OXON HILL, Md. (AP) — As the final pre-competition meeting of the Scripps National Spelling Bee’s word selection panel stretches into its seventh hour, the pronouncers no longer seem to care.
Before panelists can debate the words picked for the bee, they need to hear each word and its language of origin, part of speech, definition and exemplary sentence read aloud. Late in the meeting, lead pronouncer Jacques Bailly and his colleagues — so measured in their pacing and meticulous in their enunciation during the bee — rip through that chore as quickly as possible. No pauses. No apologies for flubs.
By the time of this gathering, two days before the bee, the word list is all but complete. Each word has been vetted by the panel and slotted into the appropriate round of the nearly century-old annual competition to identify the English language’s best speller.
For decades, the word panel’s work has been a closely guarded secret. This year, Scripps — a Cincinnati-based media company — granted The Associated Press exclusive access to the panelists and their pre-bee meeting, with the stipulation that The AP would not reveal words unless they were cut from the list.
Nathan Howard
Crew members assemble the main stage ahead of the 2023 Scripps Nations Spelling Bee on Sunday, May 28, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
THEY’RE TOUGH ON WORDS
The 21 panelists sit around a makeshift, rectangular conference table in a windowless room tucked inside the convention center outside Washington where the bee is staged every year. They are given printouts including words Nos. 770-1,110 — those used in the semifinal rounds and beyond — with instructions that those sheets of paper cannot leave the room.
Hearing the words aloud with the entire panel present — laptops open to Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged dictionary — sometimes illuminates problems. That’s what happened late in Sunday’s meeting. Kavya Shivashankar, the 2009 champion, an obstetrician/gynecologist and a recent addition to the panel, chimed in with an objection.
The word gleyde (pronounced “glide”), which means a decrepit old horse and is only used in Britain, has a near-homonym — glyde — with a similar but not identical pronunciation and the same meaning. Shivashankar says the variant spelling makes the word too confusing, and the rest of the panel quickly agrees to spike gleyde altogether. It won’t be used.
“Nice word, but bye-bye,” pronouncer Kevin Moch says.
Nathan Howard
Maggie Lorenz, left, and Kevin Moch participate in a meeting of the word panel to finalize the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee words on Sunday, May 28, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
For the panelists, the meeting is the culmination of a yearlong process to assemble a word list that will challenge but not embarrass the 230 middle- and elementary-school-aged competitors — and preferably produce a champion within the two-hour broadcast window for Thursday night’s finals.
The panel’s work has changed over the decades. From 1961 to 1984, according to James Maguire’s book “American Bee,” creating the list was a one-man operation overseen by Jim Wagner, a Scripps Howard editorial promotions director, and then by Harvey Elentuck, a then-MIT student who approached Wagner about helping with the list in the mid-1970s.
The panel was created in 1985. The current collaborative approach didn’t take shape until the early ’90s. Bailly, the 1980 champion, joined in 1991.
“Harvey … made the whole list,” Bailly says. “I never met him. I was just told, ‘You’re the new Harvey.'”
IT’S NOT JUST PICKING WORDS
This year’s meeting includes five full-time bee staffers and 16 contract panelists. The positions are filled via word of mouth within the spelling community or recommendations from panelists. The group includes five former champions: Barrie Trinkle (1973), Bailly, George Thampy (2000), Sameer Mishra (2008) and Shivashankar.
Trinkle, who joined the panel in 1997, used to produce the majority of her submissions by reading periodicals like The New Yorker or The Economist.
“Our raison d’etre was to teach spellers a rich vocabulary that they could use in their daily lives. And as they got smarter and smarter, they got more in contact with each other and were studying off the same lists, it became harder to hold a bee with those same types of words,” Trinkle says.
Nathan Howard
Mirle Shivashankar and Kevin Moch talk during a meeting of the word panel to finalize the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee words on Sunday, May 28, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
Now, more often than not she goes directly to the source — Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged. That’s easier than it used to be.
“The dictionary is on the computer and is highly searchable in all kinds of ways — which the spellers know as well. If they want to find all the words that entered the language in the 1650s, they can do that, which is sometimes what I do,” Trinkle says. “The best words kind of happen to you as you’re scrolling around through the dictionary.”
Not everyone on the panel submits words. Some work to ensure that the definitions, parts of speech and other accompanying information are correct; others are tasked with ensuring that words of similar difficulty are asked at the right times in the competition; others focus on crafting the bee’s new multiple-choice vocabulary questions. Those who submit words, like Trinkle and Mishra, are given assignments throughout the year to come up with a certain number at a certain level of difficulty.
Mishra pulls his submissions from his own list, which he started when he was a 13-year-old speller. He gravitates toward “the harder end of the spectrum.”
“They are fun and challenging for me and they make me smile, and I know if I was a speller I would be intimidated by that word,” says the 28-year-old Mishra, who just finished his MBA at Harvard. “I have no fear about running out (of words), and I feel good about that.”
Nathan Howard
Former Scripps National Spelling Bee winners Kavya Shivashankar, from left, George Thampy, Sameer Mishra, and Pronouncer Jacques Bailly attend a word panel meeting to finalize the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee words on Sunday, May 28, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
HOW THE BEE HAS EVOLVED
The panel meets a few times a year, often virtually, to go over words, edit definitions and sentences, and weed out problems. The process seemed to go smoothly through the 2010s, even amid a proliferation of so-called “minor league” bees, many catering to offspring of highly educated, first-generation Indian immigrants — a group that has come to dominate the competition.
In 2019, a confluence of factors — among them, a wild-card program that allowed multiple spellers from competitive regions to reach nationals — produced an unusually deep field of spellers. Scripps had to use the toughest words on its list just to cull to a dozen finalists. The bee ended in an eight-way tie, and there was no shortage of critics.
Scripps, however, didn’t fundamentally change the way the word panel operates. It brought in younger panelists more attuned to the ways contemporary spellers study and prepare. And it made format changes designed to identify a sole champion. The wild-card program was scrapped, and Scripps added onstage vocabulary questions and a lightning-round tiebreaker.
The panel also began pulling words avoided in the past. Place names, trademarks, words with no language of origin: As long as a word isn’t archaic or obsolete, it’s fair game.
“They’ve started to understand they have to push further into the dictionary,” says Shourav Dasari, a 20-year-old former speller and a co-founder with his older sister Shobha of SpellPundit, which sells study guides and hosts a popular online bee. “Last year, we started seeing stuff like tribal names that are some of the hardest words in the dictionary.”
Nathan Howard
Backup Associate Pronouncer, Christian Axelgard, left, and Frank Cahill talk during a meeting of the word panel to finalize the 2023 Scripps National Spelling Bee words on Sunday, May 28, 2023, at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Md. (AP Photo/Nathan Howard)
THERE’S A METICULOUSNESS TO IT ALL
Members of the panel insist they worry little about other bees or the proliferation of study materials and private coaches. But those coaches and entrepreneurs spend a lot of time thinking about the words Scripps is likely to use — often quite successfully.
Dasari says there are roughly 100,000 words in the dictionary that are appropriate for spelling bees. He pledges that 99% of the words on Scripps’ list are included in SpellPundit’s materials. Anyone who learns all those words is all but guaranteed to win, Dasari says — but no one has shown they can do it.
“I just don’t know when anybody would be able to completely master the unabridged dictionary,” Dasari says.
Since the bee resumed after its 2020 pandemic cancellation, the panel has been scrutinized largely for the vocabulary questions, which have added a capricious element, knocking out some of the most gifted spellers even if they don’t misspell a word. Last year’s champion, Harini Logan, was briefly ousted on a vocabulary word, “pullulation” — only to be reinstated minutes later after arguing that her answer could be construed as correct.
“That gave us a sense of how very, very careful we need to be in terms of crafting these questions,” says Ben Zimmer, the language columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a chief contributor of words for the vocabulary rounds.
Zimmer is also sensitive to the criticism that some vocabulary questions are evaluating the spellers’ cultural sophistication rather than their mastery of roots and language patterns. This year’s vocabulary questions contain more clues that will guide gifted spellers to the answers, he says.
There will always be complaints about the word list, but making the competition as fair as possible is the panel’s chief goal. Missing hyphens or incorrect capitalization, ambiguities about singular and plural nouns or transitive and intransitive verbs — no question is too insignificant.
