WildScaper News
WildScaper is a privately held software business based in Adelaide, South Australia. Three years in the making, WildScaper 3.0 is designed to work within the core state and national learning curriculum used by all schools and home educators across Australia. Unlike other education software, WildScaper goes beyond the overall learning experience at school and can be easily used at home as an alternative to mainstream games.
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First registered May 2009 in Adelaide, South Australia, WildScaper is owned by Martin Adams of Adams Design and Adam Lee of Adam Lee Photos.
Martin has been working as a graphic designer for the better part of 25 years, after leaving University in the late 80's Martin managed some of the best design studios in SA. The last 12 years he has concentrated on working in software publishing and web design, publishing over 30 multimedia interactive applications, something which has kept Martin at the forefront of new technologies forming the backbone for WildScaper. Martin has taught multimedia and design at TAFE and brings a wealth of educational design skills from designing animated banners to complex multi-media web and desktop applications.
Adam has had an association with photography and design since 1985 when he worked in the pictorial department for The News, Adelaide dealing with images and artwork for every edition. For the past 10 years Adam has worked freelance specializing in fine art images, coming from pre digital he still works in a traditional darkroom, as well as the modern digital lightroom. Adam has published over 10 books covering subjects from Adelaide and Melbourne architecture, clydesdales, shipwrecks, parks, gardens and travel. Adam brings an extensive picture library and text covering Australian native flora and fauna forming the basis for which WildScaper is built on.
How did WildScaper come about?
WildScaper came about through our concern for the environment, in particular the decline of our wonderful bird species. Since white settlement, 25 bird species have become extinct. With urban sprawl and continued deforestation of critical breeding areas, our bird species are in decline as well as many other native fauna. Research by various federal, state and private bodies, such as Birds Australia¹, list a further 40 species as endangered, 42 critically endangered and 83 vulnerable species. The numbers for other native fauna is just as disheartening.
Our concern grew to our desire to educate students from an early age, about our wonderful native birds, flora and environment, and what we can do to help save it from environmentally unsustainable development. Environment reports state that over 80% of our woodlands have been cleared, and with the rise in population and urban sprawl, it is now more critical than ever to build environmentally sustainable suburbs, industrial sites and arterial corridors that work with our native fauna by providing "Wildscaping" corridors, breeding areas and food sources.
Known as a Rapid Application Development (RAD), WildScaper can be updated and new area specific versions developed quickly. WildScaper 3.0 supports cross-platform development across Windows and Mac OSX allowing students at beginner to advanced skills the freedom to develop standalone desktop applications for WindowsXP, Vista, Windows 7 and MacOSX, from either platform.
"WildScaper environmental education software was created to engage students with real challenges and outcomes" said Adam Lee photographer and part owner of WildScaper "and more importantly offer a positive reward for learning, through the publishing of their own environmental digital story and game".
WildScaper's extensive library of images and text provides students with all the tools needed to create a digital story, paint a scene, and publish their story and game software. WildScaper's library contains images of birds and flora with information needed to identify the various species and understand their food sources, distinguishing features and habitat. The library also has images of landscape scenes, clouds and rocks such as granite. Every library subject is linked to it's own masked graphic symbol used to create the game and digital story.
WildScaper 3.0 educates students about our native flora and fauna through the use of these images and custom content rewarding students by turning their creation into a standalone game for Mac or PC. Using masked graphic symbols, photography and text to simultaneously refer to while creating, students can swap symbols with various native flora and Australian birds, change backgrounds, write a digital story, create a title, game instructions and a target score, publishing their digital story as a game where they fly through it as a native bird using the keyboard for controls.
WildScaper 3.0, is one of the first to allow children 4 - 12+ to self publish their own digital story and game software programs quickly and easily and distribute their software titles freely. Representing a change in education software, WildScaper 3.0 is designed to grow with the students and the school, where a result that is tangible and educational in it's own content, can be used to promote the school, teach younger students and more importantly connect school with local community and environment.
By allowing students to publish their own games, where digital story telling is fundamental to the creation process, students can use this information to convey messages to younger students and the larger community by distributing their games through the schools community programs and school website. This process also builds confidence in the students through the production of a sellable product, giving them life skills in design, working in groups, problem solving and dealing with other people (to sell, distribute and educate), not to forget the increased awareness of environmental issues and our wonderful Australian native flora and fauna.
"Never before has there been a software program designed to grow with the students and the school," said Martin Adams software developer and part owner of WildScaper.
For schools WildScaper presents a new way of teaching. Teachers can easily set assignments and assess students work through WildScaper, saving results and feedback to the student using the same file. WildScaper can be used across all of the core curriculum areas of English, Maths, Science, Environment and Society, Art and History through the use of the WildScaper Project Series found on the web site www.wildscaper.com/projects.html Teachers are further encouraged to post their own assignments to WildScaper for sharing with other schools.
WildScaper can also be used at home by parents as a alternative to the mainstream games. In this day of violent computer games, where some links have been made between violent games and children's behaviour problems², parents now have a real alternative to the mainstream games. Parents can see a result and children can have fun and learn in a safe non violent computer based environment.
Iowa State University Professor of Psychology Craig Anderson released a long term study in March 2010 on the effects of violent video games. Using resources from 130 research reports and over 130,000 subjects worldwide, Professor Anderson concluded that violent video games can lead to more aggressive children³.
What is Wildscaping?
Although the concept is not new, renewed interest and the growing concern about sustainable habitats has increased awareness of the "wildscaping" concept.
Basically what it means is to build sustainable environmental wildlife corridors throughout industrial, urban and cityscapes. Primarily aimed at new estates, both urban and industrial, it is also possible to revitalize older human infrastructure to accommodate the freedom of natural movement within our native fauna groups.
This urban renewal concept allows for the various native fauna groups to easily traverse urban and industrial areas by migrating from one area to another and thus facilitating their progress to traditional food source areas or natural migration paths.
Older urban and industrial estates were not built with the environment in mind, thus many native species have been cut off from their natural paths and food sources, some were cut off completely from their homes, and in some cases, this has sadly seen the decline or demise of a species.
By identifying the needs of local fauna and understanding the broader natural pre European flora dynamics, we can facilitate re-vegetation programs. This will provide renewed hope for our native fauna and go towards restoring the natural balance of endemic flora, fauna species over both non endemic and introduced feral flora and fauna.
Research Links
¹ http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/sprat/public/publicthreatenedlist.pl?wanted=fauna
http://www.environment.gov.au/epbc/protect/species-communities.html
http://www.birdsaustralia.com.au/threatened-bird-lists/critically-endangered.html
² Anderson, C.A., & Bushman, B.J. (2001). Effects of violent video games on aggressive behavior, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, physiological arousal, and prosocial behavior: A meta-analytic review of the scientific literature. Psychological Science, 12, 353-359.
³ http://www.physorg.com/news186665767.html
Pricing and Availability Information
Available now for Windows and Mac OSX. Unlimited school site license including faculty computers AUD $170.00.
Parents can purchase by ordering online using WildScaper's online PayPal secured shopping cart. Download immediately for $39.00.