A highly interactive, game-immersive app for grade-level kids in need of Catholic faith formation.
Key features: curriculum-based, catechism-rooted, voice-assisted; supplemental to faith formation programs but convertible into a full curricular program; highly gamified with newer versions of game mechanics and logics.
What are the core lessons contained in God’s Park?
Bible Hub or the Bible Connection contains animated videos of Bible stories as related by the God’s Park gang.
Godly Teachings or the Catechetical Connection contains lessons on catechesis, based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC).
Mission Adventures contains action plans and mission tasks in the outside world.
Kateketika contains continuation animation videos meant to deepen the earlier Bible story.
Saints and Discoveries talks about the life of a specific saint and the discoveries of the sacramental elements like Discovering Sacred Actions, Sacred Objects & Symbols, Sacred Passwords, Sacred Ministries and Discovering the Path towards Reconciliation.
Church Life contains action plans and offline tasks to create familial and ecclesial bonds.
How does GP organize its Curriculum?
GP has a standard 24 sets of Stories or Story Lessons (containing the core stories mentioned above). Each Story or Story Lesson is a sequence of catechetical areas which the leader organizes and which the kid-user unlocks at every step of the way, as he or she levels up in the GP app.
In organizing the class lesson, the leader may also choose to create less than 24 sets. That’s fine. The leader may also opt to choose beyond the 24 sets for a specific class. In this case, the leader must be mindful about the titling and sequencing of the unit lessons under the class.
What are Catechetical Areas?
GP consists of learning units called Catechetical Areas. In total, there are 12 GP Catechetical Areas, namely:
Prayer and Praise
Bible Hub videos
Mini-Game 1
Godly Teaching
Mini-Game 2
Mission Adventures
Kateketika Videos
Mini-Game 3
Saints and Discoveries
Mini-Game 4
Church Life Action Plans
Boot Camp Assessment
What are the flexible GP-Catechetical Area Packages or Bundles?
The leader’s class may be organized in three flexible bundles, namely: 3-Catechetical Areas without Boot Camp, 6-Catechetical Areas with option for Boot Camp; and 12-Catechetical Areas with required Boot Camp.
In this case, the 12-Areas Story Lessons are the full menu while the 3-Areas and the 6-Areas are the abbreviated, bite-size menus.
For example, the leader may choose 3-Catechetical Area Stories for younger kids with shorter attention span or choose the 12-Catechetical Area Stories for older children.
The 6-Catechetical Area Story Lesson is unique because the leader may use this platform with Boot Camp assessment or the leader may opt not to have a Boot Camp assessment.
In creating the full class, the leader may mix the 3-Areas with 6-Areas and 12-Areas Story Lessons. The only issue is – when it comes to Boot Camp (BC) metrics – the graphs will appear jagged and inconsistent because not all have BC assessments.
What is the flow or sequence of lessons in GP using 12-Area Story Lesson?
This is a sample guide for kids to monitor their location in the GP app. Usable also by the parents and parish leaders.
What is GP Staging Platform?
After subscribing to GP, the leader has access to the Leader’s Dashboard and the GP Learning Management System. It has four management levels, namely: Managing Class and Enrollments, Managing Lessons via Use-of-Defaults Method and Drag-and-Drop Method; Managing the Leader’s Own Assets which are not contained in the GP library of resources; and Managing Reports and Assessments. This contains GP’s nerve center.
What is God’s Park Website?
God’s Park Website is where you get basic info about GP. This is also the site to learn more about subscriptions and pricing. To access it, go to 199.231.160.81
What will my child learn in God’s Park?
Your kid will learn the lessons of Catholic faith in a fun way. It is learning the classical teachings using contemporary examples and technological tools. Learning is multi-sensory, using visuality, auditory and touch sensations. It is conducive to multiple intelligences. Catechetical texts are not static but interactive. It teaches simple, positive Gospel messages, as imparted to them by the God’s Park gang. They act as positive role models.
One important component in learning is the kid learns to be an active participant in his or her own formation, not just a passive learner of religion, like the traditional CCD programs.
