Tired, exhausted - but happy! The Wordia team are just back from a long afternoon of testing our new avatar technology at our fantastic partner school, Millfields Community School (A very big thank you, Janet!)

We've finally found the time to develop avatar technology, so students can customise their own learning experience within Wordia. We're very happy to report that it was a big success, with 15 great STEM students kicking the tyres on our developments and ideas. ("More robots, please"!)

There was a palpable step-change in engagement and enthusiasm levels; with a customised bespoke avatar, students - with little guidance - readily jumped-in, immersing themselves into Wordia, creating their character and competing against classmates. You couldn't stop them.

We did this, as up to last week, our user accounts have had just a straight, textual username associated with them - nothing like the level of customisation young people experience in real-world computer gaming environments. It was a pleasure to bring a bit of this excitement to the school environment. We know we've got a long way to go in our ambitions to raise the bar of educational games - but stay tuned!

Words played - and learnt - today by Millfields Community School were:

'Isosceles', 'Prayer Mat', 'Onomatopoeia', 'Salaat' and 'Helium'!

Ed & the Wordia team