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Education

Games Teaching the Basics of Programming 162

Posted by ScuttleMonkey from the hooked-on-programming-worked-for-me dept.
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.'"
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Games Teaching the Basics of Programming More

Games Teaching the Basics of Programming

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  • Repetitive Learning Pays Off (Score:5, Funny)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:45PM (#13617234) Homepage
    As my form 2 teacher, Mrs Federline, always told me, if you don't understand something, just do it again [slashdot.org]just done it yesterday.


  • Kholodov lives in Braintree, Massachusetts

  • neat! (Score:5, Funny)

    by conJunk ( 779958 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:45PM (#13617242)
    On the Developers Page [slashdot.org], this story and its twin from yesterday are only separated by one interloper.

    • Re:neat! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by rholliday ( 754515 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @05:27PM (#13617531) Homepage Journal
      On the Education Page [slashdot.org], which the story icon links to, this and the original are separated by nothing. :)

    • Re:neat! (Score:2, Interesting)

      by LnxAddct ( 679316 )
      I know its cool and hip to rag on the editors but in all seriousness the editors have shown that they are incapable of accurately searching for dupes. This has been known for literally years. It is assumed that dupes will make it through. As a result, I feel it no longer, nor has it been for some time, the responsibility of the editor to filter dupes. It is the responsibility of the article submitter to find dupes. Afterall, if you don't read slashdot so frequently that you regularly miss front page stories
      • While you've got a point, and I agree 99%, here's the other 1%- when a story is posted "in the mysterious future", there is a link "See any problems with this story? Email the on-duty editor." Well. If we identify something as a dupe, email the editor, and it isn't pulled, that seems like a shirking of editorial responsibilities.
      • It is the responsibility of the article submitter to find dupes.

        That's great for stuff that dups over several days. But, there's a lag in article submission, so several people may submit the "dup" before a first one finally gets posted. It's hard to check against articles that aren't there yet. So, by that, I would say the editors should shoulder some of the blame/responsibility.

  • Educational games... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Sr. Pato ( 900333 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:46PM (#13617244) Homepage
    are over-rated. Seriously. As soon as someone finds out a game is educational, it kinda loses its touch. Dunno, that's just me.

  • Deja Vu? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Xarius ( 691264 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:46PM (#13617249) Homepage
    There's some serious glitching in the Matrix on slashdot these days.

    Yesterdays story on this exact same subject [slashdot.org].

  • Dupe & More (Score:5, Informative)

    by AKAImBatman ( 238306 ) * <akaimbatman@gmaiBLUEl.com minus berry> on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:46PM (#13617250) Homepage Journal
    1. It's a dupe [slashdot.org]

    2. New programmers may find Robocode [ai-depot.com] more interesting. It allows players to actually program instead of just "learning about it".

    • Re:Dupe & More (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Sr. Pato ( 900333 )
      At York University in Toronto, they have a "Science Olympics" held annualy for High School students, in which one even is Robocode. It's mad fun. Hundreds of teams duking it out on a battle royale in hugh projection displays. You can't get any better than that. It's like a really, really, geeky LAN-party. Exept with all the bawls.

  • ARGGGHHHH!! (Score:5, Funny)

    by khellendros1984 ( 792761 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:47PM (#13617255) Journal
    Mommy...make the bad dupes stop....*sobbing in corner*

  • Deja-Slashdot (Score:2, Insightful)

    by digital-madman ( 860873 )
    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

  • my algorithm for C-Jump (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Spy der Mann ( 805235 ) <spydermann.slash ... com minus distro> on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:49PM (#13617266) Homepage Journal
    if (story == dupe)
    { game_over(); } // Mod me redundant, whatever, but PLEASE, delete this story from the main page!
  • Honestly... I rarely complain about the dupes (the slashbots usually do it for me) but this is just ridiculous... this was posted YESTERDAY.

  • Anyone else remember (Score:3, Informative)

    by joeflies ( 529536 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:55PM (#13617332)
    Robot Odyssey [gatech.edu]
    • Yeah, that was a great game.. never could beat it though. I'll have to check out the java version, the Apple computer isn't around anymore.
    • How about Gertrude's Castle? I used to play a game where you had a certain number of gates (and, or, not, flip flop) a source (on, off, flip) and you had to plug the pieces you were given into the room's source to clear the way to the door. It was loads of fun when I was in grade 4. Used to play it on my apple II.

  • Not only is it a dupe, its a Dumb story (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Matimus ( 598096 ) <mccredie@gm a i l . c om> on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:56PM (#13617335)
    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).

  • What?! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Archwyrm ( 670653 )
    You have to play this thing in meatspace! And who decided to make friends a system requirement?
    • >who decided to make friends a system requirement?

