Original article from Jostiq
The two games written about in the above article, Atlantis Remixed and Mystery of the Taiga River, are both examples of how video games are being used to educate students. In Atlantis Remixed, the player examines and analyzes the situation of a plague that has swept over the town. The player gathers information and then writes an essay which is critiqued by his/her teacher. In Mystery of the Taiga River, students examine water quality and why the fish living within the water are dying off. Both games take applicable scenarios to the real world and encourages the player to be engage in deductive reasoning and cohesive explanations.

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Panelists at Stanford discussion say using games as an educational tool provides opportunities for deeper learning.” According to a panel of educators at Stanford, the possibilities video games create are hugely beneficial to what’s currently available. The article states that games create a free environment where “players are able to set their minds free and wander around.” The traditional classroom setting is very restrictive and kids learn by playing games “until they go to school.” The article also states that “skills such as patience and discipline correlate better with success than a higher IQ scores.”

Here’s a link to the original article.

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A really interesting game called Foldit is helping scientists find a cure for various diseases such as AIDS, Alzheimer’s, and the various types of cancers. Proteins are long chains of amino acids which fold one way or another, based on physics. Different folds recognize different functions, such as “breaking down glucose.”

Foldit is a game which allows the player to shape, or “fold” proteins around the actual rules of protein folding. With a colorful and player-friendly interface, as well as a player stat and achievement system. Foldit is more than a viable tool for allowing gamers to act as willing test subjects for the good of humanity. I spent about 30 minutes trying the game out and I was pleasantly surprised. The controls and understanding of the game take a little getting used to. With the point system and different levels, Foldit is actually fun to play.

Games like Foldit are not only great examples of how video games can be used to educate and learn, but are quickly becoming the solution for

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Five months of teaching English and I’ve discovered numerous issues with the system. When I say numerous, I’m saying I could write a 5,000 page book on why the system sucks. What always stands out most to me while I’m in the classroom is how much different boys are from girls.

I first wanted to start off by linking to this Ted Talk video by Ali Carr-Chellman. The video presentation is put together well — I definitely recommend watching it.

For the most part, boys are incredibly difficult to deal with in the classroom. Boys refuse to do their work. Boys run around the room. Boys pound on their desks. Boys are building imaginary guns and spaceships with materials or their hands and playing games in the classroom. Boys refuse to stay in their seats. Boys hit each other. Boys pick on the special kids in class (another huge issue for a different topic). Boys are always being loud and disruptive. Boys do worse work than girls.

The system isn’t working for boys. The solution? Strap them down like Alex from A Clockwork Orange and force their eyes open so they have to look straight ahead and eat everything being fed to them; this doesn’t work. Boys will then just phase out and delve into their own imagination and learn even less. Why not cater to the needs of boys? A boy acting up in class isn’t some anomaly — it happens all the time. Boys needs to be engaged. Boys need more fun in the classroom. Boys need space to run around and be mischievous. Boys need to be able to let their imaginations run wild. Maybe later I’ll write an article on how my brother with ADD and ADHD had his childhood destroyed by Ritalin.

The post Five Months Of Teaching appeared first on Gaming 4 Education.

The Walking Dead. I remember my first time watching The Walking Dead (TWD). The pilot episode was solid and even the entire first season, as short as it was, was enjoyable enough. Then the series continued on and I quickly found myself losing interest in the show. On the flip side, The Walking Dead video game (TWDVG) started off at a pretty high point and has continued to get better. The second season of the video game, which was just wrapped up this year, was a phenomenal experience.

The primary reason for delving into the world of TWD is the characters. How the characters deal with each other while in the thick of heated debates or high adrenaline moments is supposed to create a fascination with this world they live in. We’re supposed to want to learn about who these characters are and how they came to be where they are. Only I find TWD does a very poor job of this while TWDVG does a remarkable job.