Is God’s Park safe for children?
God’s Park is a kid-friendly and kid-safe zone. The lessons feature audio prompts for those who would need them. The games excite the kid’s interest because a lot of them are connected to what they enjoy offline, like parks, zoos, flowers, etc. The videos and the games are free from violent contents. Above all, the games are retrofitted to the catechetical lessons. This way the kids learn faith while playing. In God’s Park, we employ age-appropriate contents that truly engage your child.
What are the games my child will play in God’s Park?
There are lots of unique games in God’s Park because every lesson has its own game. In these exciting games, the kid gains points or badges and learns catechism as well. In places where the lessons are not in video form but text form, they are also gamified, because the texts are either interactive or engaged, which trigger retention quizzes. Some samples of the games are catching a falling object, runner games, mix and match, fly to the exit, slingshot games, connect the dots, throwing games, and a whole lot more…
How can parents, leaders and catechists monitor the learning progress of the children?
GP is a self-validating and self-assessing program. The mere fact that the kid has proceeded to the next level or Story means that the user has fulfilled his/her lessons in the preceding section. The kids proceed by unlocking levels of learning.
The Kid’s Dashboard is accessible by both the parents and the leaders. On it, the kid’s Postings and My Timeline indicate the kid’s real-time participation. There, the kid’s scoreboards and gallery of Holy Badges and Holy Collectibles encourage the kids to move forward to the next level but the Kid’s Dashboard also doubles as a great monitoring system for parents and leaders.
The Leader’s Dashboard contains dynamic reports and charts of individual child’s GP performance.
What is God Spark!?
God Spark! is the parents’ and catechists’ companion guidebook, especially for the 12-Area Default Story Lesson.
It mirrors the step-by-step navigational flow of the kid’s game app.
If God’s Park app is digital, God Sparks! is the textual partner.
God Sparks! is downloadable in the GP Website.
Why is God Spark! kiddified and colorful?
Let’s admit it…there’s always a child inside each of our parents and leaders. They love colorful and clean layout, too.
But God Spark! is presented as a kid-friendly manual, so that it becomes accessible not only to parents and leaders but also to kids who want the smell of the printed book, outside of their engagement in the digital app.
What is GP’s Boot Camp?
Boot Camp is a catechism-rich assessment platform where the past lessons (from Bible Hub, Godly Teachings, Mission Adventures, Kateketika, Saints and Discoveries, Church Life and Games) are culled by way of gamified test in order to ascertain the child’s learning and catechetical comprehension.
Completion of the GP Boot Camp means earning a Holy Collectible or Holy Badge to add in the kid’s gallery. It also means unlocking entry to the next level of fun Story.
How can the parish use GP as a supplemental resource?
The GP outline follows the outline of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which is the guiding book for nearly all Catholic catechesis. It follows – in broad strokes – the liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter and Pentecost. This framework is true to all catechetical books. Nearly all of GP’s Bible stories and lessons coincide to this liturgical calendar. This way, the GP flow is broadly correlated, flexible and supplementary to existing faith formation programs in parishes.
How do we subscribe to the God’s Park app?
GP has two modes of subscription, the Individual Subscription and Corporate Subscription.
What is GP Individual Subscription and its cost?
The Individual Subscription is an annual subscription for parents, guardians and users who are not directly affiliated to any archdiocese, parish or school.
Each adult subscriber’s login account is accompanied with a kid’s login credential. These details will be emailed to the subscriber by the GP Admin.
The subscriber is guided by a list of default story lessons under each option.
The Individual Subscription offers the following options:
A. Kiddie Bites or 24 sets of 3-Area Default Story Lessons @ $ 4.99 per catechetical year.
B. Learning Bites or 24 sets of 6-Area Default Story Lessons @ $ 6.99 per catechetical year.
C. Full Bites or 24 sets of 12-Area Default Story Lessons @ $ 9.99 per catechetical year.
D. If you want Customized Bites for your own personal use, contact us at support@199.231.160.81
The subscriber of the Individual Subscription subscribes the GP app by going to the App Store and/or Google Play. Search: God’s Park. Once found, you download GP you have the option to click ‘Free Trial’ or simply hit the cart. To purchase, the client chooses among three subscription types – Kiddie Bites, Learning Bites and Full Bites, as mentioned above. Purchase GP, fill up the Information Form, and follow the steps onwards.
