The Open Data Newsroom: A Game Approach for Developing Open Data Competencies in Elementary School

Open Data refers to digital data that is made available to anyone with the legal and technical conditions to be freely used, reused, and redistributed. Although it has emerged as a new common with the potential to increase citizen participation and transparency, current literature suggests the lack of skills for managing data and participating in Open Data processes, as one of the main barriers to achieve these benefits. Integrating Open Data in school education has been recognized as key to fostering a larger community able to participate in Open Data ecosystems. This study showcases the design of a role-playing game grounded in authentic learning principles for the development of Open Data competencies in elementary school. The Open Data Newsroom is a game approach that immerses students in solving a mystery with data. In the game, students play Open Data Journalists engaging in a three-phase authentic process to get, understand and deliver data. The learning goal in the game is that students build open data competencies: data literacy and real-world problem solving. A design-based research methodological approach is applied to develop theory based and practically grounded educational designs. Two interventions in Danish schools have been conducted, each one with the participation of seventeen students in 7th to 9th grade and three teachers. Interventions are aimed at iteratively designing and testing the game. The discussion section elaborates on opportunities for redesigning and systematically developing the game as a learning design for Open Data competencies.