Teaching Ancient Greek Theatre Through In-Game Exploration: The Case of ThimelEdu

Introduction

Culture is a major cornerstone of all societies, however small or large in scale. No society can include individuals that do not share common beliefs and practices. In essence, culture is the connective tissue of society, keeping historical connections to the past as a bonding element and a steppingstone for a common shaping of future developments and improvement of quality of life (Margetis et al., 2020). Culture, affected by economic and technological evolutions, changes shapes. In general terms, we can identify three distinct ages for culture, pre-industrial evolution, named Culture 1.0, postindustrial evolution, called Culture 2.0, and we are currently moving towards a new age, called Culture 3.0 (Papadakis, 2021; Sacco, 2011), in which users and producers of culture become one interchanging role, assumed by all individuals. This evolution results from the influence of information technologies, such as the web and video games. The scale of online platforms and their high connectivity have created new online communities. Cultural market dominance is increasingly challenged by the proliferation and expansion of a community of practice in which members interact on a non-market exchange paradigm (Sacco, 2011). This rapid segue to a new age for culture is influenced by the growth of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their effect on many other aspects of life. This effect has spread widely to all aspects of life, including science, business, and lifestyle. Thus, new trends are created, and a new aspect of life emerges the digital life (Kapaniaris & Zampetoglou, 2021). While this rapid digitization is still challenging for some people, today’s young adults, teenagers and children are highly familiarized and even emerged with the digital life. In many cases, they even feel safer in digital worlds, such as 3D virtual worlds, compared to reality (Cabiria, 2008; McKenna & Chughtai, 2020).Virtual worlds are usually used to simulate reality or create fictional worlds that we could only imagine until a few years ago. However, an interesting intersection of the two is to recreate past worlds so that we can experience history from a new perspective (Poultsakis, Papadakis, Kalogiannakis & Psycharis, 2021). The use of technologies, such as computer graphics, provides new digital tools that can facilitate a better understanding and exploration of history and civilization while also offering the possibilities for participation and dissemination of cultural heritage (Margetis et al., 2020; Ott & Pozzi, 2011). There is a wide consensus on the value of Cultural Heritage, which is also a prominent concern in international policy, with UNESCO playing a crucial role in identifying and assuring cultural protection. Governments, academia and independent organizations join forces to document, protect and make culture accessible, including archaeological sites, natural parks, museums, folk traditions, etc.) (Alivizatou-Barakou et al., 2017). Virtual Museums are the most prevalent case in utilizing contemporary technologies to provide interactive experiences in cultural heritage while utilizing state-of-the-art technologies to create new experiences and forms of studying and interacting with history (Marinos Ioannides & Davies, 2018). At the same time, educators are convinced of the benefits new technologies carry for students when utilized in the learning procedure (Kalogiannakis & Papadakis, 2007). Thus, educators are looking to transform their learning sessions and provide their students with the modern, digital tools that will create new opportunities through activities that would traditionally not be included in education, such as serious games which transform learning into playing with the additional benefits of rewarding, feedback, high engagement, and motivated students (Groh, 2012; Stewart et al., 2013). The intersection of game-based learning, 3D graphics, virtual worlds, narrative, and cultural heritage carries a high potential for exploration and learning of historical sites in a manner that is often difficult, or even impossible, through traditional means and must thus be utilized for the betterment of students understanding of history (Katsaris & Vidakis, 2021). Despite the wide acceptance of serious games as an effective educational tool, the crucial elements and how they affect knowledge absorption by students is still a subject explored by researchers. Therefore, the authors have created a serious game that allows players to explore the site of an ancient Greek theatre and have conducted studies to understand its effect on students' motivation and satisfaction and the effect on gained knowledge and comprehension of the topics included in the game. In this chapter, the authors will attempt to conduct a retrospective analysis and critique, as is often performed in the video games industry, of the serious game they created and the experimental studies that allowed them to have data for the retrospective analysis. This analysis aims to identify game elements crucial for knowledge gain and understand how serious games affect knowledge compared to traditional teaching methods (Barianos, Papadakis & Vidakis, 2022). As key indicators for the research, two research questions were formulated and will be investigated below: