Geography was never my strong suit. Plus, it seems like all you ever learned in school was the names of capital cities, or maybe some cultural or climate-related information for various regions or countries. It was never enough to feel like a global perspective was achieved. Has it changed since I was a student? Or do I just not remember it correctly?
Anyway, about a month ago I found (through my brother), a game on Facebook. GeoChallenge has three rounds: in the first, you identify the flag for the country or union. The second round gives you the outline of the country, and slowly fades in the surrounding countries too, and you identify the name. The third round is full map, and you need to 'stick a pin' in the city they give. 60 seconds per round, you earn additional time after getting 10 right.
It's educational, whether you might call it scaffolding, or just building on prior knowledge, it's NOT totally random. The first few times you play, you're looking at a basic selection of flags, always the same ones, very different color combinations so you can start to associate the right patterns or colors with the country. Then, they add in a flag you haven't seen, then another. Only adding new ones when you've made the correct match a few times on the ones you already know. Same with countries and cities.
If I had played this game once a week in school, I'd have had WAY fewer misconceptions about Europe, the Middle East, and southeast Asia. And maybe understood a few more things in the news since then.
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