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Valve Unveils Steam For Schools, Portal In the Classroom
tekgoblin writes "Well this is pretty awesome, Valve has made an entrance into the education sector. They plan to release a new version of Steam for education uses in schools. Valve will call this service Steam for Schools, an education version of the Steam client that allows administrators to limit what its users can access. The idea of Steam for Schools is to use the platform as a teaching aid. Valve has already put together a number of educational lesson plans for using Portal 2 and its level editor to teach math and physics."
We would like to thank your parents for all signing the Test Subject Waiver. Please assemble in the gymnasium for your mandatory uniform assignment, before boarding the Aperture Science Facility Field Trip Bus.
There's a spot in User Info for World of Warcraft account names? Really?
Wouldn't a better game for kids be a shooter, where you have to quick knife the correct answer to gain points? Also FIRST
...even public schools got Steam before Linux.
...and remember kids, the cake is a lie. Why not introduce the kids to a real life video game called the playground? Don't get me wrong, this is sweet, but everyone is bitching about their kids being fat, and not getting the nutrition that they need. This should teach kids video games and computers are great, but also teach they should also go outside and hang out with real friends, not Facebook and Twitter...
Get students used to steam at school and then they'll come home and play games on steam. "But Mom, I'm STUDYING!"
Portal in the classroom? Now that's one education game that doesn't disappoint at every turn!
You have died of Thermal Discouragement Beam.
The linked article is lean on details. Is this for "educational" games? Or regular games? Or for educational software that is not games?
I totally do not get what a teacher would use Steam int he classroom for. Anyone have any ideas? I've been out of school for a long time, so maybe I'm just missing something.
When I went to scholl we were lucky if we had text books that didn't fall apart, now they have video games that teach logic? Yet, most of the time I keep seeing articles about how our schools are failing...........
This is the best goddammit fucking game . Sone a bitch. I love how thay keep everything themed with the portal theme. Their viral marketing. All that shit. I'm playing through both of them again tonight.
There are lots of games that can be adapted to teaching something. Portal can help illustrate physics concepts, Universe Sandbox can illustrate astrophysics concepts, Civilization can help illustrate (more or less) how world events can shape history, SpaceChem can show how chemistry works... kind of. Even games like Dungeon Defenders can teach teamwork, cooperation, and collaboration. There are probably others, but, really, it's all how you apply them to what you're going to teach anyway.
Because Valve has still not managed to release Steam for Linux.
With that attitude they should not be allowed into schools.
I've always been convinced that my high school chemistry teacher was real personality used to create GLaDOS.
"Ms. GlaDOS, I need to go to the bathroom!"
"Certainly, Chell, it's out the door and right down that chute."
Here's the actual site that Valve has published regarding this particular effort:
http://www.teachwithportals.com/
A few things not quite clear in TFA:
1) These are not retail versions of Steam nor Portal 2:
1a) As mentioned, it is a locked down version of Steam called Steam for Schools. Only one application is available right now:
1b) A modified version of Portal called Portal 2 Puzzle Maker which takes most of the concepts in the game but makes it more interactable (i.e. here's a room, here's a pallette of tools, here's what you need to figure out or do...) - a game design tool more than a game.
2) For the teachers among us (me included), they've already collected a number of lesson plans for both Physics and Math curriculums. They're both tending to higher grades (ie 9-12) right now (e.g. parabaloid motion, harmonic oscillation, gravity, spatial geometry/volumes, etc) which makes sense, however, I've only taken a cursory glance as I'm supposed to be marking exams right now... (oops). They're also accepting lesson plans, etc.
3) It looks like they're aiming to extend lessons into the Chemistry, Game Design, Language Arts, and more categories - color me excited as I'm a Chem teacher!
It's unfortunate I'm only finding out about this right now as it's pretty close to the end of the school year, but I supposed the summer is a good time to play with it and figure out how to integrate it into the classroom. For those who are already getting steamed re: "they should be buying textbooks, etc", I have to say that computing resources are already in schools and to a large part being wasted on Facebook and flash games for the most part - this is just another tool to enrich courses and make the curriculum come alive. Oh, and for those that would rather us teachers "take our students outside to learn about physics", I challenge you to a) take more than 5 kids outside and try to keep a lesson run coherently with all the sundry distractions and b) try to do it in the middle of winter.
Kudos to Valve for willing to venture into this territory! Now, let's just get that Linux port finished already okay...? :)
Everything is educational if you are open to learning from it.
does Steam work under firewalls and lock down software that most schools use?
