Teaching guide
Using B@O in class
Play, understand, debate, create and pass on: a teaching guide that turns B@O into an evolving resource in which pupils become the players, experts, authors and mediators.
1 General philosophy
B@O is designed as a cooperative game to explore the Internet jungle safely. The suggested classroom use goes further than a single game: the idea is to build a progression.
- Discover
- Understand
- Play
- Justify
- Create
- Test
- Enrich
- Pass on
“I play the game”
“I understand what the game wants to teach me”
“I can create a new situation”
“I can help the game evolve”
This last dimension is essential: B@O can become an evolving game, enriched by pupils’ experiences, ideas and work.
2 The main learning aims
Identify digital situations
Cyberbullying, requests for personal information, meeting a stranger, sharing an image, advertising, dubious information, excessive use… and also positive experiences.
Build a repertoire of safe habits
Ignore, block, report, take a screenshot, disconnect, talk to a trusted adult thanks to the joker.
Learning to justify
“I choose this action because…”: speaking, arguing a point, debating, listening and taking other people’s points of view into account.
3 Three groups, three levels
“I recognise and I act”
Pupils aged 6 and up, or who need very simplified access. Icons are matched, ignoring the text.
Core skill: identify a situation and link it to an action. Priority vocabulary: message, photo, friend, stranger, problem, danger, block, report, screenshot, adult, break, stop.
“I choose and I explain”
Pupils aged 8 and up who can read the situations and begin to argue. Power cards come into play.
Key question: “Why is this action suited to this situation?” — “What makes you think that?”, “Could another action work?”
“I justify, I debate and I create”
Pupils aged 8 and up, especially in the last two years of primary school (CM1–CM2, ages 9–11): analyse, justify, listen to an objection, create and test.
The game develops media and information literacy (EMI) through reception and decision-making; making and creating develop it through production.
4 An 8-session progression
An 8-session progression, which can be extended to 10 or 12 sessions to include making the new cards. Click on a session to see the details.
1Discover the situationsStart with the situations, not the rules
Don’t start with the rules. Start with the situations.
Setup: lay out the B@O tiles on a large table. Pupils walk around the situations and each chooses one: one they find interesting, understand, don’t understand, or that reminds them of something.
Instruction: “Choose a situation. Explain what is happening. Is it a good experience or a problem? What could the character do?”
The teacher then projects the chosen situations. Possible questions: What do you see? What is happening? Who is speaking? What is the problem? Is it dangerous? What could the character do? Who could help them?
Start from the positive situations too
B@O is not only a game about the dangers of the Internet: the positive situations show that digital tools help us learn, help someone, play together, communicate, create, discover and share. “What makes this situation a good experience?” — for digital education that is not based on fear.
Differentiate
- Level 1: get pupils to talk about the picture — “What do you see?”, “Is it good or is it a problem?”
- Level 2: add “Why?”, “What can the character do?”
- Level 3: add “What exactly is the problem?”, “What consequences could this situation have?”, “What different strategies are possible?”
2One situation → several answersThe heart of the scenario
This session is the heart of the scenario.
- The teacher projects a situation.
- Pupils observe it.
- Each pupil chooses an action.
- The choices are compared.
- Pupils justify their choices.
- The class builds several possible answers.
Situation: a classmate shares an embarrassing photo of another pupil.
Screenshot → keep evidence · Report → use the reporting feature · Block → stop unwanted messages or contacts · Disconnect → get out of the situation · Talk to an adult → don’t face the problem alone.
There isn’t always just one right card. Don’t ask “What is THE right answer?” but “Which answer could be useful here? Why?”. Screenshot → report → block → trusted adult can be a coherent strategy.
3Discover the rules step by stepThe aim, solving, the Low battery card
Rather than giving all the rules at once, let pupils discover the game bit by bit.
- The aim: “We are together against the problems we meet on the Internet.” Situation solved: Bao gains 2 points; situation not solved: Bao loses 1 point on the next turn.
