Applicability of a Cyberbullying Videogame as a Teacher Tool: Comparing Teachers and Educational Sciences Students

Abstract

Conectado is a serious game designed to increase the awareness of young people on bullying and cyberbullying in schools. It is designed as an educational tool for teachers, to be used in classrooms with their students to provide a common experience in class about bullying and cyberbullying. Playing the game, students are placed in the role of victims, making them reflect on the problems, consequences, and strategies that do and do not work. Additionally, by making students role-play as victims, the game increases empathy with actual victims. After a game-play session, teachers can start an open conversation about bullying and cyberbullying with students, based on their shared in-game experiences. Since the game is designed to be used in the classroom as an educational tool, it is not only important that it is effective, but also that current and future educators find it potentially applicable to their classrooms. This article presents the results of how the serious game Conectado, previously validated with students, has been tested with 93 actual teachers in 8 schools; and with 113 educational sciences students in 2 university centres. Conectado has been well accepted, and both teachers and students of educational sciences see it as a useful tool for classroom use, which can help to promote empathy with victims and raise bullying awareness among their students.