Dystopia 2153

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CertifiedEducation quality
06/2018
Dystopia 2153

Dystopia 2153

TEACH Magazine
Programming
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A digital graphic novel that introduces coding through stories.

Dystopia 2153 is an interactive graphic novel that integrates the teaching of coding into the narrative arc of the story. Set in 2153 A.D., Lance, Freya and their friends live in an orphanage run by cruel robots. They plan their escape and embark on an epic journey to reunite with their families. Dystopia is an educational resource that meets STEM, STEAM and Literacy outcomes. The experience variates between reading the story and solving multi-level puzzles that teach coding with Scratch, which introduces the student to coding concepts as students move through each of the levels.

Age groups 
Elementary
Middle school
Price 
Subscription
Languages 
English
Platform 
Browser-based
Desktop Windows
Desktop Mac
Mobile Android
Mobile iOS
Registration 
Not required
Offline play 
Playable offline
Pictures
Videos
Price 
Subscription
Dystopia 2153

Dystopia 2153

Dystopia 2153

Dystopia 2153

Dystopia 2153

Pedagogy
Educational Quality
Learning Goals

The pedagogical analysis covers how the product supports learning of the identified skills. The student’s role is assessed by four contrary pair parameters, which are selected to cover the most essential aspects on the use of the product.

Passive
Active
Students follow the story and play with the coding puzzles in the middle. Dystopia 2153 provides an engaging way to get interested about the basics of programming.
Rehearse
Construct
Users are effectively engaged to a new subject through the story. Dystopia 2153 guides the user to learn the new features. If the user already knows the basics they can skip levels and move to the more advanced levels.
Linear
Non-linear/Creative
As the product follows a storyline, the structure is very linear and it is best used when done in an order. It is possible for the user to skip the puzzle levels if they are too easy. The balance between the story and he activities is good.
Individual
Collaborative
The tasks are done independently and in the classroom context students can progress freely in their own pace.

The following are the high educational quality aspects in this product.

Dystopia 2153 provides an engaging framework for practicing coding and literacy skills.
The difficulty level raises as the user progresses in the story.
The combination of coding and literacy is nice and the story works as an inspirer to the world of comic books.
The games offer very good scaffolding to programming, which still leave plenty of room for challenge and thinking by yourself
The art is beautiful, music nice and dynamic and the overall aesthetic supports the theme very well.

The supported learning goals are identified by matching the product with several relevant curricula descriptions on this subject area. The soft skills are definitions of learning goals most relevant for the 21st century. They are formed by taking a reference from different definitions of 21st century skills and Finnish curriculum.

Subject based learning goals

Using information technology to create programs, systems and a range of content
Read easily, fluently and with good understanding
Develop the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information
Use logical reasoning to explain how some simple algorithms work and to detect and correct errors in algorithms and programs.
Use sequence, selection, and repetition in programs; work with variables and various forms of input and output.
Understand simple Boolean logic [for example, AND, OR and NOT] and some of its uses in circuits and programming; understand how numbers can be represented in binary, and be able to carry out simple operations on binary numbers.
Analysing problems in computational terms, and have repeated practical experience of writing computer programs in order to solve such problems
Understanding and applying the fundamental principles and concepts of computer science, including abstraction, logic, algorithms and data representation

Soft skills learning goals

Building common knowledge of technological solutions and their meaning in everyday life
Practicing logical reasoning, algorithms and programming through making
Using technology as a part of explorative process
Practicing persistent working
Practicing creative thinking
Practicing strategic thinking
Developing problem solving skills
Practicing to look things from different perspectives
Learning to build information on top of previously learned
Practicing to notice causal connections
Practicing decision making
Learning to plan and organize work processes

The Finnish Educational Quality Certificate

Our Quality Evaluation Method is an academically sound approach to evaluating a product’s pedagogical design from the viewpoint of educational psychology.

The method has been developed with university researchers and all evaluators are carefully selected Finnish teachers with a master's degree in education.

More about the evaluation