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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.'"
As my form 2 teacher, Mrs Federline, always told me, if you don't understand something, just do it againjust done it yesterday.
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
On the Developers Page, this story and its twin from yesterday are only separated by one interloper.
are over-rated. Seriously. As soon as someone finds out a game is educational, it kinda loses its touch. Dunno, that's just me.
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
There's some serious glitching in the Matrix on slashdot these days.
Yesterdays story on this exact same subject.
C17H21NO4
1. It's a dupe
2. New programmers may find Robocode more interesting. It allows players to actually program instead of just "learning about it".
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Mommy...make the bad dupes stop....*sobbing in corner*
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.
Sometimes... I go to a place. I leave that place. I come back to that place. Nothing has changed and its all the same. Forever the anthem of a place called Slashdot.
-Digital Madman
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(); }
Robot Odyssey
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).
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
You have to play this thing in meatspace! And who decided to make friends a system requirement?
Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power. -- Mussolini
This one is called "Is It A Dupe Or Not?"
Take a normal pack of playing cards (remove Jokers), and start dealing out cards. Now, look at the face of the card (ie, Ace, 4, 5, King, etc.). If you've already dealt out a card with the same face value, place the card in the "dupe" pile. If you haven't, you can place it in the "post" pile.
At the end of the game, count your post pile. If you do not have 13 cards in your "post" pile, you lose.
This game is designed to teach you if you've already seen something and therefore don't need to post it again.
...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.
PocketGamer.org - For the gamer on the go!
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.
Yes it is indeed a dupe. So is your post, however.
You've managed to build up a huge userbase*, develop a fairly sophisticated posting/moderation system - and then waste the whole fucking lot with retard editors who don't edit, quite plainly don't even read their own site, with less-than-24hrs-apart dupes on a weekly basis, broken links, things that snopes has debunked long ago, etc, etc.
And that's just the "obviously bad" editorial fuckups. Don't even get me started on how the 'quirky science' and 'cool tech' articles have been drowned in a sea of predictable, "didn't we already discuss this to death last week, and the week before that, and the week before that, for the last year or so" stories which are basically nothing more than trolls for page views (ie: ad impressions). You know the sort: linux gets virus, Microsoft sue somebody, RIAA sue everybody, Apple/Google scratch their arse.... SAME OLD SHIT!
FIRE THESE FUCKING INCOMPETENT EDITORS LIKE ZONK AND SCUTTLEBUTT AND HIRE SOME WHO ACTUALLY CARE ABOUT THIS SITE IN THE SLIGHTEST.
Jesus wept.
* so far all the "shut up and go elsewhere" comments, that's not really possible: other sites like technocrat.net have better stories, but approx 2 comments per story, and I started coming here (and continued coming here, for 5-6 years now) to read the comments.
they wuld post a story about some way to teach the basics of programming...perhaps a board game?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I didn't think it would make it through the sieve, but it did. Again - sorry, everyone.
*awaits flames*
Ok, here's an idea. Bare with me on this one...
We all (well, mostly all) know Cmdr. Wil Riker was duplicated by a freak, one-chance-in-a-billion transporter accident that spawned Thomas Riker, but geez this shit's getting outa hand. Now, if the OLD Enterprise crew could merge the Good Jim Kirk back with the Evil Jim Kirk through the transporter, then maybe -- just maybe -- Cmdr. Taco could fiddle with the packet-transporters to merge ScuttleMonkey and Zonk back into a cohesive whole?
More to the point, when (ok, if) this does happen, hopefully their good/evil duplicate articles will merge back into single entities as well.
Of course, this would mean all the posts between the respective dupes would slam together into a single entity of posts, creating a massive disturbance between their respective mirror universes and...
Aw fuck, what was I sayin'...?
Too bad there's not a game to teach the basics of story editing.
...how to edit a website?
Best Buy can have you arrested
He was also said that teaching Cobol should be a criminal offense.
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