Learning generally is not a pleasant experience for most of us. We usually find it very tedious, boring and overall not fun. Why then should it be fun? Imagine a world where learning is made fun. We all want to have an amazing learning experience, right? Looks weird but we sometimes spend time on YouTube watching videos that teach us stuff and we actually enjoy doing it. Can learning be fun? Yes, I think so. But how can it be made fun so that we enjoy it in and out of our classrooms and anywhere we decide to learn a new thing?
Nikasemo believes learning has to be an experience and in creating fun learning experiences, our learning will be fun.
The internet has created a vast number of ways to learn. Web 2.0(2006-2020) brought us a whole host of platforms to learn on. Information was made readily available in this age. But the availability of information does not equate people consuming that information. Having an education and learning are two distinct things. Education is usually systematic and things are followed through from a point to another point and usually maps up to a bigger goal. Learning on the other hand consists of how we consume information. And we do it in a lot of ways. How we experience what we learn plays a great role in how we remember those things and how we even use it.
The means in which learning was being experience in Web 2.0 was fundamentally through images, videos, texts and quizzes to asses our knowledge. These are the basic ways in which learning is done. Transforming content in books into audio-visuals and quizzes doesn’t fundamentally change the learning experience. It just changes the mode of consumption.
The COVID-19 Global pandemic brought a great focus on Online learning. This also helped us realised how deficient the current learning infrastructure is with regards in creating a great learning experience. Getting and maintaining the attention of children and even adults during online video lessons was a big problem. Helping us to understand that we cannot just port things done in a classroom and expect them to work as equally on the web. The internet has its own rules regarding engagement and we believe learning should be created in experiences in order to compete with the kind of engagement the internet also has.
To truly enjoy a learning platform, the experience you get from using it is the only factor that will be considered. With most of the things we do in life, the utility in doing is in the experience you get from it. Learning we believe should be a fun experience. We also believe that this will begin from excited children who are ready to explore possibilities.
Children usually between the ages of 8-13 are in their exploratory ages. These kids are usually in Primary School(Grade 1- 6) and Junior High School-JHS (Grade 7- 11) . They too want to know and use everything they see. It’s great we introduce them to a learning experience they are going to love. Because of the world they grew up in, they lose attention quickly when doing things. New learning experiences should be created for them which aim at engaging them. This approach should be fun and overall rewarding.
At Nikasemo we believe in Gamification, Customization and accountability.
Gamification is key to creating a platform that will make learning very fun and engaging. We engage kids through gamification by giving them points and gems after each learning activity they complete. Gems obtained can be used to purchase virtual boosters which will help them obtain better scores and in turn get more gems. Gems can be used to participate in competitions where top users obtain spins. On the lucky wheel, they can spin and get real gifts.
The platform is also presented as a game to foster a fun learning atmosphere for the children.
We create a customised learning path for each child based on their level of understanding of topics and subtopics of each subject. Basically, every child has a customised curriculum based on their understanding of topics. This helps us to know what they are interested in and are good at, so as to help them forge a future career path towards that.
The coming years will see a major platform shift into more immersive experiences. I mean from phones, where next are we going to? We moved from the Walkman to analogue phones and then smart phones. In this decade, we will move into the realm of science fiction where we see things in a more practical and actual way as we are experiencing it with the help of virtual reality(VR) and augmented reality(AR). These experiences will make learning feel more real as we can get to experience whatever thing we are learning in a very practical and hands-on way. There would also be a way to reward them as they learn and also get real gifts. With the help of cryptocurrency and NFT’s, they will be able to convert the value ascribed in these things as money to exchange for real life goods and services. This already sounds amazing right?
We have to position our children to take hold of the future coming unto us. The coming future looks interesting and we have to put our children in an advantageous position to win. We have to give them hands on training and make their learning more practical through various learning experiences. We should also put them through activities which will make them think critically and analytically also. These are the children who will transform our country, the world and even colonise the stars.
Nikasemo is building the future of learning by creating learning experiences which will make children and adults love learning and also put them in the position to also practically experience whatever they are learning hence help them create value in the world with what they learn.
This vision cannot be built alone. We need you to get involved and help us build the future of learning together.
www.nikasemo.com
– Bernard Lomo, CEO, Nikasemo.
