Hi -
We’re looking to make a list of the top educational games ever made, the top 9, in fact. Do you have any suggestions? How about classics like Oregon Trail and Carmen Sandiego? Or perhaps newer, more socially conscious games like FreeRice?
Send us your top picks. We’ll tally up the results and let you know the winners in a future post.
Much has been written about the poor knowledge of geography of Americans. For example, in a survey, 63% of respondents could not identify Iraq on a map. Fewer than half could identify New York and Ohio. If we really believe in the flattening of the world, then it is more important than over to ensure we (and our kids) are global citizens.
Today, at RamoGames.com we’re releasing a bunch of games to help improve our knowledge about geography. They include games covering, Africa, Asia, India (we had to do this one given the origins of our name!), Europe, North America, and South America. They are suitable for all ages, and we even predict that kids will do better than adults in some of them.
Let us know your high score in the comments and we look forward to hearing your feedback!
At Ramo, we’re big fans of serious games, games that serve a purpose other than pure entertainment. The ability to create engaging products with meaning beyond the games themselves is wonderful, especially if the lives of others can be improved.
In a previous post, we wrote about FreeRice. The website, in cooperation with the UN World Food Program, donates 20 grains of rice to the hungry across the globe for every word that a visitor gets right in its word game.
Best of all, the game is surprisingly simple. You are given a word and you must click on one of four choices that most accurately reflects its meaning. The game gets harder after each correct answer, but 20 more grains of rice get donated for each word that you get correct.
As of today, 39,471,718,130 grains of rice have been donated. Roughly several million grains of rice get donated every month.
The simplicity of FreeRice, combined with the charitable nature of the cause and the fact that visitors of any age can play it make it one of the best examples of a serious game with meaningful educational value. In fact, the guy who started the game built it using the 10,000 words his son was studying to prepare for the SAT.
Click to continue reading “Play Word Games and Feed Hungry People - FreeRice”
Most of the team at Ramo grew up playing classic computer games like Oregon Trail, Carmen Sandiego, and Reader Rabbit. These games were fun for us (as kids), but were educational in ways that made parents and teachers comfortable. Importantly, many of these games had educational value in the form of real-world learning, not just simple mechanical drills that would have felt too much like school. After all, where else would we learn about dysentery except in Oregon Trail? The developers of these games did a fine job building engaging products that emphasized some kind of learning to make the games meaningful beyond the simple entertainment value.
The big question is, what happened to these terrific game franchises?
The Learning Company, which was a pioneer in the edutainment space and developed titles like the ones above, got acquired by a handful of different companies, including Mattel; it is presently owned by Riverdeep. Looks like many of the original titles are still available, either in a boxed or downloadable format. The Learning Company website references nostalgic memories of Oregon Trail: “Develop solutions to help your friends and family survive the dangers of the long journey, including raging rivers, buffalo stampedes, sickness, and starvation.” Just the skills kids need to be prepared for the 21st century. Unfortunately, some of these games haven’t been updated in a few years.
What are some of your favorite memories of the classics?
