Digital Storytelling and Design Thinking are potent tools that empower students with a unique voice in the classroom. Students who participate in the creation of digital stories develop enhanced communication skills by learning to organize their ideas, ask questions, express opinions, and construct narratives. Bloxels gives students an innovative opportunity to take their ideas and research to the next level by creating video games that can be shared with their peers and the world. It connects literacy and research with student interest therefore, engaging them in authentic learning. The combination of hands-on video game manipulatives and digital creation makes Bloxels a unique platform for all types of learners.
Bloxels also provides students with a tangible and exciting medium to learn the design process. Students begin with empathy - gaining an understanding that video game creation (or any design for that matter) first involves consideration of the wants and needs of one’s audience. Students then proceed through the cyclical Design Thinking stages of ideation (brainstorming), prototyping (drafting), and testing. Students give name to processes of which they are already familiar, and are further given a fun and exciting opportunity to create game-based stories that they can share with their classmates and the entire Bloxels community.
