Play/Ground

Play/Ground is a collection of 6 visual novels created by students starting from places that have been significant for the area and which are now closed and disused or forgotten, located in 6 Municipalities in the province of Padua: Villa Estense, SantUrbano, Casale di Scodosia, Castelbaldo, Borgo Veneto, Montagnana.The methodPlay/Ground offers middle school students a unique opportunity to learn through the videogame medium.The video game is an increasingly present medium in our lives. A resource that can also prove to be invaluable from a popular point of view and that can be used for cultural purposes.Added to this is that game-based learning has already shown, in many contexts, to be a very useful method at school and in learning: numerous studies and research are highlighting the importance of the pedagogical role of these tools by shifting the focus of attention from a pastime, often subject to prejudice, to an activity that instead supports and promotes learning.The targetThe goal is to have students create a series of visual novels - interactive adventure video games - that allow them to re-read and tell with their own eyes and with a language familiar to them, their landscape and socio-cultural context.The course, which involves different professional figures and takes place during the 2022-2023 school year, offers girls and boys a different approach to the theme of video games, making them aware of the potential of video games as an innovative and participatory narrative tool, and providing them with concrete tools for creating interactive stories and illustrated text adventures, visual novels.A project of the Comprehensive Institute of Villa Estense, in the province of Padua, carried out in collaboration with the Comprehensive Institute of the Sculdascia Municipalities, the Comprehensive Institute of Borgo Veneto, IVIPRO – Italian Videogame Program and GLASS studio.Play/Ground was the winner of the tender "Cinematographic and audiovisual language as an object and tool for education and training" - action C) Visioni Fuori Luogo, carried out as part of the National Plan for Cinema and Images for School promoted by MiC-Ministry of Culture and MIM-Ministry of Education and Merit (CIPS - Cinema and Images for School).The following have collaborated in the realization of the project:Andrea DressenoMatteo MingardoValentina PaggiarinFrancis BertonFrances ZanardoSilvia RaimondiStephen Caselli