Healthy Relationship Education Through Game Design
Posted by Andrew Gardner on
Guest Blogger and BrainPOP Educator Kate Reilly shares:
Bullying, dating violence and digital abuse: with half of all teens affected, its not surprising that young people say these problems are the most important issues of their generation. But in the real world, cliques, popularity and social pressures can make abuse hard to recognize and even harder to stop. Healthy relationship education can happen through game design.
Real Robots is a game-based digital learning platform that helps kids understand complicated social systems and make them better. This curriculum and companion lesson plans combine gameplay, motion comics and digital creation to help middle school students learn about and build healthy relationships.
Created by E-Line Media—the company who brought you Gamestar Mechanic— and in partnership with Start Strong Rhode Island, The Real Robots will be available everywhere in Fall 2012.
This summer, E-Line Media is looking for a group of educators and advocates to help us test the Real Robots in preparation for its official fall release. Participating teachers will receive 100 free licenses to the game! Sign up for more information on the RealRobots website.
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About Kate:
Kate Reilly, MPH believes that social networks and games can transform people into eager consumers and contributors of public health information. She directs Start Strong Rhode Island, part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s 18-million dollar investment to curb the nationwide epidemic of teen dating violence. There, Kate is leading the development and entrepreneurial expansion of Real Robots of Robot High, a video game that will help middle school students understand healthy relationships as they play, remix and share video games in a fun and safe social network. Kate also develops hkupwithrespect.com an online application that helps teens talk about the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships. Kate has a Masters degree in Epidemiology from the Boston University School of Public Health.
