Podcasts are digital media with the potential to influence teaching and learning processes in the classroom. Students' creation of podcasts can establish new perceptions and interactions with educational content. This article presents a literature review of the literature on the use of podcasts as didactic activities in classrooms worldwide. To achieve this, 30 works available in scientific databases were analyzed, meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria established for this investigation. The reviewed texts demonstrate that, with technological advancements, media literacy, and the ease of development, experiences involving the use of podcasts as didactic activities are increasingly occurring worldwide. Authors report that students have improved their skills in writing, listening, researching, communicating, among others, through podcast creation. Developing podcasts reduces students' anxiety and helps them work collaboratively. The findings of this research may support the adoption of strategies for educational practices and policies involving student podcast creation as an additional didactic tool in the teaching and learning process.

Creating engaging opportunities for young people to know more about nature can act as a trigger for environmental awareness and internalization of the importance of preserving nature and the balance of ecosystems. As recent work in the field of educational research establishes a relationship between students’ involvement in the creation of games and an increase in the interest about the addressed themes, this paper introduces the Gamers4Nature+ project - an Erasmus+ project that aims to raise young student’s awareness on the importance of environmental and biodiversity preservation through the creation of digital games. The project articulates in three axes: teacher training, students’ involvement, and dissemination by students. 12 upper-secondary teachers and more than 120 students from four different countries were involved in the game-creation activities. Results indicate that the Gamers4Nature+ project’s approach can support the different educational stakeholders to develop digital games addressing environmental and sustainable issues, thus leading to a greater awareness of the importance of protecting nature and the environment

Podcasts as a media format have been increasing popular in recent years. The ease of access to this format have contributed for its success story. However, the creation of Podcasts requires specific hardware and software for recording and editing it. Some platforms have emerged with the proposal to ease this creation process, namely by introducing Text-to-Speech (TTS) technologies removing the need for capturing and editing voice, reducing the effort necessary for producing this format, yet no platform allows the use of TTS in Portuguese of Portugal while retaining the scope of “podcast creation platform”. Taking these limitations in mind we present the proposal of an all-in-one Podcast Creation platform with the availability of TTS Technology in Portuguese of Portugal. The paper describes the usability testing (UX) of the platform using 3 methodologies being: Self-Assessment Manikin (SAM), System Usability Scale (SUS) and Attrakdiff. with promising results regarding its usability and desirability.

The increase in the consumption of digital formats has, in many cases, been a penalty for traditional media companies. In the adaptation to digital, the transformation of written news into audio formats, that guarantee spatio-temporal flexibility in its consumption, is one of the differentiating options. Artificial intelligence tools can help accelerate and automate the digitalization processes. It is, therefore, the objective of this paper to evaluate the integration of Text-to-Speech (TTS) technology in the process of creating news podcasts. The study comprised two surveys. The first corresponding to the validation of TTS services in Portuguese from Portugal, and the second for the validation of three models of news podcasts containing human voice, synthesized voice via TTS, and a hybrid model with TTS voice and human voice. The results point to a general acceptance of the integration of voices generated by TTS in news podcasts without prejudice to the consumer experience.

Cultural places like museums have been looking for means to enrich the visitor experience during and after the visit. This paper reports on a proposal to contribute to this field presenting a system that automatically creates personalized memory videos of the visit, by identifying the paths of visitors in cultural spaces. The MixMyVisit project combines low-cost devices with NFC technology, allowing a simple way for identifying visitors’ paths, a bot for interaction with the visitor through a textual chat implemented in a social network, the ability for the visitor to share its own captured contents (photos or videos), a server-side video engine supported by ffmpeg components and an online responsive video editor. The features and main technical developments are presented on the paper. The results of an evaluation carried by two experts provide positive insights towards such a system and the team expects to get a final validation in a field trial to be carried out.

In a context where the involvement of youngers in the development of games is seen as an effective way to promote a deeper identification and engagement with the educational content, the Gamers4Nature project introduces a Toolkit designed to support youngsters in the creation of mobile digital games addressing environmental and biodiversity preservation. The Gamers4Nature Toolkit to Game Design includes a set of resources developed to support younger audiences in the creation of digital games: a Game Construction Cards Set, a Rapid Game Design Document and thematic cards, presented in a cardboard box. This paper reports on the methodological approach used for the design and evaluation of the Toolkit to Game Design. All resources were developed following a participatory design approach, with experts (n=18) and potential end-users (n=83) involved in the design and evaluation process. Preliminary results indicate that the Toolkit to Game Design is seen as an engaging and useful approach to game creation, able to be adopted in schools, Universities and environmental organizations activities.

Involving students in the creation of their own games about a theme may enhance the interest toward the addressed topic, a sense of ownership and a better understanding of the value of what is learned. This paper presents the application of a Toolkit to Game Design in two Game Creation sessions with upper-secondary students. The Toolkit was developed in the context of the Gamers4Nature project and includes resources and tools designed to enhance the active participation of the youngest audience in game creation activities, while promoting environmental preservation and biodiversity conservation. The Toolkit to Game Design was used in two Game Design sessions organized with upper-secondary students (n=28). By using the Toolkit, 10 functional prototypes of digital games were created. Students enhanced the Toolkit's ease of use, mentioned that it was an engaging approach to game creation and that its use promoted a more active way to addressed the educational content and the programming activity. Preliminary results indicate that the Toolkit can be seen as an engaging approach to game creation, able to be adopted in different upper-secondary and higher education disciplines and fields.