What do cat images, Impact fonts, and the gamification of language learning have in common?
London-based Memrise aims to utilize the charm and attention-grabbing nature of one of the most popular internet phenomenon, the ubiquitous cat meme.
Launching today on iOS, CatAcademy is a language learning game that uses cat images to commit language to memory. We had a chance to chat with Ed Cooke, CEO of Memrise, about CatAcademy.
“Learning has always been rather implicitly serious,” says Cooke. “We set out to harness the power of meme-like imagery. We’re focusing on conversation, not translation.”
The Memrise team began exploring ways to improve and gamify standard language learning tools back in 2012. The results of their analysis may seem humorous - “cuteness” improves cognitive function, and cats are disproportionately popular as meme material. Bringing everything together, the end result is CatAcademy - a merger of mind, meme, and meow.
The $0.99 title is designed to teach Spanish through the sort of thing you’d find on I Can Has Cheezburger or a Facebook feed. According to Cooke, there’s significant basis behind using the friendly felines.
“It basically comes down to this. What we remember is what we can easily pay attention to. It’s logical, we’re bringing what we enjoy looking at to the learning space,” says Cooke. “It's designed to be perfectly addictive, taking the silliest things in the world and applying an effective learning process.”
On Memrise, learners use ‘mems’ to learn words by making visual associations. The premise is that the funnier the picture, the more memorable it will be and the more enjoyable the learning will be.
The Memrise learning algorithm is designed to re-test users on words they have learned just at the point when they are about to be forgotten, the most effective time to strengthen memory.
With more and more language learning companies taking an interest in gamification, where things move next will be interesting to see. While AAA language learning FPS or RPG titles for next-gen consoles are probably a bit outside the scope of reality at this point, as education embraces and experiments with gamification opportunities the future seems open to all sorts of possibilities.
