iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

Last year, my eighth-grade student Nathan made a game that was banned from Scratch. If I stopped there that would sound bad of course, but hear me out. It wasn’t bad; in fact it was amazing. He wanted to make a jump scare game—and boy did he succeed.

If you aren’t familiar with the genre, think of that moment in a movie when it’s dark, and the ominous music is playing, and it is eerily quiet... then BAM! The scary guy in a mask jumps out and your popcorn goes all over the place. That’s a jump scare. This game ended up being so good, people were screaming when they got scared, kids were crying, it was a mess. It was too scary. I don’t think I had ever been prouder.

Can designing games about real-world issues teach students empathy, systems thinking, and design thinking? After organizing a series of game jams last year around serious social issues—immigration, climate change, future cities—I discovered the answer to be an overwhelming yes.