Motivated learning
So **FIXME has been getting in to Civilization (the game) recently. Not on his own, but with me and his little brother.
He noticed that there were whales in some places, and then got quite upset when he learned that the game wanted you to make whaling boats to hunt them. (He has a child's intensity of feeling about conservation, plus a load extra just of his own. He is also particularly fond of marine wildlife.)
So we've modded the game so that you now build Whale Protection Boats instead, which provide the happiness and wellbeing associated with whale conservation to the nearest city. (I'm particularly pleased that one effect of this is that when you mouse over a whale square it says "Requires: Whale Protection Boats".)
Supporting his environmentalism, and showing that computer software is something you can change if you know how (with a mention of XML and Python). That sense that software (and hence lots of other things) is something you can do something about is one of the things I really want them to develop, up there with a sense of the vast worlds you can access through reading and the beauty and power of numbers.
It also reminds me of 30 years ago when I did my own first programming, hacking Lunar Lander on the ZX81 to make the injuries you sustained if you crashed more lurid. Except he's a bit more responsible.
This entry crossposted to http://doug.dreamwidth.org/254070.html, where there are
comment(s) not shown here.
He noticed that there were whales in some places, and then got quite upset when he learned that the game wanted you to make whaling boats to hunt them. (He has a child's intensity of feeling about conservation, plus a load extra just of his own. He is also particularly fond of marine wildlife.)
So we've modded the game so that you now build Whale Protection Boats instead, which provide the happiness and wellbeing associated with whale conservation to the nearest city. (I'm particularly pleased that one effect of this is that when you mouse over a whale square it says "Requires: Whale Protection Boats".)
Supporting his environmentalism, and showing that computer software is something you can change if you know how (with a mention of XML and Python). That sense that software (and hence lots of other things) is something you can do something about is one of the things I really want them to develop, up there with a sense of the vast worlds you can access through reading and the beauty and power of numbers.
It also reminds me of 30 years ago when I did my own first programming, hacking Lunar Lander on the ZX81 to make the injuries you sustained if you crashed more lurid. Except he's a bit more responsible.
This entry crossposted to http://doug.dreamwidth.org/254070.html, where there are
comment(s) not shown here.