How The FAD Has Trained 30,000 Young People In Critical Thinking Thanks To Gamification?

Gamification : Imagine a society without dependencies, without addictions, a society in which the individual was completely free. And we are not only talking about the addiction to certain substances, such as drugs or alcohol, but also to some behaviors such as gambling or dependence on mobile phones.

This is the main workhorse of Fad, the Drug Addiction Help Foundation. It is an organization that works for the development of youth capable of facing their future, from all areas that affect their well-being. To do this, they investigate the reality of youth, try to raise awareness in society and generate educational programs.

The Challenge

And, part of that well-being depends enormously on the use made of the mobile and the information that reaches us through it. Just one piece of information: according to Eurostat data , almost 80% of citizens affirm that they often find news or information that distorts reality or that is directly false. More than half of the people surveyed (specifically, 55%) find it easy to identify them but, despite this, 88% believe that it is a phenomenon that poses a problem for our country or even puts it at risk. democracy (88%).

And it is that new technologies have brought the total democratisation of access to information; but this seems to have reached such a point that the problem is now the opposite: over information, excess data (sometimes completely false), which seem to promote disinformation in our society more than ever.

From the Fad, and by the hand of Google, they wanted to launch a project (which has the support of the Government ) that has a triple objective:

Educate In Critical Thinking To Promote Media Literacy

Train 30,000 adolescents between the ages of 14 and 16 so that they are able to analyze the content of the media and social networks, distinguishing what is useful and true from what is false.

In a final phase, train students to create content that is rigorous and respectful of intellectual property.

How to get it? The answer is the (In)form project , which consists of several legs:

Finding a format that would be close to today’s youth: a video game, a gamified training.

The creation of several experimental videos that serve to train youth.

Info_Influencers Contest. The aim is to ensure that youth are capable of creating content, and not just contrasting information. 

Launching this project and achieving the planned objectives entailed a multiple challenge:

• Training in something as abstract as critical thinking. The subject had to be articulated on a technical and practical content, and at the same time be integrated very well in the day to day of the youth, be close. 
• Reach a very high number of adolescents.
• Added to this was a short margin for action: the idea came at the end of 2018, and the official presentation was scheduled for April.
• With just these premises, the challenge was served.

Results

In the month of January, from the Fad they decided to have the help of Inserver to develop a large part of this project. In just three months, they managed to give shape and color to the idea and create a gamified course that encompasses the essence of the project, Eraser , as well as the reference landing page. Since the beginning of October , thousands of educational centers have already been testing it.