The Open Data Newsroom: A Game Approach for Developing Open Data Competencies in Elementary School

"The Open Data Newsroom" presents a role-playing game in which students act as data journalists, working through three phases of getting, understanding, and delivering open data to solve a mystery. The game is designed to build open data literacy and real-world problem-solving skills among young learners, and it is grounded in authentic learning and game design principles. Its development followed a design-based research approach, with iterative test cycles refining the game's weaknesses, including an overly simple mystery, a loosely defined journalist role, and data that was too abstract.

The empirical work involved two school interventions with students in the 14 to 16 age range, both conducted in Danish schools. The first intervention, which used only physical game elements, produced simplistic solutions, limited use of data, and declining engagement during analysis. These shortcomings prompted the addition of a digital visualization platform and a more complex mystery. The second intervention showed notably stronger outcomes, with students demonstrating deeper analytical reasoning, questioning the veracity of datasets (such as identifying bathing-water data from 2024 before the season had begun), and independently seeking additional open data sources. Persistent design challenges remained, particularly around team formation and the rewardingness of the final presentation.

Taken together, the work contributes a game-based model for cultivating open data competencies within compulsory education, a context where such literacy is often underdeveloped. The scope is limited to small-scale classroom testing in Denmark with a modest number of students and teachers, so the findings are best understood as promising indications from design research rather than generalizable effectiveness evidence. The conceptual framing draws on open data policy, data journalism, serious games, and 21st-century skills scholarship.