Hi all,
Nowadays a lot of kids of middle class, upper middle class and rich sections of society play video/computer games which have a lot of violence etc in them. These games are generally expensive and very addictive plus they make children self centered and unable to think of working in a team or group. (sense of getting inputs from the community is not there as collaboration is not a part of the game)
Lincity (or similar games) could be a way to motivate a child to the profession of town planning which is a very specialised job right now and in the hands of an elite few leading to a lot of lost inputs from the general populace. The mess in urban areas is a result of too few fossilised thinkers at the top who have a lot of power but paucity of ideas.
Once children are introduced to such games which call for inputs from others (maybe at a later stage) and once such games become commonplace, more and more people will start participating in town and country planning processes far more