HALT4Kids is based on the solid results of HALT project, namely the extensive penetration of digital learning technologies – LT (e.g., Open Educational Resources-OER, Serious game, VCoP, movie). More specifically more than 1200 youngsters have used HALT learning technologies in a very short pilot period. HALT4Kids will exploit this momentum for child athletes (5-12 years old), based on the well-established involvement of child athletes (5-12 years old) and sport people (students, athletes, former athletes, couches, young scientists) with LT in order to achieve its main objective. Also, HALT4Kids is aware that the COVID-19 crisis led to an unprecedented shift to online learning and digital technologies, especially in its target groups[1] (see).
In addition, HALT4Kids offer LT for self-paced personalised education for kids in a direct and transparent manner. The LT that will be developed in the project will be designed in a co-creation manner by engaging main stakeholders like PE experts, psychologists, computer designers and engineers.
Furthermore, HALT4Kids, will support the “Digital Education action Plan 2021-2027” (Resetting education and training for the digital age) that stresses the need for transforming educational content for instruction and training in a way that engages, motivates, and immerses people to develop personal experiences of constructing their learning experiences. Hence it is widely contested in Europe that transferring training content from traditional contexts (e.g., multiple-choice tests, grading system, content transmission) will not discern value to the way education and training is moving forward, but rather it will emulate pedagogical modalities already practiced in conventional settings. In congruence to Europe’s observation in not ushering innovation on how training content and pedagogy is used, this is an occurring problem in the field of physical education promotion and sports. In response, therefore, to the significant difficulty of how to design, develop, implement, and share highly interactive, process-based content (see for example Digital Education action Plan 2021-2027), it is imminent to create such content that permeates personal construction of meaning, activity-based learning meaningful assessment and rapid feedback.
Furthermore, gamified participation in the game and the VCoP using various gamification mechanics (badges, score, awards, etc.) aims to achieve higher engagement of the target groups.
The innovative aspects towards the shared construction of safeguarding experiences are as follows:
- One of the first safeguarding programs for child athletes in Europe: The proposed project aims to support child athletes and scaffold stakeholders as well as sports people awareness and knowledge on harassment and abuse in sports and is one of the first European project towards the training of current child athletes.
- Digital Storytelling: Stories provide an opportunity to interact with an adult, to feel emotions, to get to know and to experience the world in an indirect and safe way. On the other hand, the word storytelling refers to the process of making up the stories. The HALT4Kids project aims to promote both definitions of storytelling in order to promote children’s awareness and identification of harassment and abuse in sports. Over the past decade numerus of digital storytelling have been created to address issues about sexual abuse in children but not in other types of abuse and not in the context of sports. Based on the documented benefits of storytelling, especially in relation to their contribution in enhancing children’s knowledge of hard concepts, HALT4Kids seeks to design, implement and evaluate a digital story for 5 to 8 years old children which will aid children to make sense of the behaviours which are considered inappropriate in the sport context and equip them with knowledge relevant to coping strategies, and all within the safety of their own home.
- Gamification: The exploitation of gamified approaches to support child athletes (5-12 years old) awareness and identification of harassment and abuse in sports is an innovation. It is very well received by young athletes in HALT project (http://games.csd.auth.gr/halt/) and now it is the first time that will be used for child athletes aged 9 to12. HALT4Kids will propose knowledge and training via a mobile serious game for child athletes, and underlying mechanics and dynamics (i.e., goals, challenges, levels, scoring mechanisms, dialogues, avatars for coaching / mentoring) on how to respond to the challenge. Specifically, the project designs, develops and implements a serious game for harassment and abuse. The game will include rules, targets for athletes or sports people who will be trained on how to recognize and how they can find ways to avoid it. The game will be complemented by specific scenarios and will include all those features and aspects that resemble an ingenious process which places learning activities, teaching strategies, feedback and evaluation balanced with game mechanics and dynamics.
- Mobile Application: HALT4Kids will propose a mobile application, because in the context of intensifying prevention and intervention of harassment and abuse, an important aid for child athletes would be a mobile application. The developmentally appropriate service will be dedicated to providing direct guidance and support, in the strictest confidentiality, to those who feel they are being victimized while engaging in sports. Considering that children carry their phones with them the majority of the time, and especially when outside of the home and away from their parents, the interactive technology offered by mobile apps of the kind, is particularly apt for documenting and combating violence in many contexts especially as they can report an incident immediately while the reporter (victim or bystander) can remain anonymous. Over the past decade, numerous mobile applications have been created to address issues of women’s safety such as bSafe, Circle of 6, Hollaback!, Panic Button, LifeLine Response, and Guardly, but not in the context of sports, and neither with children. But given the evidence documenting those children can naturally interact and learn from applications since the age of 2, providing them with such an application for keeping then safe at age of 10 does not feel untimely, on the contrary one might say.
- Through the game, the storytelling and their content, will become a comprehensive study of the phenomenon of harassment and abuse in sports in child athletes, an analysis of the causes of occurrence, the evaluation of the event from a sociological point of view and the effort to find ways to treatment with, if not eradicate the phenomenon.
- Virtual Community of Practice for kids (VCoP4Kids): The exploitation of safe and online communities focuses on supporting child athletes and sport people to come up against their personal harassment and abuse. HALT4Kids, will extend HALT platform (http://haltvm.phed.auth.gr/) in order to achieve as much impact as possible. Over the past decade numerus
