Introduction

What is SorBET

SorBET (Sorting Based on Educational Technology) aims to function as a “game generator”, supporting teachers who are not familiar with the programming part of creating their own educational classification games. SorBET offers two different modes: the game mode (“Play Mode”), where each player has the possibility to play an already existing game, and the design mode (“Design Mode”), where everyone can design a new classification game or modify an existing one using the special assets available in this Digital Tool.

In SorBET games the player scores by “pushing” elements falling off the top of the screen to drop into the right category box at the bottom. “Pushing” elements can be done by mouse - clicking and dragging on a screen and will be extended to also include gesture interaction.

When the game is over the players are informed about their classification in the game log, which they can also download as a pdf file.

SorBET Games Rationale

The rationale behind this kind of games is similar to that of the classic game “TETRIS”, where objects fall at a certain rate and the player tries to place them in the appropriate position. Objects, in the case of SorBET, may be text or images, and the “appropriate position”, is about one or more available categories into which they can be classified. The gameplay builds on quick decision making, pattern recognition and abstraction of the characteristics of the falling objects.

SorBET adopts ETL’s approach to learning, where learners put concepts into use and generate powerful ideas through the processes of tinkering, sharing and discussing personally meaningful artifacts through programmable digital media. Thus, SorBET apart from giving access to play games, enables non-technical users (e.g., teachers and students) to take the role of designer and create their own classification games with high-level interconnected computational affordances.

SorBET follows the classification model of “one to many”, which means that one object could be classified to one or more categories. This design decision aims to raise discussions between players about the intersections or mutual exclusions of available categories based on the object properties. This feature also enables the design of games for more complex issues with unclear, doubtable and debatable classification rules, such as socio-scientific issues and wicked problems. The designer can also define the number of falling instances for each object, making an object falling more than one time in the same game.