Irina Elena Paraschivoiu
Populism poisons the minds of youngsters with fear and untruth. Teachers try to cure it by preaching history books to digital natives. We think teens need to experience books as an engaging interactive experience, so together with school kids aged 12-18 we will co-design and develop an interactive book as an escape room scenario. The storyline and riddles, ideated by the kids, will be placed in a populist dystopian setting.
Read, check facts, research, solve riddles and escape the fake.
Workshops in Bucharest/Romania, Salzburg/Austria, Mühlheim/Germany and dissemination all over Europe
Critical thinking means challenging everything you see, hear or read and making up your own answers. Too bad kids scroll media feeds and play games not realizing that they are instrumented. If we can’t empower them to find truths for themselves and keep an inquisitive mind, democracy will be lost.
With 3 schools in Romania, Austria and Germany we developed a book with an accompanying game app full of ideas, riddles, game play and stories which can be used all over Europe to engage kids in reading and experiencing the mechanism of fake news and the consequences of populism.
For us it is important to bridge the gap between the virtual and the real. Polycular developed a software with which this is possible. The infrastructure is ready to be used to create an outstanding blended learning experience which is challenging, informative and makes reading fun. Following a participatory design process designed by Urban INC, students will work alongside game developers, illustrators and storytellers.
Watch the video: vimeo.com/245008750
We love books, we love games and we love Europe and both our organisations thrive to make system change happen through technology and smart process design. All our projects circle around education, youth and playful experiences. Experience is the first step in understanding!
The project will be co-designed and co-built with school kids from Romania, Germany and Austria aged 12-18. The outcome of the project will be available for schools, teachers and teens all over Europe and beyond.
We would like to partner with NGOs/individuals to try this idea of an interactive EscapeRoom in book-form for workshops with youngsters. We think digital natives need a push and incentive to read a book and enjoy it. We are curious if this blended experience could help to promote reading books.