While I do enjoy plenty of films and television series, being able to compare a video game to its direct counterpart begs the question, what is it about a great video game that’s able to devour our minds? TWDVG doesn’t even have a wide variety of game-play elements, especially in season 2. You’re mostly just selecting options and moving the story along. But what’s there is done so well, and the available choices you’re forced to make, while somewhat limiting, are all so well done that you can’t help but feel attached to the world and actually start to care about the characters. I believe it all has to do with engaging the player and putting that person in charge.

When you read a book, watch a movie, or partake of any medium of thought absorption, you’re merely along for the ride. When you play a video game, you’re no longer the person on a roller coaster, you’re the rails and electricity powering the roller coaster. You control what’s going on, or at least you feel like you are to some extent. And I have a theory.

The older you get, the more you’re able to tolerate just being a person on the roller coaster and not the power and control behind it. It’s not because as you get older you desire less control in what you do. I believe that because we are born into a world of control, where the classroom is a one-size-fits-all learning environment, we gradually lose that feeling of being able to do anything we put our minds to. Kids are condemned for being kids. They’re bashed over the head with monotonous work which treats each of them as if they’re the same. Kids who are diagnosed with “diseases” such as autism or ADD are seen as failures who should be forgotten, when in reality these children may have the highest potential because of how active their minds are. What about a seemingly normal child who just appears to be lazy? Is the child really lazy? What does it even mean to be lazy? Dictionary.com defines lazy as “averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent.” Well, why would a child be disinclined to work, activity, or exertion? I don’t think I’ve ever met a child who’s disinclined to activity — work, maybe. Think about what makes you “lazy.” What typically makes me lazy is a lack of interest for what I’m doing. Maybe at that given moment I’m more interested in doing something else. Well why would someone want to be doing something else? Maybe what they’re doing is boring. Maybe they would rather be doing what really interests them. So why not create a form of education around this type of mindset?

Make learning fun and children will want to learn. You won’t have to force them to.

The post The Walking Dead appeared first on Gaming 4 Education.

About a year ago I played through a game (soon to be a series) which focuses on the specific task of teaching the player Japanese, because I was considering moving to Japan. That game was called Learn Japanese To Survive! Hiragana Battle (HB). In this game, you take control of four players as you go on a journey to save Japan from the evil Hiragana characters. For those of you unaware of what Hiragana is, it’s one of the three character sets which make up the Japanese alphabet. Hiragana is the branch of which focuses on the words native to Japan.

The game plays like a standard old-school RPG such as Final Fantasy 1 or Dragon Warrior 1. The player starts off with low stats, weak weapons and armor, and a low capacity for magical and fighting ability. As the game progresses, the player becomes stronger — standard video game fare. The difference with HB, however, is the player will gradually be building up their Japanese skills.

At the beginning of the game, the player is told to keep a notebook and a pen nearby. This book will be used to write down the bits of pieces of Hiragana the player learns as he progresses. The game does this typically in sets of five. There are something like 43 Hiragana characters, so the player will get roughly nine tutorials which focus specifically on teaching new characters. Five is a special number because it’s a low number, and Hiragana follows a similar pattern to the AEIOU vowel system in English, in that most words of characters in Japanese all have these five vowels (though they sound different than their English counterparts), and once you learn the basics of how Hiragana works, it becomes exciting. I’m not joking when I say I learned Hiragana is somewhere between fifteen and twenty hours.

With each set of characters you learn, the game will teach you some new words and have you practice writing the words. Afterward, the game throws you into battle — the main source of where the education comes from — against actual Hiragana characters. You’ll have to remember what the game teaches you (with the help of your notebook), and select the Romanji (English spelling of the Japanese character or word) that matches with the enemy (Hiragana character) on the screen. Basically, it’s like you get a group of flashcards and you need to select what the flashcard says. So what the game is doing to teach you Japanese is taking an idea — flashcards — and injecting them into an RPG. What a neat idea! I suggest anyone interested in learning Japan check out the series (here’s a link to the Steam page of the first game) . The second game Learn Japanese To Survive! Katakana War came out at the beginning of 2017, and as of this post, the third game will be out early next year, in March, I believe.

