Stepic

Example 1. Programming in the kitchen

Programming could be applied to everyday cooking and personalized applications really simplifies the process of looking for the best recipe or technology of cooking if you are an amateur or even a professional cook. Here is a real case how to use programming skills in the kitchen: “Dealing with cookbooks and food magazines for recipes was really annoying, so I wrote a recipe app that gradually expanded into something that makes our grocery list for the week as well. This saves us literal hours per week, and helps us try things that looked interesting once, but aren't in one of our "favorite" cookbooks.”

xkcd.com: working for Google

Example 2. Programming and Excel spreadsheets

Tasks in Excel usually require working with huge collections of data and copy-cut-paste process could be infinite. Visual Basic could be used to automate the workflow and operate faster, less mistakenly with values. Combination of pretty simple and many-sided tools, such as Excel and Visual Basic, definitely, will bring satisfaction from well done work.  

xkcd.com: random number

Example 3. Programming and secured access

There is a need to make up or enter existing password several times per week while using any service. However, it is better to write specified password generator according to your personal preferences. Or programming skills could be used to make the security system more complicated as well.

xkcd.com: password strength

Example 4. Programming at school

Students deal with quadratic equations, finding greatest common divisor and least common multiple and many other mathematical problems which could be easily solved by simple, short code, for example, on PHP. Knowledge of any programming language teaches how to work with repeatable data in a more effective and programmatic way.

xkcd.com: too old for this shit

Example 5. Programming and comics

Another example is about the most important and demanded skill ever - sense of humor. You should know programming to understand at least XKCD comics, as it is a truly significant skill in retrospective analysis and, moreover, might help further in communication with nerds and geeks.

xkcd.com: blogging

Conclusion

It is pointed out that programming is not only essential tool for personal development, i.e. improving memory, attention, literacy, problem solving techniques etc, but also is very useful in daily life routine. Nevertheless, you come up unintendedly with customized ideas, which are going to simplify your life. But before getting such a significant output and return on your time, there should be hours of practise and a strong understanding of how the system works. No doubt, that the benefits from programming are applicable not only to machines, but they also influence the way of thinking in general.

1. Math skills and financial effectiveness

Facebook-based game FarmVille by Zynga helps kids to practice math skills, calculate profits and learn basics of financial literacy despite its non-educational nature. The gameplay provides the opportunity to select more economically effective options by simple logical calculations: either buying or growing crops by yourself. Here is the definition of ROI (return on investments) appears for the first time, which could be presented in a very laconic and comprehensible way for children. The formula consists of simple elements such as the total value of harvest (H), costs (C), spent time (T), where ROI=(H-C)/T. Assume that a virtual farmer can not decide what he actually wants to plant - sunflowers or strawberries.

Here are some calculations:

The result means that in the first case the value of 1 spent coin is 5 coins of profit, and similar calculations can be applied to another case. It seems to be a representable tool for making financial decisions.

2. Quantum physics

Rovio (and its world-famous Angry Birds brand) in collaboration with CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) decided to clarify main aspects of quantum physics in an affordable for children way. This new learning programm is called Angry Birds Playground. The educational process is conducted in form of a game with Angry Birds’ gamification algorithms within a learning program for kindergartners. This experience will help to keep children interested and engaged in such a complicated science as physics.

Rovio has already launched Angry Birds Space. Children can become familiar with basic principles gravitation force and constant frictional force and put the theory into practice. Nevertheless, there are a lot of assumptions in the game.

3. History

World of Tanks by Wargaming.net is an example of historical game simulators could help teaching history Players follow the game and gain more knowledge immersed in roots of the history. With a future integration of other Wargaming.net simulators (War of Warplanes and War of Warships) possible historical campaigns (single player scenarios  multiplayer battles) seems to be able to cover whole pages of textbooks on History. This allows players to absorb the historical facts on World War II in a non-boring way. All vehicles carefully detailed with historical accuracy, furthermore the game developer has a special team working with historical archives.

As a lot of historical materials extracted Wargaming.net publishes illustrated historical books about tanks (one about German Panzerkampfwagen Maus and one is planned to be about Soviet KV-1) with a purpose to educate players.

  Conclusion

Games presented in the article are rather crucial in terms of education, nevertheless initially they were been created just for fun. They keep players concentrated during the game and give opportunities to practice mathematical skills, learn physics and even history in a more affordable and unobtrusive way. This fact once again shows that the new approach to education through interactive and applicable to real-life game experience has a great positive impact on educational activity.   

Classification

The article presents a review of 10 groups with examples of already existed educational mobile games, which mainly focus on toddlers and preschoolers.  

  1. Early learning

The category includes all indispensable preschool activities such as alphabet learning, reading, vocabulary and simple math. It should be mentioned, that the target audience is not kids, but parents. Mobile games in this group should be not only bright and animated, but also require more adult preferences.

Example:

Montessori Letter Sounds: learning letter sounds, for pre-readers.

