ChangeMakers, a project for innovation in education

On December 20 was held the kick-off meeting in order to start ChangeMakers: Nurturing the design thinking mindset of children through coordinated gaming, a project led by Davinia Hernández-Leo, coordinator of the research laboratory on Technology-Enhanced Learning of the Technology Group Interactive in Department of Information Technology and Communications (DTIC) at UPF. The project will take two years and will be implemented with the participation of partners from business and universities in Belgium, Macedonia, Norway and Portugal.

In the Future of Learning, published by the EU, the authors highlighted three key concepts that should guide learning in the future: personalisation, collaboration and informalisation. And despite the terms are not new, the urgency of placing them at the centre of the learning design and facilitation still lacks priority and action. The main goal of the ChangeMakers project is to create an innovative computer learning game for Design Thinking Education of children (6 -10 years old), that can be easily implemented in formal, non-formal and informal education settings. In the ChangeMakers Game children will learn how to use a design thinking approach to address and build solutions to problems and/or come up with new ideas and prototype it.

The game will immerse kids in different scenarios (school, home, community) where they will be challenged to come up with ideas to solve challenges presented by engaging characters. To come up with the ideas and prototype solutions, kids will be guided through a simplified design thinking approach that will include the steps of the process, tools and actions to be selected according to the features of each problem and the needs/expectations of each character. The challenges presented to the players will consider the curricula settled for this age range to build bridges between the game based approach and the subjects and contents that children should be learning at this level of education. The consortium aims to:-support the development of innovative learning methodologies, meaningful, learner-centered and connected to the real world;- nurture a new generation of citizens, workers and leaders, more proactive, creative and innovative; boost a new generation of educators.