Note: these are entry-point pricing and will only be available while it lasts.
How to use the Add-On functionality in the Individual Subscription?
This functionality will be made open and available in the future months. For now access is still suspended. Its purchase is only done in the GP Website, and not in the App Store or Google Play Store.
Under Pricing in the GP Website, scroll down and click on Add-On button.
The individual subscriber chooses a 3-Catechetical Area Package or 6-Catechetical Area Package.
Then, the subscriber decides to choose the number of sets of unit lessons. Note: if you choose to buy a 3-Catechetical Area Package, you need to choose 3 unit lessons to complete the package. Likewise, if you choose to buy a 6-Catechetical Area Package, you need to choose 6 unit lessons to complete the package.
The total amount of Add-On Lessons is equal to the X-Area Package multiplied by the set of unit lessons chosen.
Blank forms of 3-Area and 6-Area grids will be provided online. This way, the subscriber can write down the specific lessons in this online planner.
There are certain basic rules in adding unit lessons:
Per Package, you can only choose one item from every Catechetical Area, except for Mission Adventures and Church Life Action Plans.
For Mission Adventures and Church Life Action Plans, the subscriber is required to select 5 tasks in each of them. This bundle of five tasks in Mission Adventures is considered one unit lesson. This is also true for the bundle of five tasks in Church Life Action Plans.
Mini-Games are not stand-alone games. The subscriber must read the instructions carefully:
A 3- or 6-Area Story Lesson cannot begin with a Mini-Game.
No two Mini-Games can be arranged next to each other.
Mini-Games follow after every Bible Hub Videos, Kateketika Videos, Godly Teaching materials and/or Saints & Discoveries materials.
The subscriber cannot select purely Mini-Game materials to populate the 3-Area Default Stories or a 6-Area Default Stories.
The subscriber proceeds to the Checkout. After Checkout, the subscriber is directed to finally select and add the unit lessons in his own GP platform, guided by the subscriber’s list in the online planner.
What is GP Corporate Subscription and costs?
Corporate Subscription is available for purchase in the GP Website.
Once subscribed, the leader gains access to the GP Console. S/he then, enrolls the children and parents in the LMS, and provides their login credentials. It is important that the leader communicate the login credentials to each family in the enrollment list. As a rule, the parents (and adults) log in using their registered email while the children log in using their username (provided by the parish or school leader). After the login credentials from the leader/admin are received, the kid-users and parent-users are now ready to log in the downloaded GP app in either the Android or Apple devices.
Corporate Subscription offers a huge array of listed offerings, including the Leader’s Dashboard and the innovative Learning Management System.
It has the following options, namely:
Small Group with 50 users and 5 leaders’ licenses @ 700 USD per catechetical year.
Medium Group with up to 75 users and 10 leaders’ licenses @ 900 USD per catechetical year.
Big Group with up to 100 users and 15 leaders’ licenses @ 1,000 USD per catechetical year.
Premium with up to 150 users and 20 leaders’ licenses @ 1,500 USD per catechetical year.
Enterprise, with more than 151 users but not more than 250 users, and 25 leaders’ licenses@ 2,000 USD per catechetical year.
The Corporate Subscription is normally available for groups like parishes, schools, archdioceses and other corporate entities.
What is a Catechetical Year?
The user subscribes to a one-time, annual subscription. Annual here refers to a catechetical year, which encompasses the following months: September to July of the following year.
The client may start subscription any time within or after September, but the catechetical year-end will always fall every July 31st.
After the catechetical year, the user’s access to the GP content ends. To continue to access the content, the user has to re-subscribe.
What does the Corporate Subscription offer?
