A history teacher has developed a video game to teach children about Ancient Greece together with French video game company Ubisoft.
Students in their second year of secondary school (age 13-14) from the GO! Middenschool in the municipality of Geraardsbergen in the province of East-Flanders will learn about Ancient Greece through a video game.
"The students will travel over 2,000 years back in time in the game to the Peloponnesian period, when Sparta and Athens were at war," said the history teacher, Michaël De Borre on Radio 2.
"Gaming can be used in a positive way. We developed an entire educational tool that completely recreates Ancient Greece, from Macedonia to Crete, from Sparta to Athens, everything is in there," De Borre said. "Ubisoft has worked four to five years to develop this game. They worked together with historians and even went to Greece for several months to make it as historically accurate as possible," he added.
There are 20 PlayStations in the classrooms in Geraardsbergen, as they are cheaper than computers. "Each class of the second year will have to take turns to do an assignment. They have to compare Athens and Sparta, which are the two most important and largest city-states of Ancient Greece," he added.
The game starts on the Akropolis in Athens, but the students will have to choose their own route and manner of travelling to get to Sparta. They can walk, ride a horse or board a ship, reports VRT NWS.
All students will encounter their own challenges. "Some are in the woods with a bear, or in the mountains with lynxes. Some will end up in a small city or village and come across markets and harbours," he added.
The game, called 'Discovery Tour: Ancient Greece', will be an official part of the curriculum.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
