Caine's Arcade Video Wins Education Prize: ISKME Announces First “Big Ideas Fest Innovation in Action” Award

(Half Moon Bay, CA) – Caine’s Arcade – a short film by Nirvan Mullick about a 9-year-old boy’s cardboard arcade that’s received over 7 million views since it was posted online April 9, 2012 – is the recipient of a new annual education prize called the Big Ideas Fest Innovation in Action Award. The prize was announced today by ISKME, a nonprofit education institute and pioneer in open access learning technologies, on the final day of its Big Ideas Fest, an annual convening of innovators in education held in Half Moon Bay, which is ISKME headquarters. The new award is given to an individual or organization whose project embodies the spirit of its annual Big Ideas Fest: transforming education through innovative action. 

Caine’s Arcade – which through the Imagination Foundation (http://www.imagination.is), has inspired a wave of cardboard creativity globally – matches the criteria of ISKME’s new award, with an emphasis on innovations that encourage teachers and learners to collaborate in creating new learning tools and resources. Judges also considered the potential global impact of the program, particularly its accessibility to populations that are underserved. Caine’s Arcade School Pilot Program now includes 100 schools in nine countries that are using the film and cardboard arcade building to teach kids math, science, engineering, art, entrepreneurship, storytelling, and creative thinking. 

“We’re inspired by the level of creativity Caine’s Arcade has ignited in kids and classrooms around the world, and are honored to be part of Big Ideas Fest and to receive this award, which will help the Imagination Foundation continue to foster creativity in kids on a global scale,” says Nirvan Mullick.

ISKME President and Founder Lisa Petrides says, “The Big Ideas Fest Innovation in Action Award recognizes those, like the creative Imagination Foundation team behind Caine’s Arcade, whose passion and creativity as educators and learners have often been overlooked. 

“Being an institute that encourages the sharing of ideas, we also designed this award to stimulate collaboration among those in the education community to design tools and programs, such as the Global Cardboard Challenge initiated by the Imagination Foundation that opens up knowledge and learning to all, including those who have little access to formal classroom experience, “ she added.

The award is a natural outcome of a decade of ISKME’s work in creating open access to learning resources and promoting collaboration among educators and learners worldwide. At the Big Ideas Fest – a three –day event – participants design solutions to specific education challenges in workshops, called Action Collabs. The design process is just as important as the solutions – or Big Ideas in Beta – the participants create, as they return to their home environments with hands-on training in how to design and create change.

For more information, see www.bigideasfest.org, or contact shen@iskme.org