“This is really problematic,” Trinkle says, pointing out a word that has a homonym with a similar definition.
Scripps editorial manager Maggie Lorenz agrees: “We’re going to bump that word entirely.”
___
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Wordle is being turned into a board game
Oliver Davis // Getty Images
The act of having fun raises levels of dopamine, endorphins, and oxygen in a person's body: all essential ingredients for learning.
For educational games to be successful, their creators have to be meticulous about striking a careful balance between education and entertainment. Best Universities compiled a list of how different types of digital games meant for teaching students have evolved over time, ranging from DOS games like Oregon Trail to the latest version of the Scratch programming app for kids.
Twenty years ago, children took computer science classes in school with specific units for programming, typing, and other concepts. Today, students learn these same concepts from playing Minecraft, making their own servers for games, creating and installing “mods” that change the gameplay experience, and learning old-school HTML to create ’90s flashback looks on their itch.io pages.
But with any discussion of video games comes the debate around screen time, which has long been a point of contention between parents and children. While educational games served as a compromise, the pandemic pushed most parents to concede screen time for online learning. And without a physical classroom, many educators seized the opportunity to use video games in unconventional ways to teach history, science, and coding during the height of pandemic-induced distance learning.
The world of educational video games is a rich industry with decades of history. These games directly tie with analog educational technologies like creative worksheets, classroom role-playing projects, and even educational vinyl albums from previous decades. Developers are constantly iterating to make the latest technology more educational.
Oliver Davis // Getty Images
The act of having fun raises levels of dopamine, endorphins, and oxygen in a person's body: all essential ingredients for learning.
For educational games to be successful, their creators have to be meticulous about striking a careful balance between education and entertainment. Best Universities compiled a list of how different types of digital games meant for teaching students have evolved over time, ranging from DOS games like Oregon Trail to the latest version of the Scratch programming app for kids.
Twenty years ago, children took computer science classes in school with specific units for programming, typing, and other concepts. Today, students learn these same concepts from playing Minecraft, making their own servers for games, creating and installing “mods” that change the gameplay experience, and learning old-school HTML to create ’90s flashback looks on their itch.io pages.
But with any discussion of video games comes the debate around screen time, which has long been a point of contention between parents and children. While educational games served as a compromise, the pandemic pushed most parents to concede screen time for online learning. And without a physical classroom, many educators seized the opportunity to use video games in unconventional ways to teach history, science, and coding during the height of pandemic-induced distance learning.
The world of educational video games is a rich industry with decades of history. These games directly tie with analog educational technologies like creative worksheets, classroom role-playing projects, and even educational vinyl albums from previous decades. Developers are constantly iterating to make the latest technology more educational.
-
Wordle is being turned into a board game
The Washington Post // Getty Images
Before the first Windows operating system brought graphical user interfaces to most computer users, there was the disk operating system, or DOS. This text-based software worked via users inserting floppy disks into computers and running them directly using typed-in command prompts. Text was easy for early home computers to parse, which sparked the creation of text-based games.
The Oregon Trail was first developed in the 1970s as an all-text game: a way for students to interact with and learn about the journey white settlers took along the historic wagon route to the West. In the 1980s, the game received a major facelift when it was adapted into a full game with graphics that left it with the iconic look we still remember today.
The Washington Post // Getty Images
Before the first Windows operating system brought graphical user interfaces to most computer users, there was the disk operating system, or DOS. This text-based software worked via users inserting floppy disks into computers and running them directly using typed-in command prompts. Text was easy for early home computers to parse, which sparked the creation of text-based games.
The Oregon Trail was first developed in the 1970s as an all-text game: a way for students to interact with and learn about the journey white settlers took along the historic wagon route to the West. In the 1980s, the game received a major facelift when it was adapted into a full game with graphics that left it with the iconic look we still remember today.
-
-
Wordle is being turned into a board game
San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers // Getty Images
The late 1980s ushered in the era of CD-ROMs, which trickled out to home computer users over the next decade. These read-only discs had significantly more storage compared to floppy disks, supporting 500 megabytes or more instead of just 1.44 megabytes on a 3.5-inch floppy disk.