The GP Corporate Subscription will be ideal for areas with a good number of enrollees, especially in the parish, school and archdiocesan settings.
Multiple licenses provided for leaders
Faith formation app available in iOS, Android and also PCs or laptops
Learning Management System which manages and creates lessons via Default and/or Drag-and-Drop systems
Access to different Dashboards – Leaders, Parents and Kids
Access to Library of Resources – videos, interactive texts and Christian tasks
Access to Library of Games with capacity for Q&A Pop-ups
Voice-assisted Lessons
Feedback Mechanism to provide Emojis and Postings
Offline Tasks and Mission Activities
Boot Camp Assessments
Media Time Control to prevent screen over-exposure
Conversion from Supplemental Program to Full Curriculum
Gathered Forum with Engage, Survey, Quiz and Group Game functionalities
Asset Management System for homegrown, local images and audios (not found in GP)
Dynamic Reports, Metrics and Graphs
Leader’s Training, Webinars and Tech Support
Leader’s Guide and Downloadable Materials
Does GP app have a free trial?
Yes. GP has a Trial Version.
Free Trial is available after downloading God’s Park in the App Store and Google Play Store.
Who will use Corporate Subscriptions?
Normally, Corporate Subscriptions will be used by parishes, schools, archdioceses, military ordinariates, and other corporate entities in the ecclesial circles.
GP’s advantage is its LMS (Learning Management System) that is able to manage classes and enrollments; manage and create lessons via default and/or drag-and-drop systems; manage own assets for locally-created lessons; and manage reports and assessment tools.
Can anyone subscribe for personal use?
Only adults over 18 years old can subscribe tothe GP app for personal use.
It is called Individual Subscription, and can be a gift for a godson, goddaughter or grandchild.
It can be used for home-based catechetical instruction of the child, especially for those families unaffiliated to any parish or school.
Can you explain more the cost for the GP Individual Subscription?
There are different pricing scales in GP depending on the option.
Kiddie Bites or 24 sets of 3-Area Default Story Lessons @ $4.99 per catechetical year.
Learning Bites or 24 sets of 6-Area Default Story Lessons with option to do Boot Camp assessment @ $6.99 per catechetical year.
Full Bites or 24 sets of 12-Area Default Story Lessons with required Boot Camp assessment @ $9.99 per catechetical year.
These pricing are entry-point pricing and may be subject to change.
Can you explain more the cost for the GP Corporate Subscription?
There are different pricing scales depending on the Corporate option
Small Group with 50 users and 5 leaders’ licenses @ 700 USD per catechetical year. The breakdown is an average of $14 for each user per cat-year.
Medium Group with up to 75 users and 10 leaders’ licenses @ 1,000 USD per catechetical year. The breakdown is an average of $13 for each user per cat-year.
Big Group with up to 100 users and 15 leaders’ licenses @ 1,200 USD per catechetical year.The breakdown is an average of $12 for each user per cat-year.
Premium with up to 150 users and 20 leaders’ licenses @ 1,500 USD per catechetical year. The breakdown is an average of $10 for each user per cat-year.
Enterprise, with more than 151 users but not more than 250 users, and 25 leaders’ licenses@ 2,000 USD per catechetical year. The breakdown is an average of $9 for each user per cat-year.
These pricing are entry-point pricing and may be subject to change.
Does one GP account allow multiple gadget users?
For Individual Subscription, the subscriber’s account is paired with one child’s username. This means that only the child and the parent can access the GP app in every single Individual Subscription.
For Corporate Subscription, the per-user regulation pertains to the pairing between the parent and the child. This means that 50 Users mean 50 children’s usernames accompanied by 50 parent’s email logins. Each Corporate Subscription also stipulates the number of leader’s licenses.
Is GP app available in small devices?
Yes, GP app is available in small devices by downloading it in the App Store as well as Google Play Store.
Where can we buy the God’s Park app?
GP app is available in the Apple Store and Google Play Store.
It is also be available in the GP website: 199.231.160.81
Go to the Pricing section, subscribe and follow instructions accordingly.