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I’m the Nameless One with no name. I’m you. My name is the Nameless One. That’s not actually my name, but I don’t know my name, so I go by Nameless One. See, I woke up in a mortuary on top of a large slab of stone. I’m dead, but not really. See, I can’t die. I’m an immortal. That means that unless special means are taken to kill me, I will live forever.

After waking up, I was met by a floating skull named Morte. Ain’t he handsome? He talks! Morte was almost as curious about myself as I am. Having no idea who I was or what I was doing in this mortuary, Morte gave me some advice on how to get out. As I turned around he noticed something on my back, a map and a note; they were tattooed on my skin. He read the note to me. Something about a man named Pharod. Not knowing anything else, it became my goal to seek out this Pharod.

I’ve got about 6 hours of playtime put into Planescape Torment. The game came out at the end of 1999. Back in 1999 I was really big on the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation 1. The PlayStation 2 was just around the corner. I could never really get into PC games back then. There were a few games that were able to catch my attention, specifically Blizzard games, like Starcraft and Diablo 2, as well as Valve’s Half-Life. For the most part though, I stuck with Sony systems and a predominately Japanese gaming environment. Had I touched Planescape back then, I likely would’ve been immediately turned off. Yet now, I find the game to be dark and intriguing.

Planescape is a game with a lot of dialogue. The combat is overly simplistic and unpolished. But in a way, it’s kind of nice. The game gives you choices for how you want to build your character, which class you want to be, and how you want to handle situations. I started the game with high charisma because I want to be able to get more dialogue and try to talk my way out of bad situations. This backfired almost immediately at the beginning of the game and I ended up getting attacked by about 30 random enemies.

Comparing Planescape to its modern equivalent would give me something like Mad Max, minus all the action, and way more talking, and I’d probably spend more time underground.

I did have a reason for talking about Planescape.

I could say something obvious like how having high charisma makes it easier for you to win people over. A charismatic person in real life is going to find many advantages to everyday living. Being able to win people over is a huge deal. People get elected president for being charismatic. I could talk about how important it is to have a high level of wisdom and intelligence, but also to make sure to keep your strength up.

My real reason for talking about Planescape is because I want to encourage people to try new experiences. If you don’t like something now, come back to it 15 years later. Overtime, we change and our perception of reality changes. As I said before, Planescape isn’t a game I would’ve played when I was younger. But now that I’m older, I pursue many different types of experiences in life: a variety of games, books, art, travel, and foods. They say that variety is the spice of life, but just don’t have too much variety or you’ll never be able to fully immerse yourself in the world before you. So make sure to try new things, but remember to also appreciate what you have.

The post Planescape Torment appeared first on Gaming 4 Education.

Hello everyone, I’m back in Thailand and working at a new school. So far I’m enjoying my new school much more than my old one. Coming from America, it might seem strange when I say Thailand is obsessed with mobile phones. Get on a train, look around, and you’ll find the majority of people looking down at their phones. This isn’t a rant about Thailand. This is a world issue.

I think of talking about every time I get on a train just because of the overwhelming amount of people using their phones. I look around and see people primarily using 3 things: Facebook, Line (a chat application), and mindless games (where it seems the entire goal is to just tap as much as possible and win). It gets me thinking about humanity, what we’re doing, and where we’re headed. People are so connected, but more alone than ever.

I’ve conformed to this phone obsessed way of life as well. But I like to think I’m using my phone for the incredibly useful ways it provides.

When I first purchased my phone, back in April of 2014, I thought I would be using it to play some video games. What actually happened? I’ve spent more time in the past year reading books than I have in my entire life. With a combination of the Amazon Kindle application on my phone and physical books I’d purchased at bookstores, both used and new, in the past year I’ve read something like 20 books.

