Innovating in the educommunication classroom

Education is a process in constant evolution that requires constant updating and innovation in terms of content as well as the use of techniques and tools that are in function of the increasingly diverse needs of students. Several decades ago, in the 20th century, games exceeded the scope of entertainment to become key tools in the teaching-learning process. In this way, games have gone from being seen as a form of entertainment to an educational and even therapeutic tool, being a source of motivation and social inclusion, ideal to be applied in distance learning processes. With this background, three teachers of the Social Communication Degree of the Universidad Tecnica Particular de Loja (UTPL), Ecuador, taking as reference the competencies and learning outcomes of the Educommunication subject, which is taught in the Open and Distance Modality of the UTPL decided to put together a teaching practice with the use of games to encourage innovation and improve the teaching-learning process of students. The main objective was to design a practice that would create a real learning environment, based on the qualities of Web 2.0 and digital technologies. But what is meant by innovation?, Morin and Seurat (1998) define it as "the art of applying, in new conditions, in a concrete context and with a precise objective, sciences, techniques, etc.". Considering this concept, a playful activity was developed using the Educaplay tool, where three games were designed to understand advertising. The results were visualized through a digital collaborative gamification platform: Wix. The students had to enter the platform (https://medialab5.wixsite.com/Educomunicacion), in which they explained the objective of the pedagogical strategy, the theme, purpose of each game, etc. Finally, the students with this innovative activity had the opportunity to internalize the concepts of cross-media and transmedia, through the reading of articles and the visualization of the games that are elaborated under these parameters. In order to know the level of satisfaction of the students, an online questionnaire was applied that allowed to know first hand, if the good practice, served to improve its use.