The Rise of Interactive Game Development and Multimedia Project Creation Among School-Aged Children.
Abstract. This paper addresses the rise of interactive multimedia and game development among school-aged children with the use of computer software and online resources. Currently, students of varied grade levels and ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds have more in common than ritual, mandatory school enrollment. Many of our students are designing, developing, and authoring interactive games (Gershenfeld, 2011), apps, animations, and other multimedia content (Kafai, Fields, & Burke, 2010), (Koh, 2013). Scratch, Gamestar Mechanic, Sploder, Minecraft, and GameSalad are a few of the downloadable software applications and internet-based programs that our young learners are using to be creative, collaborative, and imaginative. The aforementioned computer programs not only provide creative outlets for their users, but they also introduce them to the norms of object-oriented programming and game design in ways that are not intimidating.