Traffic in Thailand gets to be so offensively bad at times, that if I didn’t have my phone or some device to pass the time, I would probably just stay out until 10pm to avoid it. Even then, there are days where being on the road at 10pm is even worse than at 6pm and it has nothing to do with events of any kind. Traffic here can just be unpredictable. It’s what happens when there are a limited number of roads and far too many people driving on those roads. But something funny occurred to me.

There are times where I hope the traffic keeps up, because I’m at a good point in a book and I want to keep reading. When I get home I may be distracted by my surroundings, but in the back of a truck with an open canopy, it just feels good to read. At times the life of the city can add some flare to the world I’m currently enveloped in.

It got me thinking about the subject of games. I believe mobile games are not at all what they should be. Often these games are used as marketing tools or ways for companies to make quick revenue off of people who don’t really play games, but need something to pass the time. Most phones come with a limited amount of storage space, so if you want to play games, you probably aren’t going to be able to download many. Games on the phone just seem so limited and uninteresting to me. Where are all the adventure games which you would find on the PC? I think it’s just the market. Companies realize most people who only play games on their phones are looking for simple, action based games which can kill 15-30 minutes while they go from point A to point B.

I’ll leave you with this video from Youtube. I don’t think the music is really necessary, but the poetry is great. Keep a healthy balance in life and try to think positive. Life is beautiful.

The post Phones appeared first on Gaming 4 Education.

We all run on individual time. People are always in a hurry to go no where. I’m sure some version of that first sentence exists as a quote. We have so much time, but so little is utilized to work on what we’re really passionate about. What is it that keeps us from focusing on our goals? Have you ever wanted to do something, but you felt you just didn’t have the time for it? What about now? What are you doing? Well if you’re reading this article, you’re reading this article. But where are you reading it from and why?

Do you feel my opinions are a source of knowledge and inspiration? I like your way of thinking. But is my opinion worth your time? Think of all the time you’ve given up listening to and reading the opinions of other people. An article here, a Youtube video there. Every minute of every day you are losing time. But what is time and what does it mean to lose it? If I’m going to die one day is life itself a waste of time? Is existence a waste of time? And if I’m me and you’re you, does my waste of time differ from your waste of time? Our interests vary in a number of ways. What engrosses me will not be entirely or possibly even remotely the same for you. I may get more out of something than you. If I plan on being an architect and you don’t, but you just enjoy studying architecture, are you wasting your time?

Every so often I see something about how much time people waste. In fact, my last article has the word “time” in it. I bring up this topic because it’s always something I question. If the entirety of the human populace were to work together on every single issue with the planet, how different would the world be? Would we even be human? Predictions of what life will be like in the future look very poor for our species. If we’re not dead, we’re replaced by trans-humans, a new species of human and machine. After all, we die, which is something we don’t want. Nobody wants to live forever, but everyone does — life itself is a paradox.

Often, when I think about what to post on this blog, it takes me longer than it should to finish a post. The reality is that I have so many ideas in my head that if I just posted everything, I could go on forever and I would never have any issues with subject matter. The moral of the story is that time is subjective. The way I see time will be different from how you see time. Just make sure you use your time wisely and enjoy what you do. If you ever run out of ideas, just look around. There is always something to do, learn, and explore. What makes time special is that we’re only able to experience a small fraction of it.

We all run on individual time. People are always in a hurry to go no where. I’m sure some version of that first sentence exists as a quote. We have so much time, but so little is utilized to work on what we’re really passionate about. What is it that keeps us from focusing on our goals? Have you ever wanted to do something, but you felt you just didn’t have the time for it? What about now? What are you doing? Well if you’re reading this article, you’re reading this article. But where are you reading it from and why?

Do you feel my opinions are a source of knowledge and inspiration? I like your way of thinking. But is my opinion worth your time? Think of all the time you’ve given up listening to and reading the opinions of other people. An article here, a Youtube video there. Every minute of every day you are losing time. But what is time and what does it mean to lose it? If I’m going to die one day is life itself a waste of time? Is existence a waste of time? And if I’m me and you’re you, does my waste of time differ from your waste of time? Our interests vary in a number of ways. What engrosses me will not be entirely or possibly even remotely the same for you. I may get more out of something than you.