Users were accustomed to up to 10 or more floppy disks to install DOS software like WordPerfect, but now, just one CD-ROM was all that was needed to run new games full of cutting-edge graphics and animations. This ushered in a golden age of educational CD-ROM games in the 1990s, with iconic brands like Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit helping students prep for class time.
San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers // Getty Images
The late 1980s ushered in the era of CD-ROMs, which trickled out to home computer users over the next decade. These read-only discs had significantly more storage compared to floppy disks, supporting 500 megabytes or more instead of just 1.44 megabytes on a 3.5-inch floppy disk.
Users were accustomed to up to 10 or more floppy disks to install DOS software like WordPerfect, but now, just one CD-ROM was all that was needed to run new games full of cutting-edge graphics and animations. This ushered in a golden age of educational CD-ROM games in the 1990s, with iconic brands like Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit helping students prep for class time.
-
Wordle is being turned into a board game
Mark Boster // Getty Images
Early proto-social networks emerged in the 1990s along with the proliferation of CD-ROM games, such as the girl games website Purple Moon. Purple Moon linked social educational games with early sponsored content from relevant brands.
These games, starting with sites like gURL and extending through massive, multiplayer online games like Neopets and Club Penguin in the 2000s, offered at least partially safe spaces for kids to play games and improve skills like hand-eye coordination and typing. These sites sometimes didn’t have enough moderators and fell victim to trolling, brigading, and hacking: a classic problem experienced as the internet grew.
Mark Boster // Getty Images
Early proto-social networks emerged in the 1990s along with the proliferation of CD-ROM games, such as the girl games website Purple Moon. Purple Moon linked social educational games with early sponsored content from relevant brands.
These games, starting with sites like gURL and extending through massive, multiplayer online games like Neopets and Club Penguin in the 2000s, offered at least partially safe spaces for kids to play games and improve skills like hand-eye coordination and typing. These sites sometimes didn’t have enough moderators and fell victim to trolling, brigading, and hacking: a classic problem experienced as the internet grew.
-
-
Wordle is being turned into a board game
The Washington Post // Getty Images
Popular home gaming consoles gained popularity with the family-friendly Nintendo and Super Nintendo in the 1980s. When it was released in 1989, the Game Boy immediately changed how games could be carried around. A wave of ersatz children’s handheld video game devices followed.
These included single-game Tiger handhelds and educational “children’s computers” like LeapFrog, the first-ever proto tablet designed for children to be portable and durable. Sesame Street, Jump Start, and other licensed children’s properties led the way in educational games for little kids, while games like Minecraft have made their way to the extremely popular Nintendo Switch system.
Today, kids can even use smartphone apps to learn to code.
The Washington Post // Getty Images
Popular home gaming consoles gained popularity with the family-friendly Nintendo and Super Nintendo in the 1980s. When it was released in 1989, the Game Boy immediately changed how games could be carried around. A wave of ersatz children’s handheld video game devices followed.
These included single-game Tiger handhelds and educational “children’s computers” like LeapFrog, the first-ever proto tablet designed for children to be portable and durable. Sesame Street, Jump Start, and other licensed children’s properties led the way in educational games for little kids, while games like Minecraft have made their way to the extremely popular Nintendo Switch system.
Today, kids can even use smartphone apps to learn to code.
-
Wordle is being turned into a board game
Andy Cross // Getty Images
Mavis Beacon is the most iconic typing software in history, published continuously since 1987, even as technology continues to evolve. But typing in schools dates back to the typewriter days of the 1950s and 1960s—especially for young women.
In the 1990s, companies made software specifically for schools and at special group rates. There are more “fun” typing games made for very young kids, while older children may have more businesslike software. There are also plenty of regular games that use typing as the mechanic.
Andy Cross // Getty Images
Mavis Beacon is the most iconic typing software in history, published continuously since 1987, even as technology continues to evolve. But typing in schools dates back to the typewriter days of the 1950s and 1960s—especially for young women.
In the 1990s, companies made software specifically for schools and at special group rates. There are more “fun” typing games made for very young kids, while older children may have more businesslike software. There are also plenty of regular games that use typing as the mechanic.
-
-
Wordle is being turned into a board game
MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle // Getty Images
Early coding languages were very specific and text-only, with obtuse jargon that was often a necessity for code to fit into the space available. But as computers became more powerful, coding evolved as well. This reflects a movement among computer scientists toward programming languages that use whole words, for example, or visual “blocks” of code that click into place together.
The MIT-created programming language Scratch lets people of all ages make “interactive stories” on almost any device using the official app. In Minecraft, people “program” using specialized blocks in sequence. And in schools, teachers can use modified environments for languages like Python and Java to teach coding the old-fashioned way.
MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle // Getty Images
Early coding languages were very specific and text-only, with obtuse jargon that was often a necessity for code to fit into the space available. But as computers became more powerful, coding evolved as well. This reflects a movement among computer scientists toward programming languages that use whole words, for example, or visual “blocks” of code that click into place together.
The MIT-created programming language Scratch lets people of all ages make “interactive stories” on almost any device using the official app. In Minecraft, people “program” using specialized blocks in sequence. And in schools, teachers can use modified environments for languages like Python and Java to teach coding the old-fashioned way.
-
Wordle is being turned into a board game
TOBIAS SCHWARZ // Getty Images
Educators can use virtual and augmented reality technologies to help engage people of all ages in innovative ways. Established entities like museums can turn their collections into virtual galleries, allowing remote “visitors” to experience artwork, science displays, and more. On-site, these museums can use AR to transform the traditional “guided tour” into a more immersive experience.
Adding game-like elements to virtual reality or augmented reality experiences, like item collection and achievements, may help students retain the information better. These same ideas have transformed everyday life into richer educational opportunities, such as prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba’s walking history of Black women in Chicago called Lifting As They Climbed.
This story originally appeared on Best Universities and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
TOBIAS SCHWARZ // Getty Images
Educators can use virtual and augmented reality technologies to help engage people of all ages in innovative ways. Established entities like museums can turn their collections into virtual galleries, allowing remote “visitors” to experience artwork, science displays, and more. On-site, these museums can use AR to transform the traditional “guided tour” into a more immersive experience.
Adding game-like elements to virtual reality or augmented reality experiences, like item collection and achievements, may help students retain the information better. These same ideas have transformed everyday life into richer educational opportunities, such as prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba’s walking history of Black women in Chicago called Lifting As They Climbed.
This story originally appeared on Best Universities and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
-
-
Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
Oliver Davis // Getty Images
The act of having fun raises levels of dopamine, endorphins, and oxygen in a person's body: all essential ingredients for learning.
For educational games to be successful, their creators have to be meticulous about striking a careful balance between education and entertainment. Best Universities compiled a list of how different types of digital games meant for teaching students have evolved over time, ranging from DOS games like Oregon Trail to the latest version of the Scratch programming app for kids.
Twenty years ago, children took computer science classes in school with specific units for programming, typing, and other concepts. Today, students learn these same concepts from playing Minecraft, making their own servers for games, creating and installing "mods" that change the gameplay experience, and learning old-school HTML to create '90s flashback looks on their itch.io pages.
But with any discussion of video games comes the debate around screen time, which has long been a point of contention between parents and children. While educational games served as a compromise, the pandemic pushed most parents to concede screen time for online learning. And without a physical classroom, many educators seized the opportunity to use video games in unconventional ways to teach history, science, and coding during the height of pandemic-induced distance learning.
The world of educational video games has a rich, decades-long history. These games directly tie with analog educational technologies like creative worksheets, classroom role-playing projects, and even educational vinyl albums from previous decades. Developers are constantly iterating to make the latest technology more educational.
Oliver Davis // Getty Images
The act of having fun raises levels of dopamine, endorphins, and oxygen in a person's body: all essential ingredients for learning.
For educational games to be successful, their creators have to be meticulous about striking a careful balance between education and entertainment. Best Universities compiled a list of how different types of digital games meant for teaching students have evolved over time, ranging from DOS games like Oregon Trail to the latest version of the Scratch programming app for kids.
Twenty years ago, children took computer science classes in school with specific units for programming, typing, and other concepts. Today, students learn these same concepts from playing Minecraft, making their own servers for games, creating and installing "mods" that change the gameplay experience, and learning old-school HTML to create '90s flashback looks on their itch.io pages.
