‘O Nosso Chão’ is a game that combines real experiences with a digital environment, challenging children and youngsters to observe, propose and improve their spaces and communities in an innovative, practical, and inquisitive way. The game promotes different experiences in the places where they live or study and with people who inhabit them, increasing social cohesion and motivating the young population to create habits of engagement and participation with cities in the short and long term.
National
Portugal
Albufeira Municipal Council, Lumiar Parish Council, Marvila Parish Council
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
ERDF : European Regional Development Fund
‘O Nosso Chão’ was supported by the European Regional Development Fund in 2019 and the European Social Fund in 2020, through the ‘Programa Parcerias para o Impacto’, with the aim of achieving digital technological development of the tool and deepening collaborative implementation with public schools in territories with high levels of social exclusion.
No
Yes
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Rés do Chão Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Margarida Last name of representative: Marques Gender: Female Nationality: Portugal Function: Coordinator architect Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Rua Luís de Sttau Monteiro, lote C3, loja A Town: Lisbon Postal code: 1950-373 Country: Portugal Direct Tel:+351 911 579 977 E-mail:margaridamarques@resdochao.org Website:https://resdochao.org/
'O Nosso Chão' (which means ‘Our Ground’) is a digital tool in the form of a game that promotes citizen participation. It was created in 2019 and implemented in schools and community groups since 2020. The game invites young people to become part of a global academy of guardians, who, like them, are super-experts about their spaces and thus able to better contribute to their development, creating healthy places and empowered communities.
'O Nosso Chão' is played in teams using mobile phones, tablets, or computers. It proposes collective challenges of real-time actions in spaces they know - recording observations, interviews, ideas, or proposals. As they submit the results of the challenges and contribute to the positive change of that place (territory), they earn points, becoming guardians of the spaces represented on the digital game board.
The submitted responses are available online directly to the mediator and are articulated in a final game report, available for reflections and conversations among all participants.
'O Nosso Chão' has been collectively developed in a partnership between Rés do Chão, a specialist in architecture, urbanism, and participation, and SPOT Games, which focuses on gamified solutions for learning motivation. Children, schools, and municipalities have contributed cyclically with their feedback, allowing a suitable advancement of user experience focusing on educational material for participatory practices.
Considering the relevant data ("A Participação Política da Juventude em Portugal", 2002-2019. Gulbenkian Studies) that young Portuguese have fewer participation habits than the European average of people in the same age group (also with only 58% of young people being active in their societies, according to the Eurobarometer 2022), this tool promotes habits of participation for the future, encouraging children and adolescents to think and propose changes in the spaces they inhabit, engaging with decisions about their cities.
Education for participation
Active citizenship
Gamified learning
Collaboration
Digital Accessibility
The project's long-term objective is to increase active citizenship, bringing social, environmental, and economic sustainability.
- Increase social cohesion
'O Nosso Chão' invites children and young people to be part of a global group of experts in caring for the spaces of various world regions. The game increases the bounding between players and members of the community, creating new experiences and memories. Getting to know the people and places where they live increases the sense of belonging to the territory and creates opportunities to care for and improve them collaboratively.
- Promote socio-environmental responsibility
'O Nosso Chão' challenges children and young people to propose, as a team, solutions that improve the places where they live. During the game, some tasks suggest careful observations of the environment, collective discussions about changes, and the care and preservation of natural and built landscapes.
The game proposes a methodology of 3 phases of challenges - to know, to propose, to act - focusing on the importance of cycles of contextualization and responsibility: Learning how to observe, understanding the dynamics of use and affective relations in one place, considering all this information in the collective proposals and decisions.
- Assure the economy of resources
The game was designed in a digital format to be accessible to all groups and institutions in the country. When making the analog pilot version, it became clear that it was important not to require acquiring and printing new materials but to work with existing resources. From a mobile phone, tablet or computer, the teams can sign in to the game from the website www.onossochao.pt and access a map with 11 territories that refer to real spaces close to them. Each team can enter these territories digitally through a code automatically generated on the mediator's page, which preserves security and simplifies access without the need for apps or other software.
- Create a comfortable and beautiful game experience
The game's design followed gamification principles such as motivation, problem-solving skills, progression mechanics, and participatory methodologies and knowledge pertinent to educational spaces. The game's narrative and graphic quality were developed through various versions of the tool to combine a motivating and accessible image and to bring curiosity and surprise to the game experience.
