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Learning HTML Through a Board Game
An anonymous reader writes "cHTeMeLe is a board game about writing HTML5 code. In cHTeMeLe, players endorse their favorite web browser (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, or IE) and then score points by correctly laying out HTML tags, while also trying to bug or crash their opponents' code. From the article: 'Despite cHTeMeLe's technical theme, its developers claim you don't need any web programming experience to play. The game takes web design standards and boils them down into game rules that even children can learn. To help less technical players keep everything straight, the tag cards use syntax highlighting that different parts of code have unique colors — just like an Integrated Developer Environment. No one is going to completely pick up HTML5 purely by playing cHTeMeLe, but it does have some educational value for understanding basic tags and how they fit together.'"
I will forget this, even though I want it. I hope there is another article when there's an English translation.
...you guys ALWAYS make me play as IE! I'm not playing ever again! Pft!
I've now been around long enough to have seen a few dozen projects like this pop up, vanish within five years, and be completely gone without a trace in ten. They're not relevant because they're not effective.
To get people to learn to code HTML, get them a project they want to work on, and then guide them through the HTML stage to using a script to generate that HTML. By itself, HTML/CSS coding is a dead-end skill. The real goal should be the web application or site and how it's going to do something that people actually need.
Clever little games may seem to increase participation, but they really distract from the actual task and attract people who do not have the mental state to pursue the other skills they will need to further themselves along this path.
Not only will this stop kids from ever touching code again, it will also condition them to hate games generally.
and you'll have another use for the body tag :)
Build a Man a Fire, and He'll Be Warm for a Day. Set a Man on Fire, and He'll Be Warm for the Rest of His Life.
Go to jail. Do not collect $200.
Do we really want to encourage kids to write non-standards-compliant code?
HTML is best learned through trial and error. I never really understood the concept of the CSS or HTML until I began visualize a web page as just a stack of transparency paper that is moved around by CSS. Learning the tags alone won't do any good. You have to interact with the elements produced by the tags to really understand how HTML works.
I would love to see a game like this be actually fun to play. I've seen so many "educational" games that are just plane boring because they try to mix education and fun without actually integrating them. Here's hoping this one works out.
A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
Does it include the blink tag? DOES IT!??!?!?!?
Please kill yourself, you fail at trolling.
If you choose IE you loose automatically correct?
<html><head><title>Crash MSIE</title></head>
<body>
<input type crash>
<script>for(x in document.write){document.write(x);}</script>
<script>for (x in open);</script>
<style>*{position:relative}</style><table><input></table>
</body></html>
HELP MY ACCOUNT HAS BEEN HACKED BY AN ILLIBERAL ART STUDENT SET TO DESTROY THE INTERWEBZ!
Why is it even possible to "bug or crash" an opponent who chose a different browser than you?! Because browser makers still implement the "standard" differently and don't render content identically. This game doesn't teach HTML5, it simply exposes and propagates one of the oldest and most annoying of HTML's long list of weaknesses.
A game that you need to download. Why not written in HTML5 you play on line.