I don't really think that video games will be so ridiculously advanced as many of these predictions paint them. 2020 is only 11 years away; 11 years ago, we had the N64 and Playstation. Since then graphics technology has greatly improved and online multiplayer has appeared, but the consoles are really quite similar (at least, not nearly as different as they are painted in these articles).
I also don't see the huge paradigm shift to real-life games. For the most part, games are still something you play in your home, which has not really changed since the first home consoles appeared.
I think we might see these changes by 2050, but certainly not by 2020.
I know that you said it should be language-independant, but some sort of language like Python might be good. With Python you can do object-oriented programming or not. Something with that sort of flexibility might be a good language to teach with.
Hah. They've at least laid the lines to my house, it's just that some people (aka parents) refuse to upgrade. That will have at least some effect on speeds, since people can't be forced to get faster connections.
Upgrades may bring some excitement into the games. Upgrades might add excitement, but that isn't the point. The point of these games is seeing who is the best at what they do, without technology helping them along.
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I don't really think that video games will be so ridiculously advanced as many of these predictions paint them. 2020 is only 11 years away; 11 years ago, we had the N64 and Playstation. Since then graphics technology has greatly improved and online multiplayer has appeared, but the consoles are really quite similar (at least, not nearly as different as they are painted in these articles). I also don't see the huge paradigm shift to real-life games. For the most part, games are still something you play in your home, which has not really changed since the first home consoles appeared. I think we might see these changes by 2050, but certainly not by 2020.
I know that you said it should be language-independant, but some sort of language like Python might be good. With Python you can do object-oriented programming or not. Something with that sort of flexibility might be a good language to teach with.
Hah. They've at least laid the lines to my house, it's just that some people (aka parents) refuse to upgrade. That will have at least some effect on speeds, since people can't be forced to get faster connections.
This is what the scientists were looking for, so they should be happy.
This is a pretty important story. Shouldn't you guys try to at least spell Barack Obama's name right?