Kidzania Portugal - Future For Kids

Posted on March 7, 2008 
Filed Under Business in Portugal


When was the last time you asked a kid, “How’s School?” and gotten the answer, “Boring!” Although kids aren’t overly chatty at times, ask this question and one of two things will happen: either their eyes glaze over in a zombie like state, or they ramble on about how awful it is to sit in class listening to a teacher for hours on end.

I was a pre Xbox, facebook, ipod generation student, and can only imagine having those toys at home then having to sit in front of a mono toned teacher for what would seem like an eternity. I also feel for teachers, how can they possibly compete with all the interactive, high definition, multimedia, graphics and acoustics available today…seeesh! So how does a parent or teacher motivate a kid to think about their life and future in more creative ways?

Kidzania in Portugal

Well one company, Kidzania seems to be on to something, by inspiring kids through old age “role pay”. But not just any old role play though, this kind of play provides kids with interactive “real life” jobs, money and everyday life scenarios. The project was originally started in Mexico city, by a group of young Mexican entrepreneurs, with a vision for a new kind of family entertainment. Kids receive their own currency the “KidZo” which they can spend, save in their “account”, or of course, work to earn more. The work environments stretch the gamut from hospitals to flipping burgers, and it all comes together and mode possible by brand promotion.

One argument that could be made is that this is advertising to kids, but in reality aren’t they already advertised to without any benefit except the bottom line of the product companies? So, here at least they get to play and see a slice of “real” life.

Although Kidzania started in Mexico, its now in a number of countries with one franchise soon to arrive in Portugal at the the Dolc Vita Tejo - Amadora shopping center, opening dates have not been released, but its expected in 2009.

Wikinomics

Kidzania might be one of the first to reach kids in a new interactive format but the good news is its not the last. Similar projects are under way in other part of the world, like Taking ITGlobal working with Microsoft to develop a set a of tools that will enable students from around the globe to collaborate on projects together. Here’s an excerpt from Wikinomics “how mass collaboration changes everything”:

“A teacher in Canada and a teacher in Nigeria sign up, create a virtual classroom, and assign students to group research projects, while the students can blog, post artwork, and collaborate on a class wiki.” With the assistance of Microsoft, the project will be in classrooms across North America by 2008”.

Now that’s a stretch from playing telephone through two cans and some string! Maybe with this type of collaboration, I dare say, we might actually start to hear school is fun again.

We’re always curious to hear about new learning programs, so if anyone knows of interesting projects to teach kids, or adults for that matter, please share.

Filed Under Business in Portugal

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