F.A.Q.
OK, so I haven't actually been asked any questions yet, but please read on for the results of a fairly rigorous self interrogation:
Why did you bother doing this?
See here.
This isn't the 50's. We have google now. Why bother remembering useless information? Or anything for that matter?
Well, I agree it is pointless learning useless information, but I would argue if you are aiming to get a deeper understanding of any topic, then there are certain facts / concepts that you just need to be able to recall instantly. Without having done any research on the topic and therefore without a clue as to what I'm talking about, my gut feeling is that concepts are hierarchical in nature, and to reach higher level concepts you need to master the lower level ones first.
Maybe one day the singularity will occur and then we'll all have blood cell sized computers in our brains that expand our consciousness and allow us to download ready made concepts directly into our minds matrix style, but until that time, learning concepts will remain hard work! Hopefully however this website makes that process a little more enjoyable.
If I am in fact completely wrong about the hierarchical thing and learning facts is a waste of time, then at the very least you might win a pub trivia night or two.
Isn't this basically rote learning? That's bad right? Isn't that bad?
Good question. I think that depends on how the site is used. If you learn, say, the countries of Europe using this site but know nothing about Moldova (not to be confused with Molvania) other than there is a country that exists in Europe that is spelled M-o-l-d-o-v-a, then you haven't learned much. However, if you use the wikipedia links provided at the end of each game and attach other images / facts to that word in your mind, then not only is it more likely to 'stick' in your memory, but you'll also have more of a conceptual understanding.
Regardless, I would argue that even learning by rote can be useful. When I learned all the countries of the world by heart, I imagined I had a filing cabinet set up in my brain - a conceptual skeleton. The filing cabinet was empty, but once set up, anything I read about any country from that point on suddenly became more 'sticky'. All I had to do was plonk the fact in its correct filing place by tweaking a neuron here or there and wham! Geographical mastermind.
When are you going to add more quizzes?
As soon as I can! Creating an interactive website (although great fun), is hardwork and time consuming (especially since I'm just a poor lowly noob). Stay tuned!
What are your plans for the future?
More quizzes, more game types, more user functionality, more detailed user feedback, more good stuff. If I have any time after that I also plan on creating a fully functional artificially intelligent online teaching aid to rival IBM's Watson.
This website is brilliant! Would you like a job as a website designer?
Contact me.