But with any discussion of video games comes the debate around screen time, which has long been a point of contention between parents and children. While educational games served as a compromise, the pandemic pushed most parents to concede screen time for online learning. And without a physical classroom, many educators seized the opportunity to use video games in unconventional ways to teach history, science, and coding during the height of pandemic-induced distance learning.
The world of educational video games has a rich, decades-long history. These games directly tie with analog educational technologies like creative worksheets, classroom role-playing projects, and even educational vinyl albums from previous decades. Developers are constantly iterating to make the latest technology more educational.
-
Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
The Washington Post // Getty Images
Before the first Windows operating system brought graphical user interfaces to most computer users, there was the disk operating system, or DOS. This text-based software worked via users inserting floppy disks into computers and running them directly using typed-in command prompts. Text was easy for early home computers to parse, which sparked the creation of text-based games.
The Oregon Trail was first developed in the 1970s as an all-text game: a way for students to interact with and learn about the journey white settlers took along the historic wagon route to the West. In the 1980s, the game received a major facelift when it was adapted into a full game with graphics that left it with the iconic look we still remember today.
The Washington Post // Getty Images
Before the first Windows operating system brought graphical user interfaces to most computer users, there was the disk operating system, or DOS. This text-based software worked via users inserting floppy disks into computers and running them directly using typed-in command prompts. Text was easy for early home computers to parse, which sparked the creation of text-based games.
The Oregon Trail was first developed in the 1970s as an all-text game: a way for students to interact with and learn about the journey white settlers took along the historic wagon route to the West. In the 1980s, the game received a major facelift when it was adapted into a full game with graphics that left it with the iconic look we still remember today.
-
-
Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers // Getty Images
The late 1980s ushered in the CD-ROM era, which trickled out to home computer users over the next decade. These read-only discs had significantly more storage than floppy disks, supporting 500 megabytes or more instead of just 1.44 megabytes on a 3.5-inch floppy disk.
Users were accustomed to needing up to 10 or more floppy disks to install DOS software like WordPerfect, but now, just one CD-ROM was all that was needed to run new games full of cutting-edge graphics and animations. This ushered in a golden age of educational CD-ROM games in the 1990s, with iconic brands like Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit helping students prep for class time.
San Francisco Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers // Getty Images
The late 1980s ushered in the CD-ROM era, which trickled out to home computer users over the next decade. These read-only discs had significantly more storage than floppy disks, supporting 500 megabytes or more instead of just 1.44 megabytes on a 3.5-inch floppy disk.
Users were accustomed to needing up to 10 or more floppy disks to install DOS software like WordPerfect, but now, just one CD-ROM was all that was needed to run new games full of cutting-edge graphics and animations. This ushered in a golden age of educational CD-ROM games in the 1990s, with iconic brands like Math Blaster and Reader Rabbit helping students prep for class time.
-
Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
Mark Boster // Getty Images
Early proto-social networks emerged in the 1990s, along with the proliferation of CD-ROM games, such as the girl games website Purple Moon. Purple Moon linked social educational games with early sponsored content from relevant brands.
These games, starting with sites like gURL and extending through massive, multiplayer online games like Neopets and Club Penguin in the 2000s, offered at least partially safe spaces for kids to play games and improve skills like hand-eye coordination and typing. These sites sometimes didn't have enough moderators and fell victim to trolling, brigading, and hacking: a classic problem experienced as the internet grew.
Mark Boster // Getty Images
Early proto-social networks emerged in the 1990s, along with the proliferation of CD-ROM games, such as the girl games website Purple Moon. Purple Moon linked social educational games with early sponsored content from relevant brands.
These games, starting with sites like gURL and extending through massive, multiplayer online games like Neopets and Club Penguin in the 2000s, offered at least partially safe spaces for kids to play games and improve skills like hand-eye coordination and typing. These sites sometimes didn't have enough moderators and fell victim to trolling, brigading, and hacking: a classic problem experienced as the internet grew.
-
-
Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
The Washington Post // Getty Images
Popular home gaming consoles gained popularity with the family-friendly Nintendo and Super Nintendo in the 1980s. When it was released in 1989, the Game Boy immediately changed how games could be carried around. A wave of ersatz children's handheld video game devices followed.
