The Reset Council is an interactive, educational experience that empowers participants to make governing decisions for a fictitious city. The results of their decisions are brought to life in the “real world” and on the City of Reset website through news, radio reports, blog posts, personal testimonials, custom artistic works and much more. The citizens, stories, landscape, and challenges of Reset are constantly evolving in response to participant decisions, in a real-time governance simulation blurring the lines between reality and fiction.
The Reset Council’s goals include engaging participants in collaborative conversations and critical thinking through decision-making while addressing challenges inspired by real world economic, social, political, and cultural issues. Participants reflect not only on the repercussions of the choices being made but the self-created process through which those decisions are determined.
Following the press conference announcements and media interviews with participants in a Reset Council session, a team of creative professionals responds through bringing the decisions made to life in personal, dramatic ways, including content for the Reset news stations, creative works (graphic design, paintings, music, etc.), and personalized responses from citizens impacted by the participant choices.
The Reset Council was launched at the 2013 Destination Imagination Global Finals event. Following installations included an emergency management simulation for kids tied to WHO WAS IT, an exploration of an arts district by city and community leaders, and a remote live-broadcast where decisions made by teams in Texas played out in real-time via webcam from Virginia.
This program is also available as stand-alone professional development experience, and been featured by the Partnership for 21st Century Learning including participants from Apple, Pearson, and the Walt Disney Company.