The Island is an interactive Robinsonade game by Danish author Boris Hansen. It combines classic social science issues, such as democracy, equality and crime control with active play and storytelling. In the game, the children are stranded on a deserted island, where they have to solve a line of dilemmas together in order to survive. The game is played partly on the iPad, where the children read the story and discuss the dilemmas, and partly on the spots, which are used for physical collaboration exercises like catching fish and exploring the island.

Find more information on how to play The Island in this game guide.

You can also watch this 10-minute video, where Trine will show you how to play the game.

The entire class can play The Island together as one big group or they can play it in smaller groups.

If the class plays together as one group the game is played on two iPads: one is the camp iPad and the other the expedition iPad. The children read the story and make the decisions on the camp iPad.

The expedition iPad is located together with Hopspots, where the spots are used for physical collaboration exercises, such as getting food and exploring the island. The big group send small groups of 4-6 players to the expedition iPad to collect points while the rest of the children continue with the scenarios in class. It is a good idea to place Hopspots and the expedition iPad outside the class in order to avoid disturbing the discussion in class.

If the class decides to play the game in two or more groups they can compete and see who scores the most points in the game. Every group needs a camp iPad, and the groups take turns at sending smaller groups on expedition to Hopspots.

The game is very intuitive but we still recommend that you try it out a bit before playing with your students. You will need no more than half an hour to do that.