Game

DataGame addresses an important challenge of adult education providers and professionals in adult educators: how to deal adequately and in compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation which went into effect on May 25, 2018, but has not really been fully implemented in many adult education institutions yet. This concerns in particular small-scale providers of informal learning opportunities for adults: associations, NGOs, etc. While large adult education centres and adult evening schools often work with permanent staff and have data privacy and safety compliance policies in force, including training and monitoring of staff in these matters, those small, informal institutions, which play a prominent role in the diverse landscape of European adult education, normally work with very few permanent staff members, contract free-lancers and have limited managerial capacities. This poses a constant threat to these providers and professionals, as violations of data protection rules are potentially disastrous to any institution, given the enormous penalties the GDPR foresees.

The challenge has even grown with the transition from class-room teaching to online learning since the outbreak of COVID19. The wide-spread use of online platforms and communication tools pose new data privacy and safety questions. Many adult education professionals have not been prepared for dealing adequately with them, as they had not been online educators before the pandemic.

DataGame develops a gamified training offer for adult education professionals. This is on the one hand an important contribution to the fitness of adult education institutions for digital transformation, and at the same time competence development and professionalisation of (online) adult educators in data privacy and safety issues. Moreover, the methodological approach of using an online game for this competence development, fosters also adult educators’ digital (teaching) competence.