Tuesday

19th Mar 2024

Turning computer science into a game

A recent European Commission paper remarked that it is "intriguing" that so few people choose to go into information and communication technology (ICT) careers.

Not enough young people, it noted, were making the leap from 'cool' ICT - such as installing to a webcam - to the 'boring' ICT of actually studying it or making it into a career.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Get the EU news that really matters

Instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

  • Kids find IT-related activities 'cool' but not 'cool' enough to turn into a career (Photo: slworking2)

The issue has become a thorny problem for EU policymakers.

By 2015, there is expected to be 900,000 unfilled jobs in the sector - an embarrassment given the eurozone's record unemployment rate. And a major competitiveness issue if other regions facing similar trends, such as the US, India or China, get their act together more quickly.

Although member states have been trying to reverse the trend of falling graduates, the on-the-ground results have been sluggish.

This, say experts, is due both to the fact that schools are slow to change how they teach computer science and due the subject's overall image problem, as a topic for geeks.

"I have spent quite a lot of time looking at the problem of how ICT is taught in schools and what surprises me is that there is still a debate about how it should be done," says David Miller, a former English literature teacher who now works for Kuato Studios, a start-up seeking innovative ways to teach children IT.

"There is clearly a disconnect between the world in terms of computing and information technologies and the world that children are experiencing in school and what they are being taught," he adds.

This is where his new employer comes in.

Kuato studios recently launched a JavaScript-based strategy game: Hakitzu: Code of the Warriors.

At first glance it is similar in principle to most games - one robot has to overcome another. But it is only possible to get your robot to move by entering the instructions in code.

"We wanted to introduce children to the whole language of code and the way that code works in a fun environment – hence robots and arenas and combats," says Miller, who is chief learning architect at Kuato Studios.

"It is quite a strategic game. It is almost like a game of chess so that kids are having a problem to solve at the same time as learning about the syntax of java script," he notes.

Kids playing the game - and they are downloading it across the world from China, to the US and Scotland - are not going to become expert programmers overnight.

But it provides "that lovely initial spark" says Miller.

The makers of Hakitzu hope it will form a part of computer science classes, with traditional lessons often either sticking with old formulas such as learning powerpoint or Microsoft Word, or putting off students by getting them to learn line after line of code.

With girls less likely to become ICT specialists than boys - according to OECD figures, women represent 20 percent of the sector's workforce - Miller notes girls have found the Hakitzu just as appealing as boys.

One group "saw no problem with these beefcake robot warriors bashing the hell out of one another," he said, but added that the underlying attraction of the game, aimed at 12-13 year olds - lies more with its chess-like qualities.

"It’s all about the pedagogy. The coding is only one part of it. More important are the algorithmic habits of mind and the problem-solving aspects. It is about children seeing the flow of code as the code solves problems," he notes.

The idea seems to have struck a chord among teachers.

"We’re now finding a lot of computer science teachers approaching us to ask how can we integrate this into the curriculum," says Miller.

A technology revolution at school

A school in a deprived part of a northern England town has seen its grades soar after giving every pupil an iPod and every teacher a tablet.

European higher education faces budget cuts

The global economic crisis has led to budget cuts in the education sector in member states across the European Union at a time when the bloc is seeking to boost its economy by, among other things, putting education centre of its new economic strategy.

Analysis

Five years of EU gender policy — hits and misses

On International Women's Day, EUobserver took a closer look at the last five years of gender policy — has the EU been ambitious enough in achieving equality? What were the main hits and misses? And where needs more work?

EU agrees rules to ban products made with forced labour

The new rules will allow authorities to ban a product from the single market if it is found to have been made using forced labour, regardless of whether it is imported into the EU or manufactured within the bloc.

Opinion

Gaza is also a war on women: where are European feminists?

Despite last month's provisional ruling by the International Court of Justice instructing Israel to stop a "plausible genocide" in Gaza, references to the terrible plight of women and girls in Gaza have been few and far between, writes Shada Islam.

Opinion

The six-hour U-turn that saw the EU vote for austerity

The EU's own analysis has made it clear this is economic self-sabotage, and it's politically foolish three months from European elections where the far-right are predicted to increase support, writes the general secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation.

Latest News

  1. Borrell: 'Israel provoking famine', urges more aid access
  2. Europol: Israel-Gaza galvanising Jihadist recruitment in Europe
  3. EU to agree Israeli-settler blacklist, Borrell says
  4. EU ministers keen to use Russian profits for Ukraine ammo
  5. Call to change EIB defence spending rules hits scepticism
  6. Potential legal avenues to prosecute Navalny's killers
  7. EU summit, Gaza, Ukraine, reforms in focus this WEEK
  8. The present and future dystopia of political micro-targeting ads

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersJoin the Nordic Food Systems Takeover at COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersHow women and men are affected differently by climate policy
  3. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  5. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  6. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  2. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries
  3. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  4. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  5. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  6. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA

Join EUobserver

EU news that matters

Join us