I am sure you can tell by now if you have read through my blog, that I love watching Ted Talks. I recently watched a Ted Talk given by Joel Baraka. He is from Africa and attended an overcrowded school that relied on wrote memorization from lectures and notes. They would then be tested on the material. When I say overcrowded, I don't mean 28-30 kids in a classroom, but 200 in a classroom. It is a wonder that the students were even able to write notes or hear the lectures. (Baraka, 2022)
Joel Baraka was given the chance to attend a school in South Africa when he was 19. In this school, he was given the task or creating a meaningful innovation. Knowing his own personal struggle with non-engaging education, he decided to make a board game for students. He received permission to pilot this game at his former school. He was awoken the next morning by six students that wanted to play his game again before school. (Baraka, 2022) This game proved to be a success by providing a fun alternative to the boring standard learning model that they had been using.
In America, we are blessed to have access to plenty of learning board games. However, we need to step beyond that to expose students to new engaging materials. Students have played the board games. I am not saying that we should never play those games anymore, because honestly, they are still fun! I even love to play the trivia board games with my students! We just have so many opportunities to increase engagement at our fingertips, if we just step out of our comfort zone. I feel this can be done through project based learning and providing real-life projects.
Take a listen to Joel Baraka's innovative board game and the response he received.
Reference: Baraka, J. (2022, December 20). The board game getting kids excited about school. Www.ted.com. https://www.ted.com/talks/joel_baraka_the_board_game_getting_kids_excited_about_school
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