By Jordan Shapiro, Contributor

If you’re acquainted with a kid between the ages of nine and eighteen, encourage them to start designing games and enter Microsoft’s Imagine Cup Kodu Challenge. Kodu is software that enables kids to design video games using a simple visual programming language. Think of it as a game that empowers kids to design their own games. Kodu is a free download for PC and a $5 download from the indie games channel of the XBOX marketplace. Both versions use an XBOX controller as an interface that lets players “sculpt landscapes; decorate them with trees, buildings, lakes and other objects; and populate them with interactive characters, gameplay, scoring systems and more.” The Imagine Cup is a technology competition that Microsoft has been running for the last ten years. “More than 1.65 million students from more than 190 countries” have participated in past competitions that have focused on innovative software and technology solutions created from scratch by college students. This year, the Imagine Cup is adding a category for younger kids. Using Kodu to create games or interactive stories that are associated with the theme “Water & People,” young people can win cash, grants, and prizes. The finals will take place in St. Petersburg. Microsoft will provide international finalists with a free trip to Russia. I’m a big fan of all the many platforms that are being developed to teach the fundamental concepts of programming through game design. I’ve written in the past about the Cooney Center’s STEM Challenge (another game design competition for kids), Brainworth’s Var and the Vikings, and E-Line Media’s Gamestar Mechanic. They all use game play as a way to make the logic of computer programming accessible and relevant to kids in their formative years. Understanding how coding and programming works–the basics of computer science–is sure to be an necessary skill for success in the coming decades. I hardly need to make the argument. Computers are now so ubiquitous that we all see the world through a programming lens whether we want to or not, whether we work with technology or not. It is imperative that we educate our kids to understand the implications of this way of knowing, that we make the lens conscious while simultaneously equipping kids to use programming logic intelligently and responsibly. More importantly, platforms like Kodu provide an opportunity for cross disciplinary learning and thinking. It teaches more than just programming. As the folks at Microsoft have written on the Kodu website: …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest