Multiple studies have shown the high efficiency of community-based schools. In such schools, children are 1.5 times less likely to miss lessons, and their academic achievements are significantly improved. They have 35% more time for projects, sports and art, which means opportunities for development. Our goal is to ensure that more schools follow the “School is a Center of the Community” model.
In practice, this is a game that is implemented in a chatbot. Through their interactions with the animated character Arnie, school teams are given assignments which help to shape and develop their school communities. Answers are sent in the form of links to social media posts. Moderators evaluate the quality of completed tasks and award game crystals. The teams with the most crystals advance to the finals, where the winners are determined and awarded a cash prize. They can spend it on implementing a school project that embodies the concept "School is a Center of the Community".
The development of the concept of “School is a center of the Community” led to the creation of the Ed Game, named for Lev Vygotsky. Because the concept and techniques of the game are applicable to any region, school teams from other countries started to join the Ed Game. The number of participants is rising, from 21000 registrations in 2021 to over 30000 in 2023.
Today, more than 2000 schools have moved away from a closed organization model towards creating a community that includes parents, alumni, representatives of the local communities and businesses.
In addition, schools that participated in the Ed Game initiated creation of the Association of School Communities to share their experiences.
Game tasks can be created based on the context of a particular country and are easily adaptable to any educational system. To receive recommendations on the implementation of the game, as well as the use of a chatbot, please contact our team via the website: https://rybakovschoolaward.ru/ or email us at school@rybakovfoundation.org.