More details and suggested lesson plans can be found at http://www.teachwithportals.com/
YMMV, but as an IT-admin turned teacher, I can tell you in my neck-o-the-woods, the lockdowns are simple AD policies for Windows and a rather crummy 3rd party AV/FW combo. So, it's really just as easy as getting central admin to whitelist a few more executables and IP addresses (which may not even be necessary as I'm fairly sure this is not going to be an "always online" type Steam app). This won't be a problem IT-wise, but without a strong IT person onsite it may become a "convenience" issue (ie. central admin may not want to deal with support).
I totally do not get what a teacher would use Steam int he classroom for. Anyone have any ideas?
SpaceChem!!
This is just a way for Valve to expand their market. This is not a benevolent action of a benevolent company. It's little different than when Apple was giving cheap Apple IIs to elementary schools that ended up being unused. Valve wants to be the sole power in the digital software distribution for games by being only slightly less evil than the competition. Being in the schools is just another way to let their fan army claim that they're the good guys.
well at other schools they did not use AD policies they used stuff like deep freeze and useing that may trigger some kind of drm issues.
Other places used used 3rd party lock down software that also made app show odd errors do to stuff being locked down to much.
It doesn't have to be just games that it distributes.
Even the normal Steam client lets you view embedded video, or download video as its own "store" item. Also, since a game is just another type of program, you could deliver other applications as well, such as the training simulators used in MCSE books, custom testing programs that some classes insist on using, editor applications such as Notepad++, GIMP, etc.
I think the biggest benefit of this would be giving the teachers a trusted software repository where they can tell their students to just go download it through the SteamEDU client, and not have to worry about them going to an impostor site and getting a school computer infected with malware (because obviously nobody knows how to ask for a rebuild of that system from the school's IT dept).
Ok, whose bright idea was it to give Portal Guns to the high school kids? The captain of the football team sent one of the chess club members to the hospital by "portal-ing" him down a flight of stairs. In retaliation, the chess club portaled the captain of the football team into an infinite loop. He's been like this for 12 hours straight as we try to figure a way to get him out of it.
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Actually, I see it as one better - if you need software for a particular class, it can be distributed and licensed properly via Steam. If the alternative is to run it on the lab computers, it makes sense to have this as a way for people to do the work using the software at home using a personal install. It beats distribution via CD (and often pesky license key hassles). All the student has to do is launch Steam, select the program and download and install.
That, I think is the biggest benefit. Especially since it's targeted at the highschool group.
My kid had a tough time with school this year, he's in fourth grade and sometimes it seems they're trying to teach those kids trig already. He hated school this year with a passion. However, he's a huge fan of portal, so if they used the game to help teach, it should probably make school more interesting and fun.
Well.. either that, or just ruin Portal for him.
Look back up at my post, now look back down, you're on the Internet. Now look back up. I'm a signature.
I like Spacechem. But chemistry is just a backdrop for the logic puzzles. It is however great for basic computer science.
Portal's level editor can be used to implement binary logic, so that has some educational value. I saw somebody implement a 4-bit adder using lasers and moving platforms, and I managed to do one using just lasers and receptors, so there's a lot of flexibility there. My stuff was pretty messy and compact, but I'm pretty sure you could do it up in a more illustrative manner.
Wild Science Arcade can be deleted!
"Hey kids, there is a computer for each of you in the room. There's a router and some network cable too. Some of the computers won't come on, some won't be able to get on the network. The sound won't work on some. If you can get every one working you can play games for X minutes Y times week."
I am sure there are developed strictly for education applications that can be put in the mix.....but I learned so much about computers being in pretty much that situation (not in a classroom, and once we got everyone's computers working and on the network we just played games until we collapsed)
"Why would a school want to dishonor its duty by bringing nonfree software to the classroom? The source code and the methods of free software are part of human knowledge. The mission of every school is to disseminate human knowledge. Proprietary software is not part of human knowledge. It's secret, restricted knowledge, which schools are not allowed to disseminate."
- Richard Stallman
ABSOLUTELY. There is nothing better than SpaceChem for getting the brain in gear for programming. I believe it's already offered to schools at a discount? The learning curve is pretty much perfect and once you complete a level there is the bonus challenge of optimising your layout in different ways (speed, or minimal symbols). If I had time to spare, I would use it completing the last level.