If I plan on being an architect and you don’t, but you just enjoy studying architecture, are you wasting your time? Every so often I see something about how much time people waste. In fact, my last article has the word “time” in it. I bring up this topic because it’s always something I question. If the entirety of the human populace were to work together on every single issue with the planet, how different would the world be? Would we even be human? Predictions of what life will be like in the future look very poor for our species. If we’re not dead, we’re replaced by trans-humans, a new species of human and machine. After all, we die, which is something we don’t want. Nobody wants to live forever, but everyone does — life itself is a paradox.

Often, when I think about what to post on this blog, it takes me longer than it should to finish a post. The reality is that I have so many ideas in my head that if I just posted everything, I could go on forever and I would never have any issues with subject matter. The moral of the story is that time is subjective. The way I see time will be different from how you see time. Just make sure you use your time wisely and enjoy what you do. If you ever run out of ideas, just look around. There is always something to do, learn, and explore. What makes time special is that we’re only able to experience a small fraction of it.

We all run on individual time. People are always in a hurry to go no where. I’m sure some version of that first sentence exists as a quote. We have so much time, but so little is utilized to work on what we’re really passionate about. What is it that keeps us from focusing on our goals? Have you ever wanted to do something, but you felt you just didn’t have the time for it? What about now? What are you doing? Well if you’re reading this article, you’re reading this article. But where are you reading it from and why? Do you feel my opinions are a source of knowledge and inspiration? I like your way of thinking. But is my opinion worth your time? Think of all the time you’ve given up listening to and reading the opinions of other people.

An article here, a Youtube video there. Every minute of every day you are losing time. But what is time and what does it mean to lose it? If I’m going to die one day is life itself a waste of time? Is existence a waste of time? And if I’m me and you’re you, does my waste of time differ from your waste of time? Our interests vary in a number of ways. What engrosses me will not be entirely or possibly even remotely the same for you. I may get more out of something than you. If I plan on being an architect and you don’t, but you just enjoy studying architecture, are you wasting your time? Every so often I see something about how much time people waste. In fact, my last article has the word “time” in it. I bring up this topic because it’s always something I question.

If the entirety of the human populace were to work together on every single issue with the planet, how different would the world be? Would we even be human? Predictions of what life will be like in the future look very poor for our species. If we’re not dead, we’re replaced by trans-humans, a new species of human and machine. After all, we die, which is something we don’t want. Nobody wants to live forever, but everyone does — life itself is a paradox. Often, when I think about what to post on this blog, it takes me longer than it should to finish a post. The reality is that I have so many ideas in my head that if I just posted everything, I could go on forever and I would never have any issues with subject matter. The moral of the story is that time is subjective. The way I see time will be different from how you see time. Just make sure you use your time wisely and enjoy what you do. If you ever run out of ideas, just look around.

There is always something to do, learn, and explore. What makes time special is that we’re only able to experience a small fraction of it.

We all run on individual time. People are always in a hurry to go no where. I’m sure some version of that first sentence exists as a quote. We have so much time, but so little is utilized to work on what we’re really passionate about. What is it that keeps us from focusing on our goals? Have you ever wanted to do something, but you felt you just didn’t have the time for it? What about now? What are you doing? Well if you’re reading this article, you’re reading this article. But where are you reading it from and why? Do you feel my opinions are a source of knowledge and inspiration? I like your way of thinking. But is my opinion worth your time? Think of all the time you’ve given up listening to and reading the opinions of other people.

An article here, a Youtube video there. Every minute of every day you are losing time. But what is time and what does it mean to lose it? If I’m going to die one day is life itself a waste of time? Is existence a waste of time? And if I’m me and you’re you, does my waste of time differ from your waste of time? Our interests vary in a number of ways. What engrosses me will not be entirely or possibly even remotely the same for you. I may get more out of something than you. If I plan on being an architect and you don’t, but you just enjoy studying architecture, are you wasting your time? Every so often I see something about how much time people waste. In fact, my last article has the word “time” in it. I bring up this topic because it’s always something I question.

