Film and Digital Media @ Messiah

MyG-Life, established by American-Israeli entrepreneur Idit Caperton, is aimed at teaching children how to build their own computer games online - and then give them the chance to share and assess each others’ work.

The project has been rolled out initially in West Virginia, but is set to go global later this year.

“We send you to evaluate different kinds of web-based games; you write your different ideas and perspectives as a player and as a producer,” Ms Caperton told BBC World Service’s Culture Shock programme.

“Then you are sent off to do different kinds of projects and tutorials, that take you into the world of not just playing web games - which is what all children like to do these days - but put you right away in the perspective of a producer, a designer, a programmer and a game maker.

“We ask students to delve into the open-source code of existing games that we created in the past, and start manipulating it - changing the graphics, changing the text, and remixing their own games.”