OLPC Scrabble with Definitions

This is a cool feature I have yet to see implemented.

Problem: Scrabble is a good way to learn spelling, but people make words they don’t understand.

Scrabble style games encourage spelling by having people put together letters in odd combinations. For less strenuous play, most computer versions of the game dispense with the ‘challenge a misspelled word’ option. This leads to players to try to explore new words by trial and error. When a young player tries to put an ‘H’ after ‘PIT’, they discover a new word.

Solution: Provide definitions of the word inside the game.

Tool tips provide one simple solution. Hovering the cursor over a word would pop-up containing the definition of the word as helpfully provided by wiktionary. This provides another level of passive learning in the same experience.

For advanced players, one could play against someone speaking a different language. Words of both player’s languages would be accepted, and the tool-tips would provide spelling and pronunciation hints. While one could imagine triggering off videos, such as matching Colingo videos, most additional help would come from chatting with the other player.

Lots of possibilities.