      Optionally, you could just take hostages.
      There's a workaround for almost everything...

  • Here's Another Learning Game (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @04:57PM (#13617344)
    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.
  • DUP EMIT
  • I hope that they will have an article soon on how educational games can teach me things. like how to program.
  • I just checked in to see how many dupes of dupes comments have been duped and what the ratio of dupe comments to comment comments is.

  • Isn't programming itself fun? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by c0d3h4x0r ( 604141 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @05:03PM (#13617384) Homepage Journal
    ...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.

    • This is like saying let's tell people not to race cars around the track and show them how fun it can be just driving around the streets to apply driving usefully.

      Yes, programming can be fun in real situations, but for someone just starting out, playing games is a great idea to get them to notice how fun programming can be.

    • 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.

      And sometimes you just need a little push to realize it is interesting to you. For example, sa

  • This is why.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by David Horn ( 772985 ) <davidNO@SPAMpocketgamer.org> on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @05:06PM (#13617397) Homepage
    ... 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.

    • Re:This is why.... (Score:3, Funny)

      by clem ( 5683 )
      I'm sorry, could you repeat that?
    • Hear hear!
      I am a subscriber, but if things remain as bad as they have in the last few months I certainly won't be one again!

      Worse yet, if this kind of shoddy editing continues, slashdot.org will no longer be the kind of geek 'meeting of the minds' that it traditionally has been... and that would be a loss for us all.

    • At least the story was posted by different editors. The best is when someone dupes themselves.

      We have not seen a triple dupe recently. Those used to happen with some regularity.

      You would think they might have two bodies sign off on a story, unless it falls into some sort of time relevant category. Normal stories can be scheduled at least a hour ahead of time...

      Rob made his millions. there is always kuroshin

  • No simple way (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Nuttles1 ( 578165 )
    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 ch
    • That's like saying that you shouldn't have educational games that teach anything that is a profession.. because being good at any profession is more than being able to go through the motions.

      If you have a game that learns about the body, you're not a doctor.. but it may get people interested in becoming a doctor someday. I think this game is the same... you do it and enjoy it, you may enjoy being a programmer some day.
    • I find your comment offensive. Although certainly, to be a good, professional programmer, you need lots of schooling and a great deal of skill, there can be amateur programmers. I program just for fun, to see what I can do. Am I a good programmer? No. Will I ever be? No. Does that mean I can't be called a programmer? Once again, no. What you are suggesting would be akin to only allowing NHL stars to be called hockey players, or something equally absurd. I'm guessing that you, this great paragon of
    • With all due respect, STFU.

      Programming is exactly like all other professions: you have a limited amount of time to get things the way you want them. The great part about programming is that many portions can be automated, and once automated the computer does it for the rest of eternity.

      As with other science fields, it's all about standing on the shoulders of giants. I predominantly write Perl, which some look down on, but if I'm able to create in a few hours what took C/C++ developers over a year to p

  • For fucks sake... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    ... it pains me to see slashdot be like this.

    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'

  • Old Apple game designed to teach logic gates and the underlying principles of electronics. I loved that "game". I'd love to find an emulator and a copy of it.
  • they wuld post a story about some way to teach the basics of programming...perhaps a board game?
    • The Slashdot editors are just teaching us about recursion.
    • not just a board game that costs 25.00 bucks to order. And to be really cool, it would be an online game that was open source, so people could modify it...maybe easly change languages so that it could be played in other contries that don't have the money to pay 25.00 dollars for a board game. Heck, with the price of gas, I would have a hard time coming up with 25.00 to blow on a board game right now

      And of course, the board game could still be sold by this guy and plenty of people would still buy it. It does
  • It's... a glitch in the Matrix.

  • Sorry (Score:3, Insightful)

    by RandomPrecision ( 911416 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @05:14PM (#13617452)
    Yeah, I know - I saw the original story shortly after I sent it and proceeded to swear loudly at myself. I had actually checked the stories, but somehow missed the only one I was looking for.

    I didn't think it would make it through the sieve, but it did. Again - sorry, everyone.

    *awaits flames*

    • Don't worry about it. People have known for years that if they want to get a story published on slashdot they only need to read what's already been published, rewrite the story, and submit it as their own. I'm not saying you did this, but it's become yet another funny cliche of the Slashdot.org world.

      And don't admit to making a mistake on Slashdot, it'd have been better if you claimed you submitted the story first, and got posted second, so as to garner some Funny moderations. Turn lemons into lemonade s
    • You're forgiven story submitter.