  2. Logic

Logic and reasoning games help to apply deductive approach to problem solving even at an early age. Moreover, such games encourage quick thinking and help with other areas of learning.

Example:

Little Solver - Preschool Logic Game: improving analytical reasoning skills by solving puzzles and analogies.

3. Math

The group mainly focuses on elementary school students and could be used not only for self-education, but also as a class activity. The main aim of math apps here is to enhance results and stimulate students work harder by simplifying the logic of the science.

Example:

DragonBox: learning algebra in a creative way.

4. Literacy

This category is similar to the previous one and tends to make it easy to memorize grammar rules and practice in spelling. The result could be achieved by regular repetition of simple exercises.

Example:

Word Wizard: spelling, phonetics and alphabet.

5. Environmental Science

This group of science aims at broadening kids’ horizons, providing exciting stories about the world history, the roots of phenomena, space, anatomy etc. The one comment on the group: information should be feeded in a comprehensive and bright, non-boring way, since the material itself could not be obvious enough.

Example:

Fruit Ninja: memorizing facts about berries and fruits.

Tick Bait’s Universe: easily explore the Universe.

6. Geography

The main aim of this class of games is to give basic knowledge of regional geography and encourage students to learn about world known sights, to catch cultural peculiarities and to expand the fields of interest. In comparison with traditional printed books such kind of apps has more interactive and entertaining features.

Example:

Intro to Geography - North America: learning flags, names, territory shapes.

7. Foreign Languages 

This group targets kids who are able to afford the scope of additional knowledge and information. It’s essential to diversify the duration of the educational program, i.e. implement timing of doing tasks with a reserve to absorb the information. The main problem is how to make kids not to drop the language program, because the process of learning languages should be continuous.

Example:

Learn Chinese: Toy Story 3 – Disney Language Learning: learning Chinese by a story telling.

8. Art and Creativity

Games in this classification promote brain activity and stimulate creative thinking. It is a basic skill, which helps to cope with various logical tasks. Moreover, such games are good enough to develop visual learning techniques.  

Example:

Music for Little Mozarts: learning more about music and making music.

9. Programming

This pretty new class of educational mobile games is gaining popularity because of demand of the computer science market. And it is easier to start practicing from the early ages, or at least get acquainted with the machine thinking, in order to get 10000 hours of experience in several years and become a high quality professionals.

Example:

HOPSCOTCH: learning the basics of computer programming.

10. Memorizing

The last but not the least class of games is memorizing, which can help to store in memory all knowledge got with the help of previous games. The main aim of this classification is to show preschoolers the easiest way how not to be confused with the information and to strengthen memory in general.  

Example:

Memory games for kids: learning new words, enhancing memory.

  Perspectives

The following classes of games are referred to non-developed yet, but with a high perspective for growth in the future.

1. Psychology 

This group of games is an introduction to the world of interpersonal relations. Its input in a development of conscious of a child is significant. Such type of games gives a clear understanding of emotions, friendship and humanity in the very childhood by provided articles, cartoons, models of different life situations in a funny and catchy way.

2. Financial Education

Financial games could be used to teach children not only how to spend rationally parents’ money via credit cards, but also form goals and provide following steps how to become financially stable in the future.

3. Business

The classification strives to foster a sense of business ethics, explain business laws and the process of earning and sharing money between market participants. Moreover here could be more specific games aimed to develop the understanding of copyright value through, for example, detailed description of process of cartoons design.

  Conclusion

  Reason 1: Where to go

Misunderstanding of why and where online students should search educational content might appear to be an important issue. Educational services sometimes are messy with information and suggestions and concrete goals of the service become not clear enough. Another point is that there are a lot of options to choose, what can be a little bit confusing for learners while they’re looking for only one thing – getting knowledge.

Method 1: Follow simplicity

The majority of users know what they actually want. So that makes it easy to show the direct path to what they want. Try to predict their behavior on the site. It’s all about usability. Just targeted information, just clear actions. The greatest examples of an intelligent approach to landing pages are:

Google search engine – one purpose: a user enters the site and gets what is wanted.

Airbnb’s splash screen – one message: where do you want to go in a search string.

Reason 2: What is the reason

Very often a bright name and a description of the course is enough to enroll for, but after the first lecture the student loses interest and motivation to compete it because of external factors, which haven’t been taken into consideration before. Moreover, learners don’t schedule their time in advance and many distractions may appear.  And doubts about whether a student should finish a course at all are not so rare. As Phillip J. Fry from Futurama might say “not sure if I watch the course later or have already dropped it”.

Method 2: That’s all for your sake

The most complicated thing for a content manager of the course (or the platform) is to convince the learners that this particular course is all they dream of. This is about describing the perspectives and privileges of participating. So it’s necessary to give arguments in a very simple and affordable form.

Earth Hour project by WWF shows the impact on environment of turning off non-essential lights for one hour.

