Show HN: Code Kingdoms – a game that teaches kids to code • Hacker News Board

Re: Show HN: Code Kingdoms – a game that teaches kids to code

#21

Post by reg29 » Mon, Feb 24, 2014, 6:39 PM UTC

umut wrote: post #13

what is this obsession with teaching your kids how to program? I would not want my future kids do the same always worrying occupation that I do... probably the world as well as programming will be totally different then anyways. Just teach him/her some analytical thinking through 100 year old games and let the evolution play his part. There is no such thing as full control of your kid's destiny, just forget about it…

Teaching kids how to code does not mean that they will become programmers. Just like teaching them how to fish does not mean they will become fishermen. You are teaching them a skill that they can use (or not) in their adult life.

Re: Show HN: Code Kingdoms – a game that teaches kids to code

#22

Post by lutusp » Mon, Feb 24, 2014, 6:47 PM UTC

umut wrote: post #13

what is this obsession with teaching your kids how to program? I would not want my future kids do the same always worrying occupation that I do... probably the world as well as programming will be totally different then anyways. Just teach him/her some analytical thinking through 100 year old games and let the evolution play his part. There is no such thing as full control of your kid's destiny, just forget about it…

> what is this obsession with teaching your kids how to program? I would not want my future kids do the same always worrying occupation that I do ...

But chances are they won't. Review the history of literacy and print media. Early on, reading and writing was a specialty practiced by cloistered monks, and delivered in finished form to an ignorant public. Later on, because of technical breakthroughs, social policy changes rightly decreed that everyone should become literate.

We take for granted that everyone should know how to read and write words, but we're in transition with respect to the same issue in computer literacy -- the ability to, so to speak, read and write code.

Being able to program a computer in the future won't remotely resemble how it looks today, any more than modern print literacy resembles quill pens and parchment scrolls.

Re: Show HN: Code Kingdoms – a game that teaches kids to code

#23

Post by rosstargett » Mon, Feb 24, 2014, 6:48 PM UTC

karl_gluck wrote: post #18

rosstargett wrote: post #2

Just a bit of background: We've been teaching Computer Science and programming in schools for several years and noticed the resources are not tailored to the kids themselves. Code Kingdoms teaches 6-13 year olds code in a way they enjoy: by playing a game and creating their own levels. Our aim is simple, to create a new generation of programmers by getting them to code in ways they find fun. Appreciate any feedback.

First off, great idea! The screenshots look friendly and I think it would be something I'd have used when I was a kid. That said, you have some stability/UX issues. The loading delays are very long. I can easily see kids losing interest because it takes >2 minutes to load the Quick Play game. Then, once I was in the game, the graphics rendering was laggy and made my computer stutter / the screen flash. Shrinking the…

Sorry about the duck issue, we've fixed and pushed an update. The slow response is due to the high server load we've experienced in the last hour.

Re: Show HN: Code Kingdoms – a game that teaches kids to code

#24

Post by Forplax » Mon, Feb 24, 2014, 9:07 PM UTC

umut wrote: post #13

what is this obsession with teaching your kids how to program? I would not want my future kids do the same always worrying occupation that I do... probably the world as well as programming will be totally different then anyways. Just teach him/her some analytical thinking through 100 year old games and let the evolution play his part. There is no such thing as full control of your kid's destiny, just forget about it…

We drive our kids to ballet class, but are reasonably sure they will never be professional dancers. Same for baseball, violin, karate, and so on. But those activities generally do grow things like teamwork, patience, coordination, fitness, etc. Not to mention an enjoyable sense of satisfaction when a difficult task is finally accomplished after a lot of hard work.

Enriching foundations and building useful skillsets is not the same thing as taking "full control of your kid's destiny".