Is GP totally Catholic?
Yes. God’s Park breathes Catholicism. Here, Catholic catechism and fun are not opposite terms, and it’s cool to be Catholics while playing a game or talking about faith.
Does GP app play in small devices and laptops?
Yes, GP app is playable in iOS, Android and WebGLplatforms.
Does it have a Spanish version?
This feature is forthcoming.
Is there a manual to use the GP app?
There is a GP User Guide available.
There are also video tutorials on how to navigate the GP app – either for leaders, parents and kid-users.
What are the grade levels that the GP app covers?
In this initial GP launch, GP app is applicable and customizable for Grades 1 to 3 children, but many parishes are of the opinion that it can be offered to Grade 4 children as well.
The GP curriculum is written with Grades 1 to 2 children in mind, but the plethora of contents makes it expandableto beyond Grade 2 level children.
How does GP complement the existing parish program?
GP is very useful and effective for parishes with both Gathered and Un-Gathered catecheses.
GP is effective for parishes with home-schooling programs. It is flexible enough as a take-home program for kids and, unlike the un-assessed book study, GP programs have dynamic metrics and reports that show teachers and leaders their performances and activities outside of the classroom.
GP is likewise effective for special-needs children because the learning platform addresses multiple intelligences. The leader can also customize time exposure in GP. For instance, if the whole class has GP lessons for 45 minutes, the leader may create a separate class for the special-needs child for 15 minutes only. GP is retrofitted according to the child’s need!
Lope Lesigues is the founding president of ICHTHYS Company, the parent company of God’s Park.
He earned his S.Th.D and Ph.D degree in theology in the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.
Lesigues has been an affiliate professor at the Graduate School of Religion and Religious Studies in Fordham University, New York (a Jesuit school) since 2006.
He worked in ministry for 25 years, mostly in the academic and pastoral settings. He became a Director of Religious Education for five years in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.
Among his other interests, Lesigues is a scriptwriter, a theater director and producer of 15 full-blown children’s theater plays.
In 2012, Lesigues has written his book entitled Archaeology of Play while on sabbatical leave in Harvard University, Massachusetts. The 400-page book was published last February 2019. This book informs much of his knowledge-base about play or game and its importance in the field of education and sociality.
As a start-up, Dr. Lesigues is initially collaborating with partner-investors namely, the Garcias, the Barolas, the Ankroms, the Cayanans, the Notartes and the Lesigues family. This small group of visionaries believes in GP’s mission and potentials in the field of faith formation.
When was God’s Park founded?
When was God’s Park founded? 2015. Borne out of a retreat in Ender’s Island, Connecticut. There, the Ichthys Story is confirmed and lives on in GP, thank God! In time, this cryptic statement will be unpacked.
What preceded God’s Park?
In 2010, Dr. Lesigues created the first full-curriculum, web-based digital program in the Church of Presentation, New Jersey (Archdiocese of Newark).
The program is called Family Faith Formation or FFF-Presentation.
It is a living testimony of full five years of hands-on research and implementation of digital catechesis in the parish setting circa 2010-2015.
Today, FFF-Presentation is the 2017 NCCL New Wineskins Awardee for Parish Clusters.
Although GP is totally different from his past project, it provides God’s Park the street cred and a national credibility and recognition that indeed, GP knows what it is doing in the field of digital catechesis and pastoral application.
God’s Park is on the right track in terms of crafting the future of kids’ faith formation in the digital world.
What does GP offer that is different from other publications?
GP is digital through and through. It goes beyond ‘print-under-glass’ model offered by most publishing houses.
Animation videos: Lessons are clustered into Stories, and Bible stories come to life through animation videos.
Texts are interactive and audio-partnered, rather than print-static.
Textual triggers also lead to offline applications. GP texts are designed to dynamically interact and have validating features. For instance, the text gives the instruction: The kid has to lead the prayer before meals. This text puts the kid to task; otherwise, he cannot proceed to the next level. Some of the kid’s tasks need to be backed up by photos and/or audio recordings, which the kid then sends to his or her parents or parish leader for validation. After confirming the task well-done, the kid unlocks the item and proceeds to the next level.
