Magical I Am Innovations In the Digital Edutainment Space
Sky Village - Trail of Spells is the first digital game to master learning to read abstract words and symbols, using the 3-D senses of sight, sound, touch, kinesthetics, and the imagination of possibilities and solutions that the senses evoke. Abstract words have no physical (3-D) representation to associate with them and therefore are difficult to learn to read. The brain of the young learner begins as primarily sensory-oriented, and as it develops and matures, it becomes more logically oriented and can manage symbolic written language.
Unfortunately, many young children remain as sensory thinkers into the early grades, and some into adulthood. These are the individuals we refer to as 3-D Sensory-Thinkers (or learners) – when they think and imagine, they feel shapes and textures, they see colors, hues, patterns and shapes, they hear tones, pitches, over-tones that take on shape and texture. Therefore, abstract words and symbols are shapes/colors/tones/texture to them, not “words,” as we write them on paper. 3-D sensory thinkers or learners essentially “draw” words and letters, instead of writing them.
Operationally: Digital smart phones & tablets are used as learning vehicles that provide stimulation of many of the senses and imagination for developing mastery of all 3 parts of an abstract word or symbol -- what a word Looks like, what a word Sounds like and what a word Means. These are the 3 parts of every word and creating and utilizing sensory experiences of these 3 parts gives a “sensory meaning” and “experience” of each word and symbol.
1. Unique to Sky Village - Trail of Spells
is the use of a variety of sensory experiences to build a multi-dimensional understanding of all 3 parts of a whole word, seemingly at the same time. No other digital methodology can make this claim, although many do use limited sensory input without providing the critical sensory input of all 3 parts of a word seemingly at the same time. Other educational methodologies lack understanding of how a 3-D learner processes information. Sky Village - Trail of Spells seeks to make 2-dimensional words, symbols, and abstract words meaningful to the 3-dimensional thinker. Simply put, a 3-D thinker is someone who primarily learns and finds meaning through their senses.
To start with, there is a lot of confusion in the current educational systems when it comes to teaching how to read abstract words. Educational systems do not even agree on the same label for abstract words – for example, labels used include: Dolch words, Frye words, Outlaw words, Sight words, Most Commonly Read Words, or Abstract words.
Secondly, the significance of the role of abstract words in enabling reading comprehension and fluidity, regardless of how the abstract words are labeled, is often misunderstood or overlooked. In fact, abstract words are the main culprits that trigger an interrupter reading disability symptom that causes the dyslexic 3-D learner to stumble, hesitate, insert word, omit word, replace word, misread a word, skip line(s), miss a punctuation stop, or a combination thereof while reading.
2. Bindu M.E. Tech™ (Patented) - A Digital Technology that is the unique creation of Magical I Am.
The Bindu as a point of consciousness convergence that has been a part of Yogic tradition for thousands of years; Dr. Charles Krebs in his research in how the brain learns recognized the importance of the Bindu as a point of focus to assist a learner to integrate their brain so he can perceive symbols consistently and accurately; and more recently, Davis Dyslexia Association International used a point of orientation to focus attention. These findings led to the concept of the Bindu M.E. Tech™, as it is used in Sky Village - Trail of Spells.
The Mind’s Eye is an intangible, internal “viewer” of what is sensed internally and externally. In the Sky Village - Trail of Spells app, the user learns to position their Mind’s Eye on their Bindu to accurately and every time correctly perceive 2-dimensional symbol(s) - letters, numbers, words, and punctuation marks. Many individuals believe dyslexia is about seeing printed letters or numbers upside down and backwards. In a few seconds, the Bindu M.E. Tech™ illustrates the mechanism behind the mystery of how the dyslexic misperceives numbers and letters.
Dyslexia occurs when perception is distorted! This happens when the Mind’s Eye views a word from a multitude of viewpoints, to attempt to make sense of the flat 2-D symbols of the word. Sky Village - Trail of Spells app is the first app to digitally employ the Bindu M.E. Tech™ to help a reader stabilize their perception while reading.
Also, of significance, the Bindu M.E. Tech is an essential “game mechanic" in Sky Village - Trail of Spells – this means that to play the game with focus, comprehension, and get the most benefit from playing the game, the child must learn to stabilize their mind’s eye perception from “The Spot.” The game can only be played on a mobile device (phone or tablet) with the digital functions needed to learn the Bindu M.E. Tech, which will be available in Sky Village - Trail of Spells. Furthermore, since all letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and 2-D symbols are inherently abstract, use of the Bindu M.E. Tech in conjunction with the Digital Technologies of Voice Navigation, Augmented Reality, and more, make it possible to learn to perceptually recognize and understand these abstract symbols.
