In the modern days, employment and productivity are as dependent on academic and technical skills as they are on soft skills.
Today’s employers seek candidates who cannot only perform but who can also fit into the company culture and interact with other employees, comfortably. In order to do these things successfully, it is essential for students to develop soft skills. There are attributes that enable individuals to engage in meaningful interactions with others, help increase their productivity in their career, build professional relationships and thrive at their job; most importantly grow in their life. Basically, soft skills are the non-academic skills that students acquire to help themselves succeed in life. They often include social emotional intelligence, critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, self-confidence and skills that facilitate positive interactions with others and the ability to overcome challenges and these skills need to be developed since an individual’s early days.
To do so, there are a number of applications that have come into play and Sago Mini World is one of them.
Designed for kids above 2, Sago Mini World is an award winning application. Up till now, it has won more than 30 awards for the games it has to offer. The long list of games at Sago Mini World are- Sago Mini Doodlecast, Sago Mini Forest Flyer, Sago Mini Pet Café , Sago Mini Ocean Swimmer, Sago Mini Space Explorer, etc. The Sago Mini World help builds emotional intelligence, creative problem solving and self-confidence through open-ended play – while allowing kids to play at their own pace. This application allows kids to get unlimited access to their complete collection of games, all in one kid-friendly app.
Pain points/Needs:
Communication Utilities; Exercise, Quiz & Poll Creators; Exercises & Worksheets ;Question & Answer; Teacher Collaboration; Parent Collaborations; Flashcards: How-To Guides; Language Learning; Language Translators ;Learning Analytics ;Learning Management System ;Learning Tools Interoperability; Student Assessments; Student Data Analytics and Dashboard.
Compatible Platform:
The application is compatible with android, iOS and Web-based platforms.
Walkthrough:
To understand the know-how of the application, I tried to check out the profile for students, teachers and parents; let’s have a look on the experience I had:
When logging in as a student:
To play Sago Mini World, you need to setup parental login account(Img below) that comes with a month long free trial version. Then, the app takes you on a tour with their animated characters- Harvey, Jinja, Robin and Jack.
While on tour, the app makes you explore different environments like space, fly through a forest, build a robot, design a monster, drive a fire truck, deep-sea dive. To keep the interest alive, it allows you to become a superhero, visit their friends and more – all in one whimsical world.
Rather setting up a parental control and taking compulsory measures to protect their kids while using the app, they don’t have much role to play.
On the other hand, teachers have no role at all. Kids learn and play on their own.
Video Supports/tutorials:
Usability:
Perfect for kids aged 2-5, the app offers intuitive designs that help develop fine motor skills and autonomy, numeracy, colour recognition, music appreciation, painting & storytelling skills and more across all 30+ of their games. There are no time limits, prizes or rules; kids can play and learn at their own pace. Besides these, the app generates a curiosity among the children and the best thing is that the curiosity and explorations are rewarded, as surprises are revealed with every single click they make
Subscription and Pricing Model:
To access the premium version of Sago Mini World the users have to choose from the following subscription plan and use across multiple devices : Monthly Subscription : $6.99; Annual Subscription :$44.99; Holiday Sale : Monthly Plan-$4.49; Holiday Sale: Annual Plan -$29.99 ;Subscription: $4.49 ;Subscription :$35.99 ;Subscription :$24.99; Monthly Subscription:$6.99 ;Lunar New Year Sale :$44.99;Annual Subscription :$19.99.
Choosing any of the subscription plans, the app grants a month long free trial to its users.
To sum up, Sago Mini World features an entire collection of award-winning apps in one place — all designed to encourage open-ended play and critical thinking skills with child-led play. Some of the awards won by the app are: Parents' Choice Gold Award, Webby's Nomination, Academics' Choice Smart Media Award, Kidscreen Award and a W3 Mobile App Design Award.
In our opinion, this exploratory learning app is simply excellent. It's intuitive, works great as a standalone, but coupled with parent involvement it becomes a spectacular learning tool for kids. The other best thing is that the app works in offline mode and to help kid have access to exclusive content the app gets updated every month. If one wants to build their kids soft skills, then, this is a perfect try. It will help them develop their mind differently and will be extremely beneficial in making them future-ready.
