Social Network Platforms and Digital Games for Refugee Students in Transit

Abstract

The article is based on ethnographic research carried out in Eleonas refugee camps in Athens, Greece, from February 2019 to March 2020. Based on in-depth interviews with fifteen male and female Syrian refugee parents, the article studies the use of smartphone devices, network applications, and the digital games “Feed the Monster” and “Antura and the Letters” as essential tools of an informal educational process. Digital mobile devices dominate the everyday life of Syrian students in the camp, redefining the way they keep and reform family ties at a distance. They share experiences, comments, and photos. At the same time, digital games on smartphones are a powerful educational tool by providing children with multiple opportunities to have access to knowledge and acquire skills from different learning areas, such as language, mathematics, and science. Additionally, they encourage children to determine issues of the world around them as they share and negotiate different social and cultural experiences through their play. The interaction between play and learning is of primary importance for preschool and early school students since it contributes to the highest level of learning with the greatest degree of assimilative capacity. In this complex and ever-changing context, the article attempts to raise further questions regarding the use of digital games as part of a daily ritual play, an informal educational process, and a linguistic interaction within the family context.