Children's Way is a non-profit organization that teaches children through an online program called Woogi World. Scott Dow is the founder and president of Children's Way. Some notable members of the advisory board for Children's Way include 2000 Olympic Gold Medalist Wrestler Rulon Gardner, entertainer and philanthropist Alan Osmond, and former U.S. Senator Jake Garn.
Woogi World was a yearlong program in which elementary school students, from grades K-6, can become members of the Woogi World community.[1] Woogi World teaches over one million children appropriate ways to socialize online. It is a scaled program that provides incentives for children to be active in the real world. To keep its users engaged, it utilized the latest gaming and social networking technologies to teach them the ins and outs of online interaction. For a lesser cost than a traditional education, Woogi World helped children learn necessarily skills for a wide variety of careers and real-life situations.[1]
The program was free for schools that would like to participate and was funded by philanthropists. The official national launch of Woogi World took place in 2008. It has engaged over 50,000 elementary schools around the nation to date.
In Woogi World (WW), children could sign up and customize their virtual character with watts, the currency of WW. Kids could also buy furniture for their wigwam, which is a Woogi's house. They could also join clubs like music club, science club, and reading club.[1]
A full list of subjects taught includes:
There was also a summer camp program for students who want to continue the Woogi education during off months.
The Woogi English program was designed to help students learn English as a second language. It lasts for 36 weeks and provides 5 lesson plans per week, Monday though Friday. Woogi English teaches its students how to hear, speak, read, and write English through an immersive and interactive environment. With a heavy reliance on visual tools, Woogi English provides a platform that is universal and user-friendly.
To keep its students on track, Woogi English monitors its users' progress and creates customized programs based on their results. It also offers a safe environment for students to practice their skills and converse with native English speakers throughout the world. Children's morals and habits develop at a young age and Woogi World takes that into account. Woogi World allows its students to interact with its program such that they are able to develop safe cyber skills but also be carefully watched by instructors, parents and teachers.[2]
Students can keep track of their lesson plans with the Woogi Planner, an organizational tool that appears on the child's home page immediately after logging in. Each week, they work to improve their vocabulary, grammar, and speech with Storm Starwoog, the Woogi English guru. Starwoog formats each new lesson as a movie that focuses on the different areas of the English language. At the end of each week, the student acts out the lessons by putting on a virtual performance that is saved and able to be shared with friends and family.
The Woogi English program also offers children the chance to gain experience points (XP) that help them advance to the next level by playing the following club games:
Every time child user reaches another level, he or she receives a belt of a different color that symbolizes their rank.[3]
Woogi World's mission is to provide a game platform that engages its students and gives them necessary practice with the curriculum. It allows the teachers to focus on supporting students at their own pace instead of making every student learn in a standardized fashion. All these practices hope to propel students to "permanent learning".[4]
Woogi World's learning platform is broken down into three fundamental components:
There are four main goals of Woogi learning.[4]
Woogi World employs tactics known as "The 4C's" to teach children.[5]
To accomplish its goals and to carry out its methodology, Woogi World employs some built in tools to facilitate teachers impact on student learning.[6]
In 2008 Children's Way launched the "Every Kid Votes" campaign to encourage children to become aware of the rights and responsibilities of voting in the American political system. Children learn about the civic landscape and role of the government in society. Studies Weekly, academic classroom supplement, participated in the campaign along with eGuardian an online protection service.[8]
In total, over 6 million children visited Woogi World before the November 2008 election to cast their mock vote.[9]
On November 18, 2008, the online WoogiReaders Club was launched as a platform to provide children access to great books. The club was created in collaboration with HarperCollins Children's Books, Walden Media, and Penguin Books.
Acceptance to the WoogiReaders Club is contingent on a child's completion of Woogi World's Internet Basic Training and the submission of one paragraph that explains why the child wants to join the club.
The WoogiReaders Club offers two types of membership: basic and upgraded. The basic membership offers online versions of classic children's stories to its users. Following the Woogi World game-oriented form, each chapter represents a level that the user can pass. This advancement is known as "leveling up."[10]
The content is sourced from: https://handwiki.org/wiki/Children%27s_Way