If the entirety of the human populace were to work together on every single issue with the planet, how different would the world be? Would we even be human? Predictions of what life will be like in the future look very poor for our species. If we’re not dead, we’re replaced by trans-humans, a new species of human and machine. After all, we die, which is something we don’t want. Nobody wants to live forever, but everyone does — life itself is a paradox. Often, when I think about what to post on this blog, it takes me longer than it should to finish a post. The reality is that I have so many ideas in my head that if I just posted everything, I could go on forever and I would never have any issues with subject matter. The moral of the story is that time is subjective. The way I see time will be different from how you see time. Just make sure you use your time wisely and enjoy what you do. If you ever run out of ideas, just look around.

There is always something to do, learn, and explore. What makes time special is that we’re only able to experience a small fraction of it.

We all run on individual time. People are always in a hurry to go no where. I’m sure some version of that first sentence exists as a quote. We have so much time, but so little is utilized to work on what we’re really passionate about. What is it that keeps us from focusing on our goals? Have you ever wanted to do something, but you felt you just didn’t have the time for it? What about now? What are you doing? Well if you’re reading this article, you’re reading this article. But where are you reading it from and why? Do you feel my opinions are a source of knowledge and inspiration? I like your way of thinking. But is my opinion worth your time? Think of all the time you’ve given up listening to and reading the opinions of other people.

An article here, a Youtube video there. Every minute of every day you are losing time. But what is time and what does it mean to lose it? If I’m going to die one day is life itself a waste of time? Is existence a waste of time? And if I’m me and you’re you, does my waste of time differ from your waste of time? Our interests vary in a number of ways. What engrosses me will not be entirely or possibly even remotely the same for you. I may get more out of something than you. If I plan on being an architect and you don’t, but you just enjoy studying architecture, are you wasting your time? Every so often I see something about how much time people waste. In fact, my last article has the word “time” in it. I bring up this topic because it’s always something I question.

If the entirety of the human populace were to work together on every single issue with the planet, how different would the world be? Would we even be human? Predictions of what life will be like in the future look very poor for our species. If we’re not dead, we’re replaced by trans-humans, a new species of human and machine. After all, we die, which is something we don’t want. Nobody wants to live forever, but everyone does — life itself is a paradox. Often, when I think about what to post on this blog, it takes me longer than it should to finish a post. The reality is that I have so many ideas in my head that if I just posted everything, I could go on forever and I would never have any issues with subject matter. The moral of the story is that time is subjective. The way I see time will be different from how you see time. Just make sure you use your time wisely and enjoy what you do. If you ever run out of ideas, just look around. There is always something to do, learn, and explore. What makes time special is that we’re only able to experience a small fraction of it.

We all run on individual time. People are always in a hurry to go no where. I’m sure some version of that first sentence exists as a quote. We have so much time, but so little is utilized to work on what we’re really passionate about. What is it that keeps us from focusing on our goals? Have you ever wanted to do something, but you felt you just didn’t have the time for it? What about now? What are you doing? Well if you’re reading this article, you’re reading this article. But where are you reading it from and why? Do you feel my opinions are a source of knowledge and inspiration? I like your way of thinking. But is my opinion worth your time? Think of all the time you’ve given up listening to and reading the opinions of other people.

