By Lisa Heydlauff | Founder
It's the end of the year and we're still going. We created three digital games to teach kids entrepreneurial skills at school and we realised that while content is imperative, it's not just about content. As we visited a selection of the 1,500 high schools we work in, in Bihar, India - we discovered that making great games for kids was not enough. The computer rooms where we wanted to install these games were locked. Or, there was no computer teacher. Or, there was no electricity or the key to the generator was missing in action. So while technology is wonderful, where we work in India, it's still going to mean 100 people need to go there, turn up every day to a different school with 100 tablets. Hardware + software :) And that's just what the intrepid team has been doing. It's cold, frosty, misty (not to mention, Patna is the seocnd most pollluted city after Delhi, which is the world's number one). Sometimes the fog is so thick you can't see your hand in front of your face. But still, in this, there are children going to school and teachers too, and when we've made it with our games, we've had as many as 140 kids playing at one time. What are these games? Maya and the Storm. Maya and the Night. Maya and the Banyan. Maya is a naughty, curious girl in jeans and checked shirt who is trying to manage her time to protect her village before the storm hits. Then, she's building all different kinds of renewable energy to get lights back on where she lives. And Maya and the Banyan - well, you'll have to visit the all play stores in 2016 to be able to download and play it. It's a lot of fun.
We know this is working because we ask our teams to take selfies in front of the school. We then get to GPS tag the school and kids game scores get uploaded to the server.
Our lesson of 2016: digital games are great for kids, but it still takes the human interface of turning up each day to ensure kids get a chance to play.
Game on Going to School Bihar, we're very proud.
2016 we aim to have 100,000 kids gaming. Stay tuned and thanks for your support this year!
Going to School.
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