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K-12 CS Framework Calls For Teaching Kids Responsible Use of Avatars and Emoji
theodp writes: If you're wondering what corporate-backed Computer Science for All might look like, check out the new Framework for K-12 CS Education draft, the handiwork of educators, Microsoft, Google, Apple and others, which "identifies the powerful ideas in computer science as core concepts and practices for all K-12 students." Among these is the still-to-be-completed Practice 5 — Fostering an Inclusive Computing Culture — which says that by grade 12, students should be able to: "Identify issues of diversity in depictions of people within computing artifacts. For example, a set of emoji depicts only males playing sports or the avatars in a game present only Caucasian people." In other K-12 CS news, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics suggests CS for All may not be all it's cracked up to be.
I tested Unreal Tournament 2004 multiplayer at Atari. I've noticed that all the testers were using male characters, including the female testers. I used the Asian female character as my avatar, picked up the sniper rifle and started camping. My coworkers eventually got tired of the multiple headshots, flushed me out and chased me through the level. Since I was the only female character in the game, everyone knew it was me. They weren't happy that I could snipe — HEADSHOT! — and run at the same time.
You might as well say an astrology course counts as astronomy.
You don't know much about constellations then.
A group of stars forming a recognizable pattern that is traditionally named after its apparent form or identified with a mythological figure. Modern astronomers divide the sky into eighty-eight constellations with defined boundaries.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/constellation