Communications of the ACM
Nyc Schools to Use Video Games to Teach Computer Coding
Scalable Game Design, a program developed by University of Colorado Boulder researchers, teaches young students to code through video games.
Credit: University of Colorado Boulder
University of Colorado (CU) Boulder researchers have developed Scalable Game Design, a program that teaches kids to code using video games. The program is being introduced into New York City public schools as part of an initiative to give students more access to computer science education.
The program uses drag-and-drop programming tools to combat the notion that computer programming is hard and boring, according to CU-Boulder professor Alexander Repenning. "In the context of creating their own games, students are not only incredibly excited but they also learn sophisticated concepts of math and science in ways that would be very difficult with traditional teaching approaches," he says.
The Scalable Game Design Curriculum encourages teachers to avoid lecturing, instead allowing students to explore on their own until they ask for specific skills that will help them continue to progress.
The basic tools the students use to create the video games are called AgencySheets and AgentCubes. Last fall, the CU-Boulder researchers launched an online version of AgentCubes as part of the global Hour of Code event, during which about 250,000 people worked on their own video games using the tool.
From University of Colorado Boulder
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2014 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found