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I've got to say, thinking back on my own K-12 education, almost the entirety of which I had access to a computer at home, I don't think I did a whole lot of hom

I've got to say, thinking back on my own K-12 education, almost the entirety of which I had access to a computer at home, I don't think I did a whole lot of homework on it, and I definitely played a lot of computer games. Additionally, if the teachers weren't giving out assignments that required the use of the computer, which seems unlikely if not everyone has access to a computer, then the computer won't be used for homework. Obviously, that wasn't the goal of the program, and I"d be interested in hearing more about the "increase in computer proficiency and perhaps some improvement in a cognitive test." Personally, I know that access to computers and computer science classes in high school probably had a much larger impact on my interest and aptitude in computer science. Perhaps the program would be more effective by bringing computers into school at an earlier age (combined with useful curriculum). I remember playing Oregon Trail in computer class in elementary school (early nineties) and thinking back, I really wish the instructor had shown us (me) a command prompt and some Fortran or BASIC.

tshtf 17y ago
I found Oregon Trail educational when I was young, but maybe in different ways than the game's authors intended. In the early versions of the game, you had to purchase food, clothing, and what not. I recall the prices of these changed as you went to various forts. The obvious way to win the game was to buy a negative amount of clothing when the cost of clothing was high - the game performed no numerical checks when purchasing items. You could survive the journey between two forts with a negative amount of clothing, and when visiting the subsequent fort you could purchase all the goods you would need for the entire journey.
- moultano 17y ago
  It was just trying to teach you about short-selling and credit default swaps.
halostatue 17y ago
I remember typing in the code for SpeedScript (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedScript http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedScript) to be able to write papers.

tshtf 17y ago

I found Oregon Trail educational when I was young, but maybe in different ways than the game's authors intended. In the early versions of the game, you had to purchase food, clothing, and what not. I recall the prices of these changed as you went to various forts. The obvious way to win the game was to buy a negative amount of clothing when the cost of clothing was high - the game performed no numerical checks when purchasing items. You could survive the journey between two forts with a negative amount of clothing, and when visiting the subsequent fort you could purchase all the goods you would need for the entire journey.

moultano 17y ago
It was just trying to teach you about short-selling and credit default swaps.

halostatue 17y ago

I remember typing in the code for SpeedScript (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedScript http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedScript) to be able to write papers.