An article here, a Youtube video there. Every minute of every day you are losing time. But what is time and what does it mean to lose it? If I’m going to die one day is life itself a waste of time? Is existence a waste of time? And if I’m me and you’re you, does my waste of time differ from your waste of time? Our interests vary in a number of ways. What engrosses me will not be entirely or possibly even remotely the same for you. I may get more out of something than you. If I plan on being an architect and you don’t, but you just enjoy studying architecture, are you wasting your time? Every so often I see something about how much time people waste. In fact, my last article has the word “time” in it. I bring up this topic because it’s always something I question. If the entirety of the human populace were to work together on every single issue with the planet, how different would the world be? Would we even be human? Predictions of what life will be like in the future look very poor for our species. If we’re not dead, we’re replaced by trans-humans, a new species of human and machine. After all, we die, which is something we don’t want. Nobody wants to live forever, but everyone does — life itself is a paradox. Often, when I think about what to post on this blog, it takes me longer than it should to finish a post. The reality is that I have so many ideas in my head that if I just posted everything, I could go on forever and I would never have any issues with subject matter. The moral of the story is that time is subjective. The way I see time will be different from how you see time. Just make sure you use your time wisely and enjoy what you do. If you ever run out of ideas, just look around. There is always something to do, learn, and explore. What makes time special is that we’re only able to experience a small fraction of it.

We all run on individual time. People are always in a hurry to go no where. I’m sure some version of that first sentence exists as a quote. We have so much time, but so little is utilized to work on what we’re really passionate about. What is it that keeps us from focusing on our goals? Have you ever wanted to do something, but you felt you just didn’t have the time for it? What about now? What are you doing? Well if you’re reading this article, you’re reading this article. But where are you reading it from and why? Do you feel my opinions are a source of knowledge and inspiration? I like your way of thinking. But is my opinion worth your time? Think of all the time you’ve given up listening to and reading the opinions of other people. An article here, a Youtube video there. Every minute of every day you are losing time. But what is time and what does it mean to lose it? If I’m going to die one day is life itself a waste of time? Is existence a waste of time? And if I’m me and you’re you, does my waste of time differ from your waste of time? Our interests vary in a number of ways. What engrosses me will not be entirely or possibly even remotely the same for you. I may get more out of something than you. If I plan on being an architect and you don’t, but you just enjoy studying architecture, are you wasting your time?

Every so often I see something about how much time people waste. In fact, my last article has the word “time” in it. I bring up this topic because it’s always something I question. If the entirety of the human populace were to work together on every single issue with the planet, how different would the world be? Would we even be human? Predictions of what life will be like in the future look very poor for our species. If we’re not dead, we’re replaced by trans-humans, a new species of human and machine. After all, we die, which is something we don’t want. Nobody wants to live forever, but everyone does — life itself is a paradox.

Often, when I think about what to post on this blog, it takes me longer than it should to finish a post. The reality is that I have so many ideas in my head that if I just posted everything, I could go on forever and I would never have any issues with subject matter. The moral of the story is that time is subjective. The way I see time will be different from how you see time. Just make sure you use your time wisely and enjoy what you do. If you ever run out of ideas, just look around. There is always something to do, learn, and explore. What makes time special is that we’re only able to experience a small fraction of it.

 

 

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Light Bot 2 is a really fun way to start off with programming.

Today was my first experience with this puzzle game. I was happy to see a game which teaches programming. I was even happier to see the use of icons in place of confusing text.

My biggest issues with learning how to program have been 1. not practicing enough and 2. being bored to death by the endless amounts of text. I struggle greatly with PHP. In its attempt to make organizing code easier, I find that having to search through different text documents to find what’s being referenced to be extremely confusing and counter-productive. Maybe it’s just something that takes a lot of time to get used to.

My rant aside, Light Bot 2 is surprisingly enjoyable. Basically, you want to guide your character from one point to another. He follows the script you write. The writing all comes down to assigning certain commands such as jump, move forward, turn and activate to the correct position. You’re given a limited number of spaces for commands. So what you end up doing is writing functions, which you reference in the method.

I like this game because it’s a refreshing way to clean up some confusion and make things easier to comprehend. Writing code should be really easy. The computer isn’t like a stranger you’re giving directions to. You simply list every step to get to the destination and the computer will follow your steps. It helps that the game lets you test your code and you get instant feedback for everything you do. The music does get a little repetitive.

You can play the game here.

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