Angry Birds Sploder (Colville, 2014)
We explored digital blurring and how the activities we engage in online may spillover between our personal and professional lives. We also looked at gaming and were tasked with creating an online game using Sploder.
Not being a gamer, I struggled to see how the skills students used playing online games at home could be beneficial in the classroom. The creation of my Sploder, with the assistance of my children, quickly opened my mind to the potential of gaming in the classroom!
Sploder is the perfect starter program to use in the classroom. Firstly, students do not need programming skills. Secondly, it engages young students in using storytelling and problem solving skills to create and develop their games. Students could also analyse and self-evaluate their completed games before turning to evaluate the games created by their peers.
Sploder’s mission statement (www.sploder.com/about.php) declares that game design uses the whole brain, from the artistic side to the analytic. They believe that the world can be changed by creative people who use their mind to make the world better. No doubt a clever marketing spin but it certainly supports what the inspirational Jane McGonigal says about gaming.
Further information on Digital Blurring can be found @
the ABC and Oakleigh Consulting
Teaching in a Digital World 