Each step of the game was developed thinking about the user experience using digital frameworks that allow a simple, appealing, safe, and enjoyable use by children and educators.
This point is essential considering that children and young people are increasingly comfortable with digital tools and environments, but the same is only sometimes valid for adults. Since the pandemic of Covid-19, many professionals have had to adapt to virtual tools and new ways of communicating and learning. We accompanied this phase with the educational institutions and, in dialogue with teachers who have implemented it, developed strategies and aesthetic presentations that are intuitive and fluid to facilitate the use.
- Increase the sense of belonging and strengthen the socioemotional dynamics in space
Since the game implies energetic movement through the places on the game map, the teams have an affective impact on the shared community spaces. The children become mobilizers of other people and local resources to complete their answers, creating a collaborative visual environment that improves the community's reading of the neighborhoods. In this way the game proposes greater interpersonal interaction, enhancing the quality of social relationships in shared spaces and creating a more positive experience of places.
- Flexible implementation - different backgrounds and age groups
The project promotes the engagement of young people between 8 and 15 years old from public schools and other organizations. The game allows the exploration of different forms of participation, either on a personal level by solving problems autonomously, or in teams by developing small actions and community mediation involving people outside the teams. Since the implementation is flexible, the teams can play the game in different spaces and with varying time periods, allowing each organization to adjust the implementation to their needs.
Considering the lack of participation tools for young people in Portugal, 'O Nosso Chão' has achieved a very favorable interest from institutions of different scales (for example, the game has been played by mixed groups including children, teenagers, and elderly people). Each implementation has a strong involvement in the game's creation, monitoring, and feedback.
Currently, 'O Nosso Chão' has two similar versions adapted linguistically and in terms of complexity of challenges to two age groups - from 8 to 12 years old and from 13 to 15 years old).
- Scalability - different territories
After in-depth development of the tool through various iterations, the game has reached a version that allows a low maintenance cost, enabling large-scale accessibility to institutions across the country. Since 2019 more than 4000 children and young people and 90 teachers in more than 15 schools and associations have played the game.
- Alignment with public interests
The project has been financed through a European Social Impact Fund and co-funded by public institutions (three municipalities and a municipal company) in a collaborative construction process. The opportunity to develop educational tools for participation with such a diversity of partners demonstrates the aim of working together and validating common concerns in the search for more sustainable societies.
'O Nosso Chão' proposes gaming challenges related to interpersonal relationships and interventions in shared spaces, mobilizing communities and improving their sense of belonging to their territories. During the game, the teams work with people from their community, identifying the local resources necessary to care for shared places. People who participate feel an appreciation and pride in their spaces and their personal and collective memories. The presence of groups of children and young people collaborating in the public space, has a very positive effect on the mobilization of the community through the care, joy, and affection they dedicate to it.
To understand the impact of the implementation of the game, we do evaluations annually, using short questionnaires and focus group conversations with educators and young people (in groups of 5 to 10 people). These reports are essential for the improvement of the game in all its dimensions - narrative, mechanics of operation, presentation of content, graphic language, and working resources. This allowed the game's development to its third and most successful version, which is currently under implementation.
In the focus groups held in July 2022, children and implementers mentioned the following impacts of the game:
- The increased dynamism of the places where they play and where daily experiences take place,
- Closer relationships between community members and young people as everyone participates in the challenges,
- Increased responsibility for the care of the spaces,
- Creation of a critical sense and ideas for exploring the places,
- Improvement of the digital skills of teams of teachers and young people,
- Improvement of self-confidence in the domain of new technological skills.
The project was designed with a collective and collaborative approach, and it was planned from the beginning to be strengthened in cycles of development and updates based on the feedback of groups that played the game and the municipalities.
Starting with an analog pilot implemented in a public library, different public bodies from parish councils (Junta de Freguesia de Marvila e Junta de Freguesia do Lumiar), town halls (Câmara Municipal de Albufeira) and municipal company (Gebalis) from two cities in the country, joined the project as funders and collaborators. From this point onwards, and as part of an European funding the project was developed in a participatory manner, with the collaboration of: 1 - specialists in content development, programming, and design, 2 - groups of teachers, children, and young people, and 3 - investors. These teams were an essential part of the game's development and structure. The dialogue with municipal institutions made it possible to build bridges of trust with the public schools in each region.
