Tel Aviv start-up innovates learning through games

The process of bringing those ideas to reality is called innovation. The majority of business professionals agree that innovation is critical to their success.

By SUMEDHA HORE
Updated: NOVEMBER 26, 2018 08:37
Guests are shown what the games are all about at the DLD Innovation Festival (photo credit: GALORIAN CREATIONS)
Guests are shown what the games are all about at the DLD Innovation Festival
(photo credit: GALORIAN CREATIONS)
ONE OF the keys to any successful business is being able to come up with new ideas to keep operations, products and services fresh.
The process of bringing those ideas to reality is called innovation. The majority of business professionals agree that innovation is critical to their success.
The Innovations Nations Game is a social start-up based in Tel Aviv that was founded by Sharon Gal Or, who is also the founder and CEO of idea SiGn, a Hong Kong-based creative consultancy.
"It is a learning ‘Toolkit’ in the form of card games that aims to develop innovative and creative thinking skills of making players go through brainstorming sessions that open one’s mind to unlimited ideas and possibilities, played in groups or individually,” says Gal Or in an interview with “The Jerusalem Report.”
The kit includes a variety of card games and a guidebook designed to develop innovative and creative thinking skills, including learning of the professional language, brainstorming processes, developing and practicing the ability to ask new questions and acquaintances with Israeli companies and technologies.
"In my view, the main goal is to see children and adolescents have the courage to believe in themselves, that they can also innovate, for me it is a real success, which will probably reduce the gaps in knowledge between and within companies and organizations, and more importantly, socio-economic reduction between and within countries." Gal Or says.
Each of the cards is grouped according to a specific field of study – Education and Knowledge, Aerospace and Defense, Fin-tech and Ecommerce, Mobile and Telecom, Agro and Food, Smart Mobility, Clean-tech, Aerospace and Defense, Social, Health and Medical, High Tech, and more, with a list of sub-fields of study on every card.
“I am often asked, ‘Why not focus on one specific field of study?’" Gal Or. says “That is the human-constructed system that TING aims to break. We believe that anyone can be creative, reinvent themselves and make changes beyond the fields of study they choose to take up in school, and let go of their inhibitions and limitations that are set by society, to think and act beyond their perceived capabilities.”
TING’s tool kit encourages such people, to immerse themselves in a gamifying experience where they integrate diverse fields of study, to create an idea for an innovation venture, bring out solutions for existing ventures and more, the possibilities are endless, he adds.
Asked what is unique about TING, Gal Or lists three things: 1. It is the only self-learning and self-practicing tool-kit to develop entrepreneurship thinking, includes lesson plans, to maximize the learning process.
2. Minimizing knowledge gaps between people and within organizations.
3. Closing socio-economic gaps between developed and developing countries.
Who are the games meant for? According to Gal Or, "Anyone interested in innovation, especially those who do not have the access to digital learning because of their financial or social limitations. The not so privileged communities of our nations may not be brought up in the most tech-savvy environment, leaving them with few resources to be educated and prepare for the future of Entrepreneurship in Education.
With TING’s card games in their easy reach, they are not just educating themselves, but believing in themselves and their power to change the world.
"There can be plenty of formulae to reach one’s full potential, but can it be possible without believing that they can reach their full potential in the first place?” According to TING's website, it has three main goals: 1. It develops the skill of asking innovative questions.
2. It develops a multi-disciplinary & multi-cultural thinking for problem solving; and 3. It increases players’ motivation, understanding, interest and curiosity.
“THE DLD Innovation Festival 2018 is a platform for us to showcase what we believe in and play the games minds-on with everyone.
We loved meeting all the exhibitors, speakers, press members, and those who have come from all over the world! We truly believe in connecting and sustaining relationships with those who believe in the power of Education in Entrepreneurship, which is why it was truly enlightening to have met such lovely people at our booth,” says Gal Or.
“The game is produced with cooperation of ILAN Foundation for Handicapped Children, and we have been successfully running workshops with various Innovation hubs and academia in Israel and other countries since its launch exactly a year ago,” he says. "The workshops or as they are widely called ‘TINGathons’ (TING Hackathons) bring together millennials from the age of 10 to university students and professors, from various disciplines, all cultural backgrounds and all over the world, to ideate as a united team, to promote innovation at a global scale." TING’s vision, Gal Or says, is to expose TING players (“Tingers”) to a multicultural world of creativity, entrepreneurship and business, to encourage and promote innovation and originality, and to enable experiential learning in an ethical and cooperative competition.
“Education is a basic condition for social development. The qualities of a country’s citizens and their education level will determine the quality and pace of its social development, as stated by The United Nations,” Gal Or concludes.