

Code Monkey Island – board game to teach kids programming - troyastorino
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rajsidhu/code-monkey-island-making-programming-childs-play

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quotient
I think "board game to teach kids programming" is a misdescription. This is a
board game that teaches kids to think like programmers --- it teaches
elementary logic skills and makes them familiar with programming concepts. It
doesn't teach them anything about actual programming, though it makes them
better potential programmers. I think this game is worthwhile as a general
learning exercise, i.e. to develop structured thinking, but with regard to
programming, it is a misdirection of efforts.

To elaborate: there's a certain magic moment when you write your first
program. You realize that you can make the computer _do things_. First, you
just have it print a test message. _WOW_. Then you have it add two numbers. It
works, and you feel a surge of emotion: with this tool, _anything_ is
possible. It's an incredibly powerful and liberating feeling. It is very
persuasive, and often gives rise to an immediate fascination.

The way to "teach kids programming" is to give them that experience, to let
them feel that Eureka!-moment. Teaching kids about logical statements, loops,
etc. is neat stuff, and will certainly make them into better thinkers, but _it
does not make them (significantly) likelier to open up a REPL and type in
"print 'Hello World'"._

And that is the critical point: if a parent wants their child to pick up
programming, they'll have to get them to actually program. Playing games about
conditional statements and basic logic is only very tangentially related to
getting children to write and run code. (The same complaint goes for other
products in this space: picture-books, games, etc. to bring children closer to
programming have been released in great number recently.)

Perhaps there is some sort of general fear that actually opening up a
terminal, notepad, etc. is somehow an intrinsically difficult task (likely
because most parents have no idea how it works, either), so parents try to
edge closer to programming with these educational toys, but the problem is
that "learning to code" is not something that can be done by gradual
immersion. A child can learn to swim by dipping their toes into the water and
then slowly wading into the pool while moving their arms --- a couple hours of
this, and they'll learn to swim. However, with coding, the process is not as
gradual: at some point, the child has to open up an editor and start typing.
An effective educational tool that "teaches kids programming" really must do
only one thing: help them make this step.

~~~
joshvm
The easiest way to teach kids how to program is via Lego Mindstorms. I don't
know a single programmer who didn't play with Lego as a child. The Mindstorms
kit is expensive, but you can do a lot with it and it also teaches the basics
of sensors and robotics. Graphical languages are great ways to introduce
programming without the rather inane things you need to learn like syntax.

In hindsight Mindstorms was my first exposure to programming and I didn't even
notice. I just enjoyed solving the problems in the book and making the little
robot do what I wanted.

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patio11
I wrote my first program before seeing my first Lego block, a toy which I
never got in to. I realize this might sound unlikely, but it was cheaper to
program than to buy Legos, in a manner which made a difference for my family
at the time.

~~~
joshvm
Lego is exorbitantly expensive, though it is virtually indestructible. I was
given Mindstorms for Christmas one year, but I was only able to play with it
at my grandparents' house where the computer was good enough (i.e. had more
than 16MB RAM).

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barbs
When I think of programming board-games, I immediately think of RoboRally:

[http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18/roborally](http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/18/roborally)

While it doesn't necessarily teach you skills that would be practical in the
real world, it's a ton of fun, and all the programmers I know that have played
it have really enjoyed it.

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brandonhsiao
This is a genuine question; not trying to be cynical or troll: is there any
chance these games actually deter children from learning to program? I
personally feel it was more satisfying as a child just to open up Visual Basic
and drag and drop buttons and hide windows and whatever. If I'd been
introduced to programming through a game meant to introduce kids to
programming, I'm not sure I would've developed the same enthusiasm.

~~~
null_ptr
I found that I reasoned everyday things in a more organized and structured
manner once I really got into programming. I think it's an interesting and
worthwhile idea to try to teach children this way of thinking, regardless if
it will lead to them programming computers or not.

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bstar77
This is not the Monkey Island you're looking for...

~~~
lighthazard
Made me a little upset when I got to the kickstarter page.

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danjones
Damn, with a name like that I was hoping for a game of self discovery as a
young man quests to become a swashbuckling pirate.

~~~
Pelerin
Who can hold his breath for ten minutes!

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mdorazio
This is an interesting approach that seems like a good complement to Robot
Turtles. Whereas Robot Turtles takes a more open-ended "create your program
and go" approach, Code Monkey Planet is focused on strategic use of more
complex control structures.

I'm personally on the fence about the recent movement to teach kids
programming at a young age as evidenced by all of the financially successful
Kickstarter projects and summer camps aiming to do so. Personally, I would
rather see things that teach kids _about_ programming and then let them decide
whether they want to pursue it or not.

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mratzloff
I hate to be "that guy", but isn't "code monkey" a derogatory term? And isn't
there, you know, no actual coding involved in the game?

I would just call it something like "Island of Monkeys" instead. Sneak in the
logical and programming concepts like RoboRally does.

~~~
eddieroger
I think "Code Monkey" is only self-deprecating in our community, but not
necessarily a bad thing. I interned for a web shop that called the developers
"code monkeys" and designers "pixel junkies," and I didn't take it as an
insult. Unless the supposition is like the million monkeys who wrote
Shakespeare thing. But I don't mind the term, and use it self-descriptively
all the time.

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roschdal
This is a legal battle waiting to happen over the Monkey Island trademarks of
LucasArts.

~~~
highace
From reading the title I was hoping the article was going to be about the
coding of Monkey Island, or an open source port of it or something. Which I
would have preferred..!

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dang
We changed the url from [1]. Since this is a fundraiser, the Kickstarter page
is arguably the original source (and indeed [1] links to it).

1\. [http://codemonkeyplanet.com/](http://codemonkeyplanet.com/)

