Basically given the choice between a Construct 2 class and a Unity class in high school, I would definitely rather pick Unity.
Thanks for your input. What you are saying is indeed a logical choice. However the only motivating thing for students would be that they work on a game and they would still have to face the traditional language which is a real discouragement for a lot of them. It would be still better to teach Unity instead today's command line based programs (that's what we have in the majority of the high schools), but I think it could be more real in a study group rather than a computer-science class.
Of course as times change new engines and languages will grow in popularity, but those two are relevant today and the near future in that if you are looking to get hired at a larger developer, knowledge of them will be more valuable than knowledge of C2.
True, but we have limited class numbers and we still have to teach all other aspects of computer-science beside programming. So while it would be a good idea to teach Unity as well, we don't have the lesson number for such a complex environment. Maybe in a study group (as I mentioned above) or in higher education. The job of the high school programming teaching is to have the students learn programming thinking. And for that knowledge we don't necessary need engines like Unity. What I really want to say here is that high scools can't prepare students for everything they need to get hired as a developer.
As i said, your main thought will be "how to move my elevator ?" and not "should i use a OR or a AND in my test ?"
That part of your previous post didn't clicked for me, but I get it now. Yes, in that matter C2 requires a different approach to teach the same thing.
If you really want to teach to beginners what programming means, you can use C2 just for making them doing a fun work but your risk is to let them believe it's always so easy. No syntax problem, the interface telling you everything etc. because when they will meet the hard reality of code, they can be disapointed too.
Yes, I'm glad you pointed this potential problem out. The teachers who teach visual programming will have to prepare the students that programming is not always this easy. Either by showing them examples or having them do simple tasks in both a visual programming and a traditional programming environment. But the latter requires more lessons.
So we are doing still the same thing just using new virtualizations of programming itself. If you meet a hardcore programmer from '70s he could say "Oh man, you use mouse and color monitor to highlight syntax? - you're not a real programmer!" . The times change. Drag & drop programming like here in C2 is not something for kids to play. It's just new thing which will get more and more popular. Other engines started to build their drag&drop systems now as well... as Godot for instance which announced recently that they want it as well. Unreal engine has it as well if I'm not mistaken.
Yes, Unreal has a node based system called blueprints. This always comes up in larger topic when visual and classic languages get compared, and it's always true. We are experiencing the spread of a new programming approach. I too believe that in a few years more and more environments get visual programming modes and later that type of development will rule the market. Think about kids nowadays. They use smart devices from early ages and they tend to go for the easier solution in solving a problem. They are the perfect candidates for visual programming. And we shouldn't forget that these languages evolve. More and more things are possible with them as new iterations come out.
C2-like engines are the future. Not discouraging from learning other engines and coding - it's always good to know as more as possible. But C2-like engines are the future for sure.
Can't agree more. Life-long learning is also important.
But imo, it's still important to know the basis of what you sit on.
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(damn i didnt know it was possible to do so much philosophy with everyone around a software)
It's important. And it's very important for a teacher.
You can do as much talk about a software as you want if you have such a great Community