Finally, the player can learn to read abstract words autonomously, and without the need for the dreaded learning tool of rote and drill memorization!
3. In the future
Alphabet Mastery Game, the Bindu M.E. Tech enables perceptual mastery of the upper-case and lower-case letters, and soon this will be built into a separate Alphabet Mastery Game app. To learn the letters of the alphabet accurately, the player visually learns to recognize and organize the letters from Z to A, and to position them in their proper orientation. The senses of sight, sound, movement, and touch are used to associate a 3-dimensional sensory meaning with a 2-dimensional symbol - e.g., so “b” is seen as “b,” and not as: “d,” “p,” or “q.”
Dot Com Dash punctuation game, a future digital punctuation app that is being designed by Magical I Am. The player learns to stop for each punctuation mark, which eliminates meaningless run-on sentence reading, and enables the player to gain comprehension of what is read.
4. Another unique creation of the Magical I Am is the future technology of Adaptive Content Casting (patented).
Adaptive Content Casting is a live system designed within Sky Village - Trail of Spells that will continuously evaluate player competence and engagement. The system will continuously update the content presented to the player based on its evaluation of the player, so the player can learn comfortably at their own pace and not become overwhelmed, or bored.
Adaptive Content Casting is used to Evaluate the user’s progress of:
How the player’s learning is progressing.
Readiness for new content and challenging adventures.
The need for stress release activities, for more review and practice, to master the word spells of the current lessons and Wizard Tales.
Advancement to the next level of word & reading mastery.
Measurements are made of:
Accuracy - is measured by the number of correct answers within a time limit.
Speed - is measured as the time to complete reading comprehension challenges.
Number of the player attempts of the activities in the different components of the Sky Village - Trail of Spells.
Number of help functions used in a chapter of 4 words & symbols.
Amount of time since player was last active in the game, and what type of activity the player was doing.
Average time used for a given number of game plays.
To keep the player engaged in the game:
The more accurate the player is in the Spells Chapters and Reading the Wizard Tales, the more the player is capable of collecting reward points, badges, and exploring additional adventures.
The less accurate the player is, the more the player is given stress-release breaks – Minigames, puzzles, fun versions of the Mastery Game – and then is returned to mastering their current Spell Words, rereading the Wizard’s Tale, and taking the comprehension challenges. Once the player’s skill level advances sufficiently, the player can explore new challenging adventures. Thus, the player sets their own pace for progressing.
5. GEM (Patent Pending)
GEM (Gameplay Evaluation Method) is a near real-time gameplay analysis system that lets us view the interactions of the thousands (or more) users of our game(s). This can include what areas of the game they are currently in, what activities they are engaging in, what their scores are at various points of activity, as well as other data.
Brief Visual and Auditory Distractions are interjected frequently in Sky Village - Trail of Spells to enable the learning brain to stop and integrate what it has just experienced, and refresh in preparation for more learning. GEM data indicates to the game developer how effective these distractions are for promoting the player’s progress.
GEM is used to generate parental reports about their child’s engagement with the game. The gameplay data of each of the players is recorded on our servers for us to analyze. We can theoretically save several months' worth of data this way. With the depth of data that GEM collects, we have access to information on how the child is developing in their reading abilities. We can use GEM to calculate various pieces of information the parent will want to know such as the child’s reading speed, comprehension rate, words they are having difficulty with, and more.
GEM is invaluable for watching and validating our game design decisions, and more importantly for seeing where players are not engaging sufficiently. Are they confused about what to do next? Are they losing interest? How many Spells have they collected? Have they discovered the secret door we had placed on the map? Or are they just stuck? As we gather this information, we can improve the game continuously.
Once we have perfected GEM, and with some further development, we should be able to format GEM to license to other game developers. Every game developer wants to know the details of how their audience is interacting with their product.
6. Marcella's Reading Challenge – Dyslexia Diagnostic Tool –
This digital tool measures the quality of one’s reading ability and the quality of their comprehension of what is read. The user reads the given text aloud, as clearly as possible. They then answer a set of questions based on what was read. A report card of their reading is generated with metrics for the interrupter reading disability symptoms (of an omitted word, inserted word, misread word, missed punctuation stop sign, and skipped line(s)) and indicates whether the reading disability symptom is associated with an abstract word, concrete word, or punctuation mark.
This tool can be invaluable in early detection of reading disorders for children and adults.