Wizen World
Fun adventure game, but run-of-the-mill review of basic math
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Wizen World
Pros: Fun design appeals to kids, encouraging them to practice basic math facts.
Cons: The math can feel tacked on to the game, and there are no options for students to interact with one another.
Bottom Line: Wizen World is a fun way to encourage kids to practice basic math, but it can't be used to teach anything new.
Wizen World is primarily useful for in-class review or homework. The game's ogre-catching adventure and overall visual appeal will definitely encourage kids to practice math at home. In class, the game would make a fun activity center or end-of-unit activity. Although kids can't see their classmates' activities, a teacher could create avatar names and post a top 10 scoreboard, or let kids see the five classmates above and below them.
Editor's Note: Wizen World is no longer available.
In Wizen World, students play games related to basic math topics (currently fractions, decimals, and numbers, although additional topics, such as geometry, are coming soon). Types of games vary by topic. For example, fraction games are retro 2-D adventure games in the style of Nintendo's Zelda: players wander the world attacking ogres and solving math problems to defeat them. In the decimal number-line game, players help a cute creature jump over water by placing decimals on a number line. The overarching goal of all the games is to free meings -- creatures the ogres have imprisoned -- by completing the games and solving the math problems to "hatch" the meings and help them regain their strength.
Wizen World is fun to play and visually appealing, and will definitely hold students' attention and come in handy for encouraging them to review and practice basic math. The math isn't really connected to the game, however -- it's a "stop the game to do a math question" variety of play -- and the number of topics covered is currently limited (although that's promised to change in the future). The game does provide good math review and practice, but kids won't learn anything they don't already know, no help is available for kids who struggle with concepts, and teachers can't assign different levels to individual students.
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