“Study your lessons!”

You heard it when you were still in school. If you are still in school, is that your mother I hear? If you are the parent, this may be something you tell your kids, in different tones, from begging, to angry, to exasperated. I can imagine these words being said using the whole emotional spectrum.

Studying has become a second priority to kids nowadays. They are so into texting as I quoted in my recent post from A talk Tonly Lopez gave posted at ebalita.net forum.

What if we can merge learning with the mobile phone? And here merges three things I am passionate about: Technology, Education and Business.

Most mobile games available today are mostly about entertainment value. Some have a bent for giving you some brain food and so few about direct school-related subjects.
This idea has been implemented in the area of PC gaming (am not sure about conscole games, though) and have been successful up to a certain degree. My impression is learning games for the PC are mostly targetted to the toddler and younger-aged children. For the tweens and teens, titles are too far few in between.

Why would this idea work for the mobile phone?

Portability. A mobile phone can be taken anywhere. If a child goes to a store with his parents, he can just pull out his phone and play.
Price. Of mobile phones and of the mobile games. The mobile phone has become a ubiquitous commodity that it is now considered by many as a must have for easy communication. Mobile games are usually priced much lower than PC games. And game developers can even afford to give it for free using the in-game ad-supported business model.
Prevalence. From the previous reason, educational mobile games can now proliferate. But more importantly, because of the next reason..
Permission. Parents would not think twice about letting the kids play. I know I would even encourage them to play it, specially if it’s about a subject they do not excel in.
The outcomes?

- Students learning while enjoying. This would be one game that parents will likely allow their kids toplay.

- Help teachers. This will be reinforcement or supplementary material.

- Help parents. A good and safe source of entertainment for their kids, a good source of learning, minimum (or free, depending on business model) cash outlay.This is one time that a child can say, I’m playing my lessons.

Pushing it further…

Bring classroom content into a series of mobile games, including the evaluation and maybe “certification” or “credits”. A lot of loopholes and questions but certainly worth exploring.