Me: So I’m thinking about going back to school.
Bryan: Don’t do that, you are throwing your money away. I think you learn so much more by reading books, talking to others and actually doing. Why do you really want to go back to school?
Me: You know I think you may be right. I learned programming mostly on my own. I’ll have to think about it more and get back to you.
… a couple of days pass …
Me: I know why I want to go back to school, so I am surrounded by like minded people who come from different backgrounds so they approach problems from different angles. I want to have this constant debate so I am challenged to find the underlying reasons for my own decisions and actions.
Bryan: Hmmm, that is a good answer. You should do it.
As many may already know, Bryan Clark is leaving for Vancouver to join the Thunderbird Team while learning how to properly say “ay” to piss off the locals. Chris Hartz our other roommate also got an awesome job down in Charlotte protecting our freedoms from behind a desk using an occasional paper clip. Hey those paper clips can be dangerous. They will be vacating this Thursday.
I’m going to miss the constant friendly debates we had which allowed the ability to flesh out my own arguments and understand and examine my beliefs more fully. I hope they took something similar from the experience.
Disclaimer: While yes, I am looking at going back to school, most likely for some buisness/operational type of degree with an engineering background (is it weird to get excited about process efficiency?), that is a year away and will most likely be part time. I don’t intend to leave Red Hat or the work I do for the larger FOSS community if I can help it.
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I was reading an article on the making of Ghostbusters the game for the Commodore 64. I used to play a port on the Apple IIe. What struck me is I am distantly attached to the game through a one Dan Kitchen who was the CEO of the company I worked for doing the Casper: The Interactive Adventure kids game. He was part of a team which did the Ghostbusters intro sequences.
Ghostbusters was fun, even on the limited hardware it was running on. We need game developers to reach back and remember what fun is without having all the glitz of modern hardware. Nintendo does that well and Sony has a few games which are just pure fun but relies too much on glitzy graphics.
I can imagine simple games of the past coming back on the OLPC with the added element of the mesh network. We have a couple of game jams coming up and it will be interesting to see what they come up with. The XO definitely bring old school type games back in vogue with its limited graphics capabilities.
Why games on the XO? Because that is what gets children involved and learning. You don’t think you played hopscotch, jacks, hide and seek, candyland, snakes n ladders, and monopoly* just so you were out of your parents hair, did you? They all teach different skills which stick better when you are just having fun. Life isn’t all fun and games but when you are a kid it is a big part.
* These were selections from my own cultural upbringing. Other cultures will have a different set of games they played.
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Umm, I don’t know about you but I don’t use the same interfaces I used ten years ago and since then technology acceleration has been exponential. Of course there are always those who would rather the next generation learn only what the current generation understands. That way the future isn’t so scary and unknown. Personally I would rather teach the ability to deal with any new situation a person may encounter in their lifetime and the ability to adapt.
What can I say? I’m a short guy. Standing on the shoulder of giants is much more pleasant than standing toe to toe, or face to toe as the case might be, even if the height gets scary at times. Giving children the courage to climb those giants instead of just learning about them – now that is teaching.
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