perelgut - Slashdot User

Computer Games and Traditional CS Courses 173

Posted by Soulskill on Wednesday November 25, 2009 @01:12AM from the terrible-terrible-games dept.

drroman22 writes "Schools are working to put real-world relevance into computer science education by integrating video game development into traditional CS courses. Quoting: 'Many CS educators recognized and took advantage of younger generations' familiarity and interests for computer video games and integrate related contents into their introductory programming courses. Because these are the first courses students encounter, they build excitement and enthusiasm for our discipline. ... Much of this work reported resounding successes with drastically increased enrollments and student successes. Based on these results, it is well recognized that integrating computer gaming into CS1 and CS2 (CS1/2) courses, the first programming courses students encounter, is a promising strategy for recruiting and retaining potential students." While a focus on games may help stir interest, it seems as though game development studios are as yet unimpressed by most game-related college courses. To those who have taken such courses or considered hiring those who have: what has your experience been?

Company Equips Buses With Emergency Bricks 7

Posted by samzenpus on Monday July 20, 2009 @12:17PM from the put-your-seat-up-and-grab-your-brick dept.

As long as you travel on a select few of Harbin Public Transport Company's buses, you won't have to worry about breaking a window to escape a potentially deadly crash anymore. The company has equipped each bus with two yellow emergency bricks for passengers to use to break windows. A safety hammer used to be provided but they were stolen frequently because everyone can use a good hammer. "We don't think anybody will be interested in stealing bricks," a spokesman said. The company plans on putting bricks on all 700 of its buses if the customer feedback is smashing.

Comment Interesting but very limited study (Score 1) 284

by perelgut on Tuesday April 14, 2009 @10:13AM (#27570897) Attached to: Facebook Users Get Lower Grades In College

71 undergrads and 43 grads, one university, nothing normalized for anything except hours on facebook and self-reported GPA.

It's hard to even pull that much since it appears that this is only a poster presentation.

I'd love to see a real study of 1000's of students from colleges and universities around the world. Even better, to also consider tools other than Facebook, but I'd settle for just the one tool.

I don't doubt that there is some potential for the results to be accurate but there's way too little information and way too many variables that haven't been taken into consideration. And the story is being picked up by the wire services as "proof" that social tools are harmful.

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