- Solving a situation: discover the icons, the Action cards, the joker and cooperation between players. The 24 Action cards include 4 × Ignore, 4 × Block, 4 × Report, 4 × Screenshot, 4 × Disconnect, 2 jokers… and 2 Low battery cards. The joker “Talk about this problem with an adult you trust” is particularly useful for working on turning to an adult.
- The “Low battery” card: debate — “Why can a card that doesn’t let you play still be important?” — to talk about taking breaks, sleep, sport, relationships and screen-free activities.
4Play at your levelCooperate, anticipate, justify
Pupils play with the rules for their level.
- Level 1 — understand the mechanics and cooperate: the focus is on icons and handling the cards.
- Level 2 — choose and anticipate: Power cards become a strategic element.
- Level 3 — justify: for every action played, “I play this card because…”. A pupil can play Bao the referee and check that the explanations make sense.
5Debrief and justifyLearning from the game · the “action advocate” challenge
Debriefing is essential: the game itself invites players to reflect together on the situations that caused them difficulty.
About the situations
- Which situation caused us the most problems?
- Why?
- Did we understand the problem straight away?
About the actions
- Which card did we use?
- Why?
- Would another card have worked?
About cooperation
- Who helped? How?
- Did we use our cards well?
About learning
“What do you know now that you didn’t know before playing?”
The “action advocate” challenge (level 3)
A pupil plays “Screenshot”. A second pupil defends this choice: “This card is useful because…”. A third can reply: “I disagree because…”, then suggest another solution. This works on: choose → justify → listen → reply → argue.
6Invent new situationsSpecifications and peer review
This is where the game truly evolves: pupils become authors of new situations.
| Criterion | Question |
|---|---|
| Realistic | Could a young person really come across this situation? |
| Clear | Is it immediately clear what is happening? |
| Useful | Does it help you learn something? |
| Consistent | Do the text and the picture tell the same story? |
| Actionable | Can you imagine a response? |
| Short | Is it easy to read? |
Examples of new situations
- Safety — “Someone I don’t know asks me for my address.”
- Personal data — “Someone asks me for my password.”
- Image — “A friend posts a photo of me without asking.”
- Critical thinking — “I see some surprising information. I don’t know if it’s true.”
- Scam — “A message tells me I’ve won a present and asks me to click.”
- Cyberbullying — “Several people write nasty messages to a character.”
- Excessive use — “I’ve been playing for a long time but I don’t want to stop.”
- Good experiences — “I find a tutorial that helps me understand my lesson.”; “I play with my friends and we have fun together.”
Peer-review workshop
Each group swaps its creation with another group. The readers answer: 1. What is happening? 2. What is the problem? 3. What can be done? 4. Which Action card could work? If the pupils can’t answer, the authors improve their card: write → test → get feedback → improve.
7Invent super-powersDesign a balanced Power card
Pupils create their own Power cards, based on the official ones (draw cards, play a card, give cards away, turn a Low battery into a joker, keep more cards…).
Specifications for a super-power
- be quick to understand
- have a precise effect
- be usable only once
- help the group
- not make victory automatic
- stay in keeping with the cooperative nature of the game
Sentence frame for pupils: My power lets you… / I can use it when… / It can be used… times. / It helps the group because…
🦸 The adviser
Choose a card from another player. Ask them why it could help. The group then decides whether or not to play it.
🔎 The search
Look at the top three cards of the draw pile. Choose one.
🤝 The team
All the players show a card. The group chooses one card to play.
🛡️ The shield
Once, the group can avoid losing 1 well-being point.
⏸️ Time out
All the players can talk for one minute before playing.
🔄 Sharing
Give a card to a player who needs it. Then draw a new card.
These cards are teaching prototypes, not new official B@O rules: their value lies in getting pupils to think about the balance of a game.
