null Game about the European identity: RU EU?

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Digital Learning
Game about the European identity: RU EU?
The Welten Institute is one of the partners of the new European project RU EU? This two-year project develops a game for students in higher education that makes them aware of European and national values and identities and their impact on problem solving and decision making processes.

National versus European feelings

The European Union is a con-federal union of sovereign states, with a strong economic focus . The EU has been successful in replacing the traditional enmity between states by a strong set of interrelated social, political and economic relationships. However, today the EU is under challenge with several members wishing to see the membership changed or to alter the pace and focus of the changes that the EU is causing/requiring among member states. Cries of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘identity’ are raised with terms like the ‘nation’, ‘our people’ and ‘us’ and ‘them’ being employed to challenge the idea of a greater Union. Furthermore, many member states have witnessed the rise of anti EU political parties, who seek removal of their member state from the experiment. 

Exploring identities by gaming

The aim of the project RU EU? is to develop a game that will support young people in exploring national and European identity and values and the impact that these have on tackling the problems and making the decisions that are important to young Europeans. The game has an educational dimension in providing opportunities for young Europeans to extend and test their knowledge of Europe and European customs, values and traditions in a fun and engaging way but also to solve challenging problems surrounding issues which are rooted in notions of identity. The game also has a social dimension that requires  players  to collaborate in tackling the problem solving and decision making scenarios in order to successfully complete these. 

Mobility

Three main groups of Higher Education students will be targeted by the game. The first group is Social Science and Business students across Europe for whom the game will provide a novel approach to studying, what for them, are core curricular issues. Erasmus students will also take part as it seems likely that this group of students may have more positive views about Europe. The game will help these students to maximise their experiences of studying abroad by developing a better understanding of issues related to national and European identity. Another group of students who would benefit from the game are students who, for a number of different reasons, want to but cannot take part in the Erasmus mobility scheme. The game could help to provide these students with some of the benefits of Erasmus by helping them develop a network of European contacts. These 3 groups of students will provide interesting contrasts with respect to National and European identity.

The Open University is one of the five project partners and will be responsible for the game design. The other partners are University of the West of Schotland (UWS), The University of Applied Science of Zagreb, University of the Peloponnese and the University of Bremen. The project is financed by the Erasmus+ programme.