Billion Dollar EdTech Idea 3: Adding curiosity as a game based subject across K12 curricula
Curiosity will be every child’s biggest competitive advantage going forward
Many of today’s students will end up doing work that hasn’t been invented yet. “What” we teach kids is going to be less important than “how” they learn to teach themselves. For kids to have an edge in life, they will have to stay curious.
As Naval Ravikant says, nobody will be able to beat you at things you are genuinely curious about. Specific knowledge and unique perspective will be found by pursuing your curiosity rather than whatever is hot right now. Building specific knowledge will feel like play to you but will look like work to others.
Benefits of game based learning
If kids are not interested, they are not going to learn. Jane McGonigal, the best selling author on the science of games says that games engage us because they put us in that perfect state between feeling bored & feeling overwhelmed. You're always playing on the very edge of your skill level, always on the brink of falling off. When you do fall off, you feel the urge to climb back on.
There are about 1.5 billion kids studying in schools across the world. Imagine a game that builds the curiosity muscle of every child and runs as a subject across all 12 years of school! A game that constructs learning challenges by combining the wonders of the physical world with a ladder of questions and experiences (like a Pokemon Go, but for curiosity).
The real world rewards those who take the road less traveled
Fitting in pays off in school. Standing out pays off in the real world. All children are born naturally curious. This curiosity needs to be protected and nurtured so kids can make their own leaps of imagination to become uniquely successful.
The big opportunity for EdTech is to blend education and entertainment by building a different kind of report card for kids; where curiosity is a new subject, the textbook is replaced with a game, and grades are calculated based on experiences and levels.
