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Games Teaching the Basics of Programming
RandomPrecision writes to tell us Wired is reporting that computer programmer Igor Kholodov has created a game designed to make learning the basics of programming fun. From the article 'The board game turns players into skiers who must race down a mountain in the quickest way possible. With each roll of the die, players must follow instructions that are similar to computer program codes. Using basic math, players have to figure out which paths are open to them and then decide the fastest way to the finish line.'"
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A bullet sounds the same in every language. So stick a fucking sock in it...
if (story == dupe) // Mod me redundant, whatever, but PLEASE, delete this story from the main page!
{ game_over(); }
I know I said it last time, but this isn't even a good game, it teaches some c-esque syntax, but doesn't really impart any programming skills (such as problem solving. In fact, the mechanics of the game are no more complicated than 'chutes and ladders', the player never has to make a decision (as far as I could tell by reading the rules anyway).
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...Igor Kholodov has created a game designed to make learning the basics of programming fun.
Maybe it's just me, but I've always thought the "let's make learning fun!" approach to education is absurd and ultimately ineffective.
If a person finds the subject matter uninteresting, what is the point in dressing it up as something else? If you have to fool someone into being interested by dressing it up as something else, then they aren't really interested in it, period. Let them learn about something else.
Besides, you don't make learning fun by dressing it up as something else, because the learning itself *is* the fun part. Instead of trying to dress up programming by constructing some absurd artificial problem to solve or game to play, show people how the learned knowledge can be applied in useful ways to real problems to yield impressive results.
Moderator hint: a comment is neither "Flamebait" nor "Troll" if it is true.
... I don't subscribe to Slashdot. I'm happy putting my money into something where I think it's being used, but I get the impression that the editors don't care about the site anymore.
Go on, mod me as troll or redundant, but the continuous dupes are getting way beyond the amusement factor they used to have.
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Programming is not like other proffessions. Programming is not where you can see a select statement and know what it is. Or being able to follow the logic of a program. Programming is much more than that. Programming at it's core is about thinking, conceptually building. People who are good active thinkers make good programmers. Sure, people who learn syntax and what a class is can work as programmers, but if they are not at their core thinkers, then all you have is a regurgetory lump sitting in a chair. I have worked with these kind of people, I mean it pains me to work with these kind of people. I am insulted when they are called a programmer just like me.
To me, having a game that teaches the 'basics' of programming insinuates that programming is easy. That anyone can do it. That is the last impressions I want to see. I went to school with too many people who just shouldn't have been programmers. I also work with many people who shouldn't be programmers. So I think that professional programmers should be offended by such a game insinuating that our profession is easy. We should have the same respect as engineers, doctors and other professionals for what we do.
I didn't think it would make it through the sieve, but it did. Again - sorry, everyone.
*awaits flames*
Too bad there's not a game to teach the basics of story editing.
Did you read his essay? He makes no such assertion. The main point he makes (in abstract terms): "The unbridled use of the go to statement has an immediate consequence that it becomes terribly hard to find a meaningful set of coordinates in which to describe the process progress."
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.