The ALICE experience: A learning framework to promote gaming literacy for educators and its refinement

Educators are facing the challenge to use the learning potential of games from several complementary objectives. Above all, they need to develop their own competencies and critical thinking on games. The overarching framework for a fruitful answer to this challenge could be structured around a particular type of literacy, the so-called gaming literacy. This new type of literacy seeks to provide a firm ground for cultivating a new type of thinking about the world that is more close to the children's way of thinking: “What does the world look like from the point of view of gaming?” To enable educators effectively move towards this direction, it is important to formalize the professional knowledge and skills they need to develop, offer new learning opportunities for them (either pre-service or in-service) and build communities of practice within which they could exchange their experiences and continue their professional development. We present our work towards this direction, the underlying learning framework, its initial conception, the first pilot implementation and directions of further developments focusing on mobile games.