Game-immersive: each video or text-interactive lesson is accompanied by a unique game, and they are not repetitive games. Each game is retrofitted to the specific lesson.
Boot Camp is a catechism-cool, gamified assessment platform that measures kids’ learning levels in catechesis.
God Sparks is a companion manual or guidebook for parents, catechists and parish leaders that mirrors the navigational sequence or flow of the GP app.
What difference does God’s Park offer in terms of catechetical framework?
GP offers a digital language accessible to today’s kids, whose native tongue is digital.
GP’s animation videos connect to the sensate or multi-sensory learning psychology of the kids.
The strategy called stealth learning allows the kid to learn while playing a game. Like Lego, while the kid builds something, s/he doesn’t realize s/he is building one’s self and one’s faith.
GP taps on the gamification strategy called progression loop, where the kid needs to accomplish one stage to level up to the next. This technique is rooted in our faith for centuries, like the movement from darkness to light, or sin to redemption, or leprosy to healing.
The GP framework strikes the balance between progression loop as a marker of the kid’s achievements and progress and kenotic loop which is a recognition of God’s action in the life of the kid to do offline Christian tasks (e.g run errands for parents, pray the Rosary, donate food in parish pantry, memorize the Our Father, etc.).
The validating feature of the GP game app prevents the kid from mindlessly playing ‘just a game.’ It puts a halt to viewing the app as purely recreational; instead, it puts the kid to task to do offline Christian tasks. It creates the space to interact with parents & parish leaders.
The underlying theological framework is ‘Divine Pedagogy’ – the example of God stooping low and speaking the language of men for God’s message to become understandable by men. This ‘Divine Pedagogy’ fits the pattern and framework of digital catechesis.
What are Progression and Kenotic Loops?
Contact us for more information.
What is Stealth Learning technology?
Stealth learning is a game strategy employed by God’s Park. It sneaks up on kids. The kids don’t know they are learning but they are.
There are added competencies (including sensate, social-emotive competencies) that the kids discover and gain along the way.
Since the learning system is well designed, the kids finish the game without knowing they have learned the vital lessons embedded therein. That’s true of a good game strategy.
Competencies are better measured in the assessment platform called Boot Camp as well as in the kids’ participation in offline activities and Christian mission tasks.
Is there anything like GP in the market today?
As a full-curricular program with flexible, customizable LMS (Learning Management System) there is none like this in the Catholic catechetical world today, either in the US or in other continents.
There is a semblance of this approach in the Protestant churches, but nothing that compares to GP’s framework and expanse.
What is digital catechesis?
Digital catechesis is a translation of Pope Francis’ (with Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict before him) call to ‘new evangelization’, giving the Gospel message a fresh look by way of ‘new ardor, new method, new expression’. Digital catechesis gives premium to the language most understandable by the ‘digital natives’. Digital catechesis allows the kid to articulate his/her own faith and to become active evangelizer to the world.
Does God’s Park have the approval or ‘conformity’ stamp of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB)?
The short answer is ‘still in the process,’ only because there is no existing digital criteria in the USCCB guidelines by which to judge digital catechesis per se.
The print publishers acquire the bishop’s conformity for worthiness or orthodoxy of teachings but such ‘conformity criteria’ only applies to the print media, not to the digital platform.
Dr. Lesigues was invited to present GP to a group of lay directors in the USCCB headquarters in Washington, DC in early 2016.
Afterwards, Dr. Lesigues was invited to have a special audience with the bishops-members of the USCCB Sub-committee on Religious Education (in-charge of issuing conformity criteria) last October 2016, and the bishops encouraged GP to continue with its on-going research program.
Bottom line: God’s Park has opened wide the door for ongoing conversations with the USCCB Sub-Committee and other first-adapter archdioceses and parishes in the US to start creating the fieldwork for ‘digital conformity’.
What do you mean by ‘learning curve in GP’?
