A few days ago, I talked a little about how few women are entering the computer technology field. There might be a remedy for that, but many parents aren’t going to like it.
I’m talking about video gaming. Many technological experts believe gaming is the way to get girls, particularly ages 8-18, interested in coding and other tech fields. The game that can change everything is Minecraft. For those unfamiliar with this gaming phenom, it’s like a combo of Lego, Matrix, and your favorite movies/TV shows. It’s family friendly and it’s everywhere. Minecraft has around 100 million users. The majority of those are in grades K-8. It teaches creativity through computer science. You can use ‘mods’ in Java code and created your own. You can create your own personal fantasy world. Recently, girls have been outperforming boys in Minecraft.
Without giving my age here, I grew up in the time of Nintendo and Game Boy. Some games I played really taught me something. The Legend of Zelda taught me problem solving skills and saving skills. That game was a continuation and I had to know what tools I needed to get to the next level. Tetris was a great teaching tool. It taught me to organize and? think fast and on my feet. You had to organize blocks and had little time to do so. Oregon Trail taught me a lot about basic math. I can go on and on. So if Minecraft is going to build our next generation of computer scientist, then I say let the games begin! How has video games positively impacted your life?