These included single-game Tiger handhelds and educational "children's computers" like LeapFrog, the first-ever proto tablet designed for children to be portable and durable. Sesame Street, Jump Start, and other licensed children's properties led the way in educational games for little kids, while games like Minecraft have made their way to the extremely popular Nintendo Switch system.
Today, kids can even use smartphone apps to learn to code.
The Washington Post // Getty Images
Popular home gaming consoles gained popularity with the family-friendly Nintendo and Super Nintendo in the 1980s. When it was released in 1989, the Game Boy immediately changed how games could be carried around. A wave of ersatz children's handheld video game devices followed.
These included single-game Tiger handhelds and educational "children's computers" like LeapFrog, the first-ever proto tablet designed for children to be portable and durable. Sesame Street, Jump Start, and other licensed children's properties led the way in educational games for little kids, while games like Minecraft have made their way to the extremely popular Nintendo Switch system.
Today, kids can even use smartphone apps to learn to code.
-
Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
Andy Cross // Getty Images
Mavis Beacon is among the most iconic typing software in history, published continuously since 1987, even as technology continues to evolve. But typing in schools dates back to the typewriter days of the 1950s and 1960s—especially for young women.
In the 1990s, companies made software specifically for schools and at special group rates. There are more "fun" typing games made for very young kids, while older children may have more businesslike software. There are also plenty of regular games that use typing as the mechanic.
Andy Cross // Getty Images
Mavis Beacon is among the most iconic typing software in history, published continuously since 1987, even as technology continues to evolve. But typing in schools dates back to the typewriter days of the 1950s and 1960s—especially for young women.
In the 1990s, companies made software specifically for schools and at special group rates. There are more "fun" typing games made for very young kids, while older children may have more businesslike software. There are also plenty of regular games that use typing as the mechanic.
-
-
Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle // Getty Images
Early coding languages were very specific and text-only, with obtuse jargon that was often a necessity for code to fit into the space available. But as computers became more powerful, coding evolved as well. This reflects a movement among computer scientists toward programming languages that use whole words, for example, or visual "blocks" of code that click into place together.
The MIT-created programming language Scratch lets people of all ages make "interactive stories" on almost any device using the official app. In Minecraft, people "program" using specialized blocks in sequence. And in schools, teachers can use modified environments for languages like Python and Java to teach coding the old-fashioned way.
MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle // Getty Images
Early coding languages were very specific and text-only, with obtuse jargon that was often a necessity for code to fit into the space available. But as computers became more powerful, coding evolved as well. This reflects a movement among computer scientists toward programming languages that use whole words, for example, or visual "blocks" of code that click into place together.
The MIT-created programming language Scratch lets people of all ages make "interactive stories" on almost any device using the official app. In Minecraft, people "program" using specialized blocks in sequence. And in schools, teachers can use modified environments for languages like Python and Java to teach coding the old-fashioned way.
-
Exclusive secrets of the National Spelling Bee: Picking the words to identify a champion
TOBIAS SCHWARZ // Getty Images
Educators can use virtual and augmented reality technologies to help engage people of all ages in innovative ways. Established entities like museums can turn their collections into virtual galleries, allowing remote "visitors" to experience artwork, science displays, and more. On-site, these museums can use AR to transform the traditional "guided tour" into a more immersive experience.
Adding game-like elements to virtual reality or augmented reality experiences, like item collection and achievements, may help students retain the information better. These same ideas have transformed everyday life into richer educational opportunities, such as prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba's walking history called Slavery and Resistance in NYC (1626-1865).
This story originally appeared on Best Universities and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
TOBIAS SCHWARZ // Getty Images
Educators can use virtual and augmented reality technologies to help engage people of all ages in innovative ways. Established entities like museums can turn their collections into virtual galleries, allowing remote "visitors" to experience artwork, science displays, and more. On-site, these museums can use AR to transform the traditional "guided tour" into a more immersive experience.
Adding game-like elements to virtual reality or augmented reality experiences, like item collection and achievements, may help students retain the information better. These same ideas have transformed everyday life into richer educational opportunities, such as prison abolitionist Mariame Kaba's walking history called Slavery and Resistance in NYC (1626-1865).
This story originally appeared on Best Universities and was produced and distributed in partnership with Stacker Studio.
