But ok why shouldn't video games be homework? Isn't regular homework a game? "Fill this spreadsheet with answers" X*5=15... etc. Solve this equation... That is very much a game. You get a score in the end -- a grade. And hopefully you learned something. The "learned and internalized something" part might be accomplished better with a video game.
The problem was that for kids at that point, who haven't seen or experience computers, showing that you can copy an abstract thing like a file from one window of NC to another was just very boring. It would have accomplished the task of forcing us to repeat and memorize the step enough to pass the final exam but it wouldn't have left with with an interest in computers.
Seeing a game and thinking logically how you would beat Sokoban. Teaches some planning, problem solving on one level, but it also shows of what computers can do -- play music, display graphics, hold the maze in memory presumably or on disk, keep score.
Your putting words in my mouth, I said nothing of a spreadsheet and nor was I saying that all video games shouldn't be homework. But _this_ video game looks like low quality edutainment.
These kids should be playing with Mindstorms and writing Logo programs, not playing accounting quake.
Absolutely. It's almost as if some people think that children aren't really learning anything if they're enjoying it, in the same way that if you enjoy what you do and make a living off it then it's not "real work".
The problem was that for kids at that point, who haven't seen or experience computers, showing that you can copy an abstract thing like a file from one window of NC to another was just very boring. It would have accomplished the task of forcing us to repeat and memorize the step enough to pass the final exam but it wouldn't have left with with an interest in computers.
Seeing a game and thinking logically how you would beat Sokoban. Teaches some planning, problem solving on one level, but it also shows of what computers can do -- play music, display graphics, hold the maze in memory presumably or on disk, keep score.