O uso do RPG para a aprendizagem de criptografia

Abstract

In this paper, methods on how to teach cryptography and number theory were shown using Roleplaying Game as a pedagogical tool. A report on an activity executed with high school students included in the Support Program for Students from Public State Schools (PAESPE) from the Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL) was included. The usage of RPG as a pedagogical tool has been used or suggested by various papers and can be applied to various subjects, such as mathematics, enabling its insertion in the learning process effectively. Cryptography provides secret codes so that certain message can be kept in secret, thus only the addressee has access to it. Technological advances in the world demand safer methods to protect messages, within those methods RSA cryptography has been highlighted for using a relatively simple mathematical idea in its codification process without compromising the high security level for the decodification of the message. In order to use the ideas of the RSA cryptography, number theory knowledge is fundamental. Altogether, seventy four students and 3 volunteer teachers, including the author of this paper, participated on the execution of the pedagogical RPG experience. The planning was made keeping the students engagement in mind with various methodologies and using knowledge from several cryptography forms, including knowledge about number theory. The obtained results show that the usage of the game, considering the interdisciplinary way the adventure was proposed, allowed the students to participate and memorize effectively the theory previously presented. The union and dialogue within the students in order to solve the presented problems was also noted.