Moreover, we extended the implementation to other associations who, out of their own interest, asked to play the game with their groups of young people and participated in the evaluation and iteration of each version.
The project has been building its own path also at the network and communication level, having been presented in meetings of municipal participation in Portugal and was awarded 1st place in the "Cities and Territories of the Future" award, promoted by the Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications, in the category 'Relationship with citizens and participation'.
The solution combines in an exemplary manner:
(1) Validated technical contents.
(2) Motivation and engagement strategies.
(3) Collective learning experience by teachers and children.
(4) Public authorities' role for accessibility of decision-making tools and processes to all people.
(1) The application of the knowledge of urban planners, specialized in identifying the procedures for improving public space activation and participatory processes in vulnerable urban areas, was essential to producing relevant content and define the game objectives.
(2) To foster students' motivation for learning and behavioral change, the pedagogical gamification team created ideal learning environments where young people find purpose in the actions they perform, receive dynamic, tailored challenges, have immediate feedback, feel safe to experiment, and make mistakes, and are motivated to try again.
(3) Young people and teams of educators are the main protagonists in this process. Fulfilling the participatory and collaboratory premise of the project, the game was developed through actual user experiences, identifying the possibilities and limitations imposed during the use of the game in the different parts of the city. The continuous feedback from these groups was a crucial piece in the sensitive and consequent evolution of the project, making the game more accessible, motivating, and engaging.
(4) The contribution of municipal institutions is valuable for the project's scalability, fostering bottom-up practices and participatory relationships with minimal intermediation. 'O Nosso Chão' is a direct communication and advocacy channel between local and municipal management teams and children and youth in each territory.
'O Nosso Chão' is innovative because it uses digital technologies and data collection of ideas, proposals, and actions of children and young people in their communities. This supports and strengthens citizen participation practices at the local level, directly impacting the territories' social cohesion.
Some Portugal municipalities have developed youth participation programs based on playful and pedagogical proposals: 'Matosinhos Escolicidade'; 'Valongo 4.0 - The future built by the children and young people of Valongo'. They have contextual approaches that are difficult to extend and scale to other territories. The 'School Participatory Budget' (3rd cycle and secondary education) by the Ministry of Education also aims to promote youth participation through the debate and voting of project proposals that the school budget can support. This project has a country-wide approach and can be complementary to 'O Nosso Chão' project.
Within the scope of citizen participation, there are proposals, in Portugal and other countries, of card games and digital formats, used in more occasional community debate meetings on shared spaces and other social themes, both for young people and adults: 'Urban Forum' - BipZip game by Locals Approach; participation game by the Helsinki City Council - 'City of Helsinki's Participation Game'; among others.
The significant differential of 'O Nosso Chão' is the capacity to attend to local aspects by adapting to different contexts through technological programming, game progression mechanics, and the personalization of the game spaces by each institution/location. The flexibility of implementation allows addressing local level conditions while the digital and technological framework makes it possible for national and international effective implementation.
Based on a digital model, 'O Nosso Chão' can be replicated and implemented in other countries and contexts. The game texts would have to be translated into other languages and integrated into the existing platform, adding to existing versions (versions for two different age groups).
To create a better game experience in each environment and region, the game challenges appear randomly, inhibiting the perception of repetition when played multiple times. They are organized in groups associated with two different settings in the digital programming structure: (A) succession of challenges to approach the space -(1) to know, to propose (2), and to act (3), and (B) two thematic families - (1) challenges related to the perception of the physical characteristics of the spaces, and (2) to the relationships and uses by the people of the community. This mechanical construction can be updated or superimposed on other families of themes that may help to compose a set of challenges adaptable to different interests.
The online presentation and training sessions introduce the educators to the game's mechanics, showcase different implementation methods, and present the educators' page (with the possibility to create teams and see the data of the challenges carried out).
The monitoring and the online back office platform developed for the management of the game, accessible by our organizations (Rés do Chão and Spot Games), allows optimization of implementation on a large scale and in different contexts.