8Test, improve and include the creationsThe pupils’ validation committee
The class becomes a real design committee: each new card is assessed.
| Criterion | Question |
|---|---|
| Understanding | Can the card be understood without explanation? |
| Vocabulary | Are the words suitable? |
| Consistency | Does the picture match the text? |
| Interest | Does the situation teach something? |
| Action | Can you respond with the game’s cards? |
| Balance | Is the power too strong? |
| Legibility | Can the card be read quickly? |
Possible decisions: ✅ Approved — the card joins the class expansion · 🔧 To improve — the authors rework it · ❌ Rejected — not clear, useful or balanced enough.
Creating is not just inventing. It is also testing and improving.
5 The class creates its own “B@O expansion”
At the end of the project, the work is kept in a box or folder labelled “B@O – Our class expansion”: new good and bad experiences, illustrations, super-powers, Goal cards, cards adapted for a particular group. The original game remains unchanged: the expansion is added to it.
A real learning loop
- I play
- I meet a situation
- I justify
- I spot what is missing
- I write and illustrate
- I test
- I change
- I get others to play
- I make the game evolve
Turning pupils into mediators
Organise a meeting with another class, parents, a younger class, pupils new to the language or another school. Pupils present B@O, explain the rules, get others to play, ask the players to justify, present their own cards and collect feedback: they go from being players to being mediators.
6 The teacher’s role evolves
| Phase | Teacher’s role |
|---|---|
| Discovery | Bring out pupils’ ideas |
| Play | Uphold the rules and observe |
| Debate | Get pupils to put things into words and ask questions |
| Creation | Support without doing it for them |
| Testing | Organise feedback |
| Validation | Get pupils to make the criteria explicit |
| Passing on | Let pupils become mediators |
7 Differentiation at a glance
| Skill | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | With help | Independently | |
| Understanding a situation | Identify | Identify + interpret | Analyse |
| Choosing | With help | Independently | Compare |
| Justify | Very simple speaking | Reasoned speaking | Structured justification |
| Debating | Give an opinion | Listen / reply | Argue / counter-argue |
| Create | Complete a model | Write a situation | Design + test + improve |
| Super-power | Choosing | Adapt | Design |
| Assessing | Say whether it is clear | Check consistency | Assess effectiveness and balance |
8 B@O and multilingual pupils
The labels in easy French (A1) offer a way in for pupils learning French. Three language levels make it possible to differentiate the language without excluding pupils from the game mechanics:
photo — message — friend — problem — adult
“A man asks for a photo.”
“I choose to block because…”
The progression becomes: vocabulary → sentence → explanation → justification.
9 Cross-curricular skills
Language (French)
Media and information literacy / digital skills (EMI / CRCN)
Moral and civic education (EMC)
Visual arts
Science and technology / FabLab
10 A simple assessment grid
| Skill | Beginning | In progress | Achieved |
|---|---|---|---|
| I recognise a problematic situation | |||
| I know several safe habits | |||
| I choose a suitable action | |||
| I explain my choice | |||
| I listen to others | |||
| I know how to ask for help | |||
| I can create a situation | |||
| I can create a super-power | |||
| I can improve my creation |
The ultimate goal: for pupils to build an approach — I meet a situation, I take time to analyse it, I choose a response, I can explain why, I know how to ask for help, I can imagine another solution, I can pass on what I have learnt — and, by creating new cards, I can help improve the game.
11 Materials and downloads
| To play | B@O box(es): tiles, Situation cards, Action cards, Power cards, pawns, well-being gauge, game rules. |
|---|---|
| For the sessions | Situation tiles to project, projector or interactive whiteboard, board or flip chart, A3 sheets, sticky notes, felt-tip pens, display materials. |
| To create | Design sheets, blank cards, thick paper, pencils, felt-tip pens, scissors, glue, tile and card templates. |
| To test and improve | Prototypes, observation and test grids, feedback sheets, a “B@O – Class creations” box. |
| To make the expansions | Computer or tablet, colour printer, sticker sheets, laminator and, depending on the project, digital fabrication equipment. |