Within the past two decades, the proliferation of technology has changed the face of both Kenyan education and Kenyan workplaces. The ability to effectively use a computer and a smart phone has become as fundamental to a person’s academic and occupational success as reading, writing and arithmetic. These rapid changes in technology have also put the current learning and teaching system under huge pressure to adapt.

The stellar performance of learners using educational games suggests significant importance of providing children with access to computers to enable them to learn adequate computer skills and enhance their educational experience (Trotter, 1998). As computers become a staple in each home, the number of homes with digital devices has significantly increased in the last 5 years with children, between the age of 2-18, having access to them.

We have intelligent learning games currently driving the 3Rs; Reading, Writing and Arithmetic in class and at home. Learning game companies such as d-school World of Learning have revolutionized education in Kenya. The learning games have transformed learning and teaching of mathematics, reading, Science, character development and critical thinking lessons into adventures for all learners! In each of the class-based programs, students are invited to embark on a journey through the play World – a personalized 3D environment that knows and grows with your child. Along the way, students master dozens of skills based on world class educational standards.

Designed by educators and built with cutting edge interactive play technology, such games are powerful supplemental learning solutions that every classroom needs.

Key Features of such solutions include: -
• Learning curriculum designed by educators and aligned with state standards
• Classroom management system allows each teacher to organize their classroom and easily view progress by student or class.
• Personalized learning system unlocks new lands and challenges according to each student’s progress
• In-game rewards keep students motivated to continue completing lessons and practicing skills
• Ever changing world transforms with the seasons and holidays using a real-time calendar
• Compelling 3D play immerses kids in a world of adventure, play and learning
• Exportable progress reports keep teachers up to date with student progress, skill by skill
Why advocate for intelligent learning games as a game changer in education in Africa
• Focus on 21st century skills, content knowledge and expertise.

Why intelligent learning game-based solutions are critical for the Competency-Based Curriculum -CBC
1. Quality education for all learners aligned to educational standards
Most of the solutions ensure that high-quality academic assessments, accountability systems, teacher preparation and training, curriculum, and instructional materials aligned with challenging international academic standards. The above ensures that students, teachers, parents, and administrators can measure progress against common expectation for student academic achievement.

2. Closing the achievement gap
The learning system uses state-of-the-art technology to assist in closing the achievement gap between high- and low-performing children.

Individualization…Each student is unique and the personalized learning system tracks and opens new lands and challenges according to each student’s progress. The targeted learning focuses on what skills the student needs to perfect and not focus on areas already mastered.

Motivation… Motivation encourages all students to engage in learning. This program was designed with motivation as a core element of education. The immersive 3-D play makes students feel like they are inside a world of adventure that incorporates learning. Additionally, students are motivated to keep learning by earning gems and badges. There are many motivational incentives in addition to the adventures, including:
• an ever-changing world that transforms with the seasons using a real-time calendar, and
• the ability for students to make the world whatever they imagine with photos, artwork, dress up and more.

3.Improving and strengthening Accountability and Teaching
Such solutions follow basic educational pedagogy and should complement state assessment systems. In addition, the program reinforces accountability and teaching at the local level. The Classroom Management System helps teachers to organize their classroom by viewing the progress of individual students or the entire class on real-time basis.

4. Promoting School wide reforms using scientifically based instruction
Promoting school wide reform and ensuring children have access to effective, scientifically based instructional strategies and challenging academic content. All the solutions begin with research and fact finding from the experts in the field based on the latest scientific research regarding how children learn and how technology can be used to enhance and support that experience. Through research, professional writers, and beta testing, partners create products that provide supplemental support for early literacy and help ensure that teachers and students receive positive and rewarding results.

5. Parental involvement
Affording parents substantial and meaningful opportunities to participate in the education of their children. Activities encourage parent-child interaction. The lively adventures encourage children to talk about their play and reinforce their learning.  Such solutions are developed with input from world class teachers, education experts, and business leaders to define and illustrate the skills and knowledge students need to succeed in work, life, and citizenship, as well as the support systems necessary for 21st century learning outcomes.

Why advocate for intelligent learning games as a game changer in education in Africa
•Focus on 21st century skills, content, knowledge and expertise
• Build understanding across and among academic subjects as well as 21st century interdisciplinary themes
• Emphasize deep understanding rather than shallow knowledge
• Empowers students to own their learning
• Engage students with the real-world data, tools, and experts they will encounter in college, on the job, and in life-students learn best when actively engaged in solving meaningful problems
• Allow for multiple measures of mastery
• Support a balance of assessments, including high-quality standardized testing along with effective classroom formative and summative assessments
• Emphasize useful feedback on student performance that is embedded into everyday learning
• Require a balance of technology-enhanced, formative, and summative assessments that measure student mastery of 21st century skills
• Enable development of portfolios for student work that demonstrate mastery of 21st century skills to educators and prospective employers
• Enable a balanced portfolio of measures to assess the educational system’s effectiveness at reaching high levels of student competency in 21st century skills
• It is affordable in the long run and cost effective

It is important to note that just like the phone has revolutionized banking, through M-Pesa in Kenya, intelligent learning games will revolutionize learning in Kenya and Africa if we all work as a team.

In a few years, we hope that every mall will have ATMs or vending machines for schools where learners can visit and download education with minimum teacher intervention. The materials must remain an adventure for them to gain the interest of learners at all levels. We are looking forward to a generation that is self-driven, risk-taking, has persistence, social skills, and a powerful sense of flow. All this is possible with an education that helps “discover, learn and excel” and keeping in mind that learning must always be fun and adventurous.

Finally, in the words of the great educationalist, Ignatia Estrada, “If a child can’t learn the way we teach, maybe we should teach them the way they learn.”

Mariesandra Sagina is the CEO, Educational Games Publishers Association of Kenya