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ChangeMakers | Nurturing the design thinking mindset of children through gaming
Start date: Dec 1, 2016, End date: Nov 30, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

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.As the OECD reported in 2015 (Schooling Redesigned: Towards Innovative Learning Systems), education used to be “about teaching people something” but has evolved to “making sure that individuals develop a reliable compass and the navigation skills to find their own way through and increasingly uncertain, volatile and ambiguous world”. Schools should therefore be preparing students for a fast pace changing world, for jobs yet to be created, technologies to be invented and to solve problems yet to arise (Idem). And to do so, schools need to focus on nurturing “ways of thinking, involving creativity, critical thinking, problem solving and decision making; ways of working, including communication and collaboration; tools for working, including the capacity to recognise and exploit the potential of new technologies; and, last but not least, the social and emotional skills that help people live and work together” (Idem).The new learning environments designs are based on a “horizontal connectedness across areas of knowledge and subjects as well as to the community and the wider world” (Idem). The “ability to apply meaningfully-learned knowledge and skills flexibly and creatively in different situations” or as many scholars presented the adaptive expertise/competence (Idem) along with empathy are considered critical skills for the 21st century learners: “Every child must master empathy and teens must be practiced at the new requisite skills of cognitive empathy-based ethics, working in teams of teams, new leadership and changemaking” (Henry de Sio, Ashoka).The main goal of the ChangeMakers project is to create an innovative computer learning game for Design Thinking Education of children (6 -10 yo), that can be easily implemented in formal, non-formal and informal education settings.Thus, the project’s value proposition includes:• Aiming a specific target group (children 6-10 yo) which has been less favoured in transversal competences development • Highlight the transdisciplinary key drivers for improving the learning experience• Promote the learners development in an integrative framework capacitating the new generations with the competences required to act in a context of complexity, adaptive challenges, innovation, technology and active citizenship• Support the professional development of educators• Use of innovative e-learning technologies (gaming) to develop new competences• Usable in class or in other contexts, including in family environment• Inclusive learning tool, by being designed to the need of both boys and girls, by meeting WCAG 2.0 requirements and by targeting different national languages• Easy to disseminate at European level, as it can be accessed onlineIn 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 Game will be supported by a Facilitators ToolKit, with clear instruction on how to access and play the game; guidelines for the use of the learning game inside and outside class; off-game activities and other useful resources.The consortium expects to impact:• Teachers/trainers and Parents by providing an innovative and user friendly tool for teaching Design Thinking skills that can be used in various settings• Children, by delivering a tool, at the same time user friendly and entertaining, that enables learning a wide set of Design Thinking skills, as well as transversal competences • Organisations active in Education that will have a new tool and knowledge to improve transversal skills of childrenIn the future, 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.
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