Those of you who’ve played our games will notice that many levels, challenges and multiplayer games require the use of ‘energy’. Simply put, as long as you have energy, you can play any game you want. Once you run out of energy, you cannot play any new levels, challenges or multiplayer games. In the context of learning games, energy serves two purposes: ensuring that your child (or student) does not play for too long at once; and ensuring that your child’s learning and knowledge retention is maximized by not attempting too much new material at once.

The first purpose is about making sure that kids don’t play for long increments at any one time. We want your children to engage in online learning and improving proficiency in digital technology; but we also want to ensure they don’t spend 4 hours in front of a computer screen. The second purpose is to help kids play at a rate that doesn’t over expose too much new material at once. Each of our game levels are designed in a progressive manner such that each new level builds up on material in previous levels.

Although specifics vary, researchers have shown that people can only learn and retain so much at once [1].  Because previously played levels do not cost energy to replay, children can practice past material as much as they want to strengthen their proficiency.

At Sokikom, we want to help improve learning through interactive media and web-based social connections. The energy feature allows us to accomplish this while balancing kids’ interaction outside of computers and their knowledge retention.  Teachers, to learn more, please refer to our Best Practices guide found at the bottom of the Educators page located here.

[1] Brain Overload

Image by ComputerHotline