Viking civilizations in the classroom

Abstract

This article presents a didactic proposal for the third cycle of Primary Education based on a Final Degree Project that has been put into practice. The proposal is related to the learning of different aspects of Greek, Viking and Egyptian cultures. The main objective of this article is to present a didactic planning for the learning about these civilizations from a playful and innovative perspective in which virtual reality and video games are used. It also includes the most relevant results of its implementation. The methodology of the proposal is based on gamification and game-based learning (GBL). The choice of this methodology is based on the easiness offered by both the expansion of technological development and the use of applications (apps) and video games in the daily life of students; supported by previous studies that show the benefits of the use of these technologies in teaching Social Sciences and History. The implementation is developed through a sequence of activities that covers several sessions and in which, among other tasks, the video games “Assassin's Creed: Discovery Tour”, for exploration tasks, and “Minecraft Education Edition”, for representation tasks, are used. As for the results of the implementation, the proposal has been successful in its development, obtaining a high degree of achievement of the proposed didactic objectives and not encountering serious difficulties during the teaching-learning process.