I was surfing through Reddit and stumbled across a link to game that has captivated my Geography students: Globle. It’s like Wordle, where you have to identify a daily mystery word. But, in Globle, you have to find a mystery country somewhere on the planet.

What I love about the game is that you can’t simply click on random countries to find the daily mystery nation. Nor can you access a handy drop-down list. You have to actually type in the name of a country – accurately and completely. No partial names or short forms. This forces players to have to search online maps for possible matches. 

This means that while you are trying to solve the puzzle, you are simultaneously learning the names of various countries around the globe. And the game forces you to look up some pretty obscure places. It’s not always the big, mainstream nations like France or China. Last week I had to pour over all those tiny island nations in the Caribbean. Have you ever heard of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines? 

So far, Globle is free of charge and free from ads. I’m sure someone will figure out how to monetize it someday. In the meantime, if you are looking for a fun and challenging way to teach your students about all the countries on Earth, you might try Globle. 

Ed X!