The issue of market acceptance, adaptability and education is a reality, especially for disruptive technologies. People’s reception is a force we all need to contend with.
God’s Park is a new way of passing on the faith to future generations. It is a new way of doing catechesis. The ‘learning curve’ burden lies more on the catechists, parish leaders and the more mature stakeholders in the community because the digital approach is new. It’s like learning to dabble with a new gadget the first time; there is a learning curve for the digital immigrants.
On the part of the kids, they are accustomed to play their game in their gadgets. With GP, the kids simply play it, and they catch up in no time. Their ‘learning curve’ lies in the deliberate interruption of the game flow to create the space for offline mission tasks and to interact with their parents or parish leaders. After accomplishing their photo and/or audio-recording tasks, they send these tasks to their parents or parish leaders for validation. This process entails education for both parents/catechists and kids.
What is Intertextuality?
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What is Gamification?
In 2010 PEW Survey 53% agreed with the statement: “ By 2020, there will have been significant advances in the adoption and use of gamification. It will be making waves on the communications scene and will have been implemented in many new ways for education and other aspects of human connection and it will play a role in the everyday activities of many of the people who are actively using communications networks in their daily lives.”
In the Catholic world, gamification is grossly under-tapped. The use of game in catechetics is practically nil, and the options of coloring pages and puzzles have become stale and lacking in imagination.
Noticeably, the secular world are more adept in seizing and harnessing the play/game strategy, even to a point of peddling unbridled violence to the kids. School settings have greatly adapted the game strategy and tools as well. So the kids are actually ready for it. GP offers a Catholic option to all the game elements out there.
In GP, game functionality is embedded to lessons in order to understand complex topics more engagingly and with more nuances.
It makes the learning process more anticipated and less to be feared or avoided.
What is Gamification’s Methodology?
Contact us for more information.
What are the potentials of gamification in GP?
Minigames are spread all over the GP app. We take gamification seriously. There are more than 96 games (and growing) in the whole GP ecosystem, and these are not just the regular crossword puzzles or matching games. These are new fun ways of leading the kids towards greater participation. As we all know, kids are most familiar with the language of games. They speak this language fluently. They breathe this space.
Games are perfectly tuned out to extend rewards in order to allow the player to quest for more. That right there is what you call Engagement. And GP has plenty of that.
In games, the darting, dancing or moving objects communicate information. It allows the kids to be more active and more observant to their environment, and to have an active role in their own experience. The kids become remakers of content. They are not only passive consumers of catechesis; they become active participants in their own formation.
Game mechanics offer advantages in making complex lessons look easier and easily digestible. Games soften the rough edges or the tightness of hard catechetical lessons. Games also help in generating measurable feedback from the kids. In every GP mini-game, there are Q&A pop-ups to trigger participation and retention.
What do ICHTHYS and the ICHTHYS BADGES mean?
The Ichthys – pronounced iktus – is the age-old representation of Jesus himself among the early Christians. During the times when the Christians were in hiding and persecuted, the only way to know whether one is talking to a Christian is by showing a passcode of some sort – by showing the sign of the fish (Greek for fish is ichthys but it also bears the initials of Iesu Christus Theos, Yuios, Soter – Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior)
God’s Park is itself shaped like a fish.
On the top left-hand side of the app home screen is the kid’s username, the grade level and the collectible fish badge or the ICHTHYS.
The levels of Ichthys progression are wooden, rock, bronze, silver, gold, etc until the diamond master badge.
Will GP contents grow over the years?
GP is steeped in digital research for faith formation. It sees the digital world as rife with Godly artifacts and materials hitherto waiting to be discovered and tapped. GP will continue to build its library of resources in the areas of cartoon animation, educational games, interactive lessons and mission tasks. Next year, there will be newer materials to learn and more exciting games to play.
Has GP started piloting in parishes?
Since GP’s soft launch in early 2019, GP has started piloting in 7 parishes in the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey, USA.
GP is also piloting in 2 parishes in Texas, USA.
The Archdiocese of Newark-Office of Religious Education has been a great supporter of GP.
