PDC Research Keynote and Boku

Today was the third day of "keynote" presentations. These are big impressive events, but I must admit that a lot of today's left me a little deflated. The best bit was the description of the way that computer research is informing work on the behaviour of diseases such as Aids. Apparently it is not just a question of computers providing data processing power to crunch data, it is the way that advancing knowledge in the behaviour of software systems is informing the work on the virus. That was fascinating.

Less compelling was the presentation of Boku, a new development that purports to teach programming to kids. (Rant warning: I feel strongly about this one)

Before he introduced the item, Rick Rashid told the audience how his kids are finding out how to use Visual Studio to create software. This is a good plan. They are learning something which will be genuinely useful in their future.

Boku doesn't use conventional tools or notations. You get to control funky shaped creatures in brightly coloured landscapes and make them zoom around and shoot at each other. The language is what I call "sort of" programming in that you do learn that you can put into place things that control what stuff in the game does, but I'm at a loss to understand how you could ever transfer any skills attained doing this into a real, problem solving, situation with a proper language in use today. I really can't see even Rick Rashid feeling that he would be doing his kids a favour by pointing them at things like this.

I'm probably missing the point here, but I don't see how this will engage future students with Computer Science.  It looks like it might be fun to play, and it sure looked great fun to create, but at the end of the day I feel strongly that Computer Science is about solving problems in the real world, and I don't think that Boku gives any kind of useful lead on that. Modern computer games have significant problem solving as part of the gameplay and I really don't think you have to make any half way house products like this I'm afraid.

Comments

[Seasonal Pom - Rupert Grint]

I suppose it's a good foot in the door though, a way to get the youths enthused about about CS at an early age; even if it doesn't teach them anything substantial, it would probably make them more inclined to want to eh? All I know is I want a job before this tide of young 'developers' take them all >:[

"The more you do it, the less special it becomes"

[JDog - Joel Parkey]

I think that will greatly simplify the task of making a game, which would be entertaining for say 5-10 mins of fun, but not engaging enough as a development platform. Ultimately if you study CS you should learn to program to an industry standard mainly because the industry is looking for coders.

Just my $0.02

[N.Covell]

They could use this as a way to move youngsters up from a very abstract level if you will to being of a standard that if they entered a uni to do a CompSci course.I.e. Boku Grade 1, Boku Grade 2 and so on. This could ultimately improve their background knowledge and there formatting of code would be already in place.

[Garth]

I keep seeing attempts to make programming easier and more graphically based for kids. Languages like Alice, Scratch, StarLogo and now SmallBasic are fun to tinker with but is there any evidence that they are attracting more students to CS? Is there any evidence that these languages are going to improve the quality and quantity of the programmers entering the market? It would be nice to think so but I am not convinced. I have a lot of high school students I teach saying they want to be game writers. I then show them this video of some Microsoft game project managers talking about the people they hire and the education need to write modern video games; physics, math, engineering, all the ugly class most students try to avoid, and their enthusiasm starts to vanish. Programming requires thinking. Thinking is hard work. Making a language "easy" is not going to change that, it just masks it for a little while. Joel has the main point but I do not agree that the industry is looking for coders. I think the industry is looking for thinkers who understand code. Maybe these "easy" kid languages will improve thinking skills but I would still like to see some numbers.

I think that was a nickel's worth.

[Stephen Coy]

Hi all, I’m part of the team developing Boku and thought I’d share some of our motivations for Boku.

We wanted to create an application that encourages creativity, logical thinking and problem solving in a fun environment. We also wanted to create an easy way to introduce kids to the joys of programming. We all have great memories of our early experiences programming (mine on an Apple ][+) and wanted to find a way to share this with younger kids. The idea is not so much for Boku to be a first CS course but rather to provide a good experience that lets the kids realize that CS might be a desirable career choice. Boku’s programming, while greatly simplified, does require the same kind of thought process that “real” programming does. And the feelings of accomplishment are also the same. It just does so without having to worry about syntax errors or the order that constructors are called in an inheritance hierarchy. If we can increase the interest in CS in kids that would normally never consider the field then we will be quite happy. To help us make sure we’re on the right track we are also working with several universities to conducting studies to try and understand the effect, if any, Boku will have on the attitudes of kids. Our first external study was earlier this spring in collaboration with UCSB and Girls Inc. I can’t share any specifics with you but so far the results look promising.

BTW, Boku is a lot of fun for adults too.

[Seasonal Pom - Obama 08]

That's what I thought Stephen, it seems like a very good idea. Best of luck with your product.


______________________________________________
Yes We Can

[JDog - Joel Parkey]

Reading over it yet again, and with the aid of Stephens post. It seems like a very interesting product. Hope it goes well!

[Seasonal Pom - Obama 08]

Really...

[J.Wright]

Personaly I'm all for anything that can grabs kids interest and can show them that CS can be and is a very interesting subject and if this project can do that then its well worth every penny, too many people just think of CS as a boring subject and so write it off as a career choice when they should really be looking into it.

[Rob]

Hmmm. Perhaps I was a bit harsh. When Boku gets wide distribution I'll definitely have a go at playing with it and promote it where I can.