Born in Australia, Janice Richardson has worked as a teacher, university lecturer, educational researcher and consultant in Australia, France, Luxembourg and Belgium. She is author of two books and many articles on the pedagogical use of ICT and the development of e-literacy. Since 2002 she has led editorial teams for the Council of Europe to create and revise its online Internet Literacy Handbook (2003, 2005, 2008, available at http://www.coe.int) and its Guidelines for Teachers for the WildWebWoods online game based on the Handbook. Since 2004 Janice has worked in Brussels at European Schoolnet, an umbrella organisation that works with teachers and pupils to improve learning strategies through the integration of online technology. As Senior Adviser, she defines strategy in the area of eSafety and coordinates the Insafe network, set up and mandated by the European Commission in 2004 to raise internet safety awareness across Europe.

29 September, Wednesday, 14.30 – 16.30

Parallel session: Online overplay

Presentation title: Online games

Game-playing has an important role in the sociological development of children, encouraging them to experiment with clearly defined parameters and test their social skills in a safe environment. Most games are played with others at least some of the time and many aspects can be incorporated into real-world civic and political life. Online game-playing is a universal activity wherever young people have access to a computer, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day. Game playing experiences are diverse, with the most popular games falling into the racing, puzzle, sports, action and adventure categories. Nevertheless major finding show that game playing sometimes involves exposure to mature content, with almost a third of teens playing games that are listed as appropriate only for people older than they are (http://www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2008/Teens-Video-Games-and-Civics.aspx).

The two panel discussions within this workshop take an in-depth look at the opportunities and risks linked to online gaming, mapping the criteria that make young people more vulnerable to the latter. Panelists will put forward examples of good practice that could be scaled and adapted for implementation in other contexts. They will also tackle the sticky issue of integrating games more successfully in classroom room, in an effort to promote more responsible gaming in the broader world. Thirdly, the workshop will investigate game-rating systems, age-verification needs and classification of online content, three issues that are high on the agenda in most countries on across the European Union.