      NOW, people, lets try to learn from this and move on! What we need to do is create a position. A position of power. No longer will stories just be immediately posted to the front page by anyone. We'll implement a process where the articles are reviewed for content and duplication before being posted. This mystical figure will have powers we don't, but that's ok because he'll be vigilant in his protection of freedom and seeing the same story twice. And we shall call him
      • " And we shall call him THE EDITORATOR!"

        I think I saw that movie. Wasn't it about the guy that editted things, using editing techinques? I don't remember what they called the guy, but I think it was something like, "the one who fixes broken writing things using corrective measures, and maintains quality content"-person.
  • Here comes the new story, same as the old story.

  • Two-for-one deal! (Score:5, Funny)

    by werewolf1031 ( 869837 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @05:14PM (#13617457)
    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'...?
    • Ok, here's an idea. Bare with me on this one...

      That's bear with. Bear, not bare. As in 'I can't bear to look.'

      then maybe -- just maybe -- Cmdr. Taco could fiddle with the packet-transporters to merge ScuttleMonkey and Zonk back into a cohesive whole?

      Ach, Cappin', the transporters, they nae ken take the stress!

      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

    • Of course, this would mean all the posts between the respective dupes would slam together into a single entity of posts...

      'Cause, boy oh boy, we sure need to make sure we keep all these insightful posts everyone made under this version of the story...

  • players have to figure out which paths are open to them and then decide the fastest way to the finish line.

    this is the perfect foundation for programming!
    simply choose the fastest method to achieve a small subset of your short term goals, market it, and let havoc ensue for the poor sap who has to maintain the steaming pile!
  • What the fuck?!

    Someone duped an article by Zonk? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around?
  • Deja Vu.

  • Too bad... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by greg_barton ( 5551 ) <greg_barton&yahoo,com> on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @05:23PM (#13617510) Homepage Journal
    Too bad there's not a game to teach the basics of story editing.
  • ...when we have the slashdot editors to teach us about recursion?
  • It's not OSS? screw that L1nu> pwnz m$ft!!!1!1!1eleven!1!!!!one
  • It sounds like a dreadfully boring game. Skiing? I learned programming by, you know, programming; and I had a perfectly entertaining time.

  • How about a game to teach.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by callipygian-showsyst ( 631222 ) on Wednesday September 21, 2005 @05:46PM (#13617651) Homepage
    ...how to edit a website?
  • Although, RoboRalley is quite excellent, if one wants to "learn programming" through a game experience, why not try one of those virtual battle grounds like Red Code?

    Or, I suppose, more recently on /. the article about MIT Video Game programming [slashdot.org]?
  • This could have good implications on future engineers. Where I read that the US is falling behind, this could help teach the logic engineers, especially electrical and computer engineers, need to use regularly.
  • Take the highest-rated comments from yesterday, and repost them to see if you can "steal" someone else's karma!
  • I'm trying to remember a game where it teaches some programming concepts. The setting is basically you land in a planet, program a droid to look for supplies, assemble new components, and make more droids. It has a nice in-game C style interface that lets you program the bots' behaviour and set up some complex action macros. It was probably released in '99 or '00.
  • Hey guess what, it's pretty easy to check back one day for dupes. Search google if you're lazy

    Hey guess what, it's pretty easy to check back one day for dupes. Search google if you're lazy
  • If we all stop reply to these stupid Duplicate posts perhaps the advertisers will take notice and make the editors accountable.

    A typical /. post gets 100-400 replys.
    If we can narrow that down to 10 (which will all be first post idiots) then perhaps we can help save this once noble board.

    We all know that money talks. Let them hear our plea.
  • While Slashdot=Slashdot
              {Story}={LastStory}
              Post({Story})
    End

    #Comments are great ways to destroy the damn lameness filter. How lame.
  • When I was in Middle School in the early '80s, I recall playing a game called "Rocky's Boots" on an Apple 2, I believe. You went through a tutorial learning about logic, and in the end had to build a machine using logic gates that would kick the right items off of a conveyor belt. The game was pretty fun, as I recall. It got me interested in progamming.
  • Somebody should post this story to Slashdot. I think the readers there will find it very interesting.
    -russ
  • I think the most important thing to learning programming is choosing the best first language for a programming student.

    Writing in a particular language promotes particular habits and this is never more true than with the 1st language a programmer spends a lot of time in.

    I have seen modern code from 20 year plus programmers that still show the marks of the first language they used.
  • A few years ago I was banging away at my keyboard writing some program. My daughter came up to me and mentioned that she "wanted to do what I was doing", I asked if she wanted to use the computer and she said "no, I want to program". Well, I set about looking for something for a 5 year old to program with and found, http://www.toontalk.com/ [toontalk.com]

    I have to say it was the best $30 I have spent. Here it is 2 years later and she is using languages like Pearl and Python.

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