One Page Summary

From urban revitalization to disaster preparedness, communities across the country are tackling complex issues that require new types of partnerships and an influx of ideas. It makes sense that foundations and their community-based partners would turn to innovation in other sectors to look for ways to solve old problems. And that’s where games come in.

Researchers say that playing games can bring together fundamental aspects of psychology, sociology and technology to engage people for social change. Games leverage elements of cooperation and competition for creative problem solving while sparking engagement. Games are also fun and grab hold of the public’s imagination. As games become a bigger part of culture, the potential they have to transform students’ experiences in school grows.

By the time kids are 21, they’ve played 10,000 hours of video games, the same amount of time they’ve spent in school. Because of this, they’re more likely to respond to the use of games in other settings, like the classroom. This is called gamification, or applying game principles to non-game situations. Gamification is more likely to be successful today because students are more willing to be active participants in its implementation.

Key competences are the essential abilities individuals need in order to apply knowledge to real world contexts.If school education is to prepare individuals for life, citizenship and
work, it needs to develop their key competences. While the motivation behind the move towards key competences in school education is largely social and economic, their entry into education policies represents the mainstreaming of several long-running themes in educational and social research. Among others, these concern the social aspects of learning, theories about the
most effective ways to transfer knowledge, and theories about the competences individuals need to work effectively.
Although some key competences refer to subject knowledge, they are essentially cross-curricular in nature, and hence can be developed through every school subject. This is challenging given that schools in most EU member states, particularly  secondary schools, are structured according to subjects. There is no uniform approach to integrating key competences into school curricula, which requires decisions about how to identify, define and frame key competences, including
specifying the ways in which they are relevant to different levels of schooling. Implementation at the national level will depend on educational philosophies, historical context, outside influences and a range of other factors.

The implementation of key competences in schools can require a shift in culture because they require addressing as part of every subject, rather than being standalone. This is also because successful implementation requires buy-in from all school staff. Research from Finland indicates that school cultures that are conducive to the uptake of innovative practice tend to be open to risk-taking and teamwork .
A frequently recommended method for teaching key competences is the provision of interactive learning environments. These may be enhanced by technology and typically require learners working both autonomously and collaboratively to apply creativity, problem-solving and exploration to real life, multi-disciplinary problems. These environments allow several key competences to be developed simultaneously. Project-based learning is another way to teach key competences. Alongside these environments, it is important for schools to support learners’ social and emotional development, in order to develop their social and civic competences
and encourage positive attitudes to learning.

Our solution is Coda Quest, an immersive educational game designed to give kids a unique and fun learning experience. Questions and educational videos are baked into game play, creating an engaging environment for kids to study and learn new topics. The game is ready for Windows and Mac, and is already tested in the US, with kids learning math.