Reason 3. It’s too complicated to get the knowledge

Almost everywhere the first step on the way to get information is the user registration process, requests to tell and to invite friends, to fill in personal and contact information. Then click, and click, and click... And finally no profit. To learners educational process is not a flow, it often seems to be more as a climbing. The problem is that it is really annoying and decreases the likelihood that the user will be satisfied. The value of the educational platform is hidden so deeply that many learners start struggling but give up.

Method 3. Low barriers to enter and to go on

What should be done is to set low barriers to get the knowledge. Any educational resources should stay not an advertising platform for collecting information, but a source of knowledge. Several measures can be taken as implementing a simple registration via social networks or even excluding personal accounts at all. Also making personal offers about further courses according to current programs learned and building the program for users is efficient so learners do not have to waste time finding ways to go on.  

Users watch videos on YouTube and keep on watching recommendations.

  Reason 4. The absence of visible result

Unfortunately, with more learners enrolled it it is getting more complicated to give feedback personally, follow up with their achievements and success. And when a learner doesn’t have results or has it belated the motivation is decreasing dramatically.

Method 4. Feedback

In order to observe an instant response many small but not so primitive tasks should be solved. Outsourcing professor’s roles to community, i.e. checking tasks, is also a solution but it doesn’t work well after the tipping point. Therefore atomic questions and quizzes help to maintain learners attention. And the more types of such quizzes are presented (not just a multiple choice) the more learners will be willing to wait for other results.

Notifications on Facebook on every event (messages, updates, etc)

Reason 5. A low-level or high specific content

Having a specific or niche content might be a problem when facing a mass oriented education. Too deep courses lower mass learners’ interest. Coming back to Coursera again there are courses based on higher education background which do not cover all the possible area.

Method 5. Really mass content

Making MOOC indeed mass oriented is a solution. Niche courses are critical at the beginning but it is reasonable to add different directions, more variable courses so that learners do not lose interest and always could find something more, something different. The secret ingredient is in mashing up niche and mass educational content.

Long tail model of Amazon.com.

Spotify’s platform: for all tastes in music.

  Conclusion

This overview is given to remind the problems of learners dropping courses on education services and to propose methods to increase conversions.

1. Simplifying the usage of the service lead users not to be irritated and to be satisfied at least with saving their time on choosing the right direction.

2. The question about the necessity of participating in online education services can be answered by defining the goals of the course or program and demonstrating benefits. So that, motivated and encouraged users would have a clear vision of a practical application of the course.

3. High entrance barriers can be managed by excluding useless steps on the way to get knowledge.

4. The problem of not feeling the progress can be leveled by offering many small tasks to get users loyal and enthusiastic.

5. Proper content should be presented for proper users. As the result, the content will be shared with target audience which enhance virality.

Photo credits: Disney Enterprise, Inc.

1. Wikipedia

It’s the brightest example of an article-view resource, where you can find any information on string theory, Phil Collins’s biography, calendar of past events, unusual facts and so on and so forth. Unfortunately, it’s prohibited to reference on Wikipedia in academic papers.

Multilingual public encyclopedia.

Free-edit format.

More than 37 mln. articles.

One of the largest online community.

  2. Q&A platforms

Using such services participants ask and answer variable questions and kindly help each other. It’s mostly used in marketing, entrepreneurship and innovation, journalism and psychology. The most popular platforms are qoura.com, where experts answer; stackoverflow.com for programmers; piazza.com for universities use.

Variety of opinions and experience.

Expert evaluation.

Up-to-date information.

  3. Web-forums as a handbook

This format is close to Q&A, but it isn’t only questions and opinions, but in-depth discussions. A catalogue of topics is available for a long time, so that it’s easy to use forums as handbooks. Such way of education is widespread among programmers.

Problem solving, not just commenting.

Academic communities also are possible.

  4. Stock of content

It’s possible to use visualised sources of information to support your knowledge or even to explore more. Already analysed and structured information is presented in easy-to-use form. There is a huge collection of infographics on thousand of topics on pinterest.com, how-to-do videos are on youtube.com, logically built topics or issues are on slideshare.net.

Structured and visualised information.

Description of topic, issue, event, activity.

  5. Social networks

Social networks can be used not only to chat with friends, download music and find tickets for concerts, but also to educate yourself. Almost each class/group/university has a Facebook page not only to inform students, but also to make them unlimited. It option is widely used in schools to raise awareness about environmental problems.

Combine business (education) with pleasure (entertainment).

Easy access.

Easy to reach target audience.

  Conclusion

Hope, this review will help you to embrace more information during your education. Deploy all resources you have access to:

Try to follow experts’ opinions using Q&A.

Analyse forums and blogs to find peers to develop your ideas together.

Use Wikipedia as a huge storage of information.

Entertain and educate yourself by broaden your mind on Facebook and other social networks.

Benefit from already prepared, assayed and visualized information to save your time.