Since 2019, we have developed three versions of the game (2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022). The approach to development was cyclic, with three phases: 1 - developing (with architecture, gamification, programming, design teams, and guest teachers), 2 - implementation on schools and NGOs, and 3 - evaluation (through focus groups and questionnaires). We believe the 3rd and current iteration has a very good level of user experience and achieves the project's objectives in promoting engagement and relationships with the city and communities.
In a typical implementation cycle, the methodological approach is as follows:
- Presentation of the game to teams from municipalities and school boards/teaching spaces,
- Face-to-face or online implementation training with teams of educators,
- Follow up the launch with the game teams, if necessary,
- Evaluation with educators, children, and municipalities,
- Internal evaluation of possible improvements and adaptations of content, design, and programming.
Currently, the game is being implemented in 15 schools and monitored through the existing digital platform. Since we achieved a successful phase in the game iteration and the regular evaluation processes with educators and children, the intention is to now extend it to more institutions and regions of the country.
The approach to the game itself follows a path used in most participatory processes (to know, to propose, to act):
- Acquire knowledge about the space and the people who use it through observation, mapping, and interviews,
- Brainstorm about improvements based on collective needs and desires,
- Implement positive transformation of the places.
Since the implementation of the game is flexible to specific communities and places, and the game map can be personalized with spaces of each school or neighborhood, the problems addressed and the solutions identified by the teams are contextual and local.
Through encouraging education and practice of participatory processes within a local context, 'O Nosso Chão' has two main aims that address global challenges:
- Increase the social cohesion of communities - by developing social and community participation skills and fostering collaborative problem-solving strategies,
- Improve the perception and quality of spaces - promoting care for shared places and sustainability through shared resources.
'O Nosso Chão' works on these issues through the challenges proposed to young people during the game, and by raising awareness among educational teams and municipal authorities about this topic.
Moreover, the project associates ways of working that target issues of enormous importance for today's societies, such as:
- Development of digital literacy with safety processes. 'O Nosso Chão' proposes an accessible digital solution that strengthens the use of new technologies in learning environments. To address the challenges of privacy and security of the participants, the game does not require personal data and creates safe access mechanisms through small codes randomly created by the program,
- Reduction of educational and participation inequalities. The implementation is focused on public schools and municipal districts, in which communities remain many times excluded in political decision-making processes and public investment,
- Development of public policies attentive to the real life of populations. 'O Nosso Chão' brings municipal institutions closer to educational environments and real experiences, perceptions, and desires of younger people by developing active social cooperation skills in urban territories and innovation and community development processes.
The project reached a stage of maturity in the last year through the development of a successful version in terms of implementation and impact. This development was possible through in-depth professional studies on participation and gamification suitable for school contexts, continuous implementation monitoring, and game adaptation based on teachers' feedback.
According to the evaluations carried out during and after the implementation period in the 2021/2022 school year, among the educators who collaborated:
- 100% consider that the game contributes to a good class environment and students' motivation, and would recommend the implementation of the game to another teacher,
- 75% of the teachers consider that the game improves pupils' learning performance.
According to the group of young people who participated in the focus group evaluation, the main positive points were the ease of use, the interaction they had with each other, the possibility of getting to know the spaces better, and having a space to create and register their own ideas.
The project has been awarded 1st place in the national prize "Cities and Territories of the Future", promoted by the Portuguese Association for the Development of Communications, and has had the interest of different municipalities of the country.
For the coming years, we will use communication materials, such as a video, to increase the project's outreach and its economic sustainability by supporting and selling game licenses to municipalities. The 2022/23 school year implementation will have a new evaluation period for impact perception, and the implementation process will continuously follow. Technological updates for new features, such as mapping through georeferences, 3D drawings of spaces and ideas, will be fostered according to available funding and proposals for new versions.
The project works on problem-solving skills, social-environmental collaboration, and digitalization in accessible educational contexts. In this way, it responds to many themes essential to strong and healthy communities in the present and future at national and international levels.
The project aims to promote the engagement of citizens towards their cities and communities, empowering them to make proposals and implement actions that improve the space they live. Therefore, the game will continue to contribute to the full right to participation and collaborative construction of public spaces and city planning decisions for all people, especially children and youth. The focus on this age group is also intended to draw attention to the fact that all groups of people should have adapted tools and open channels so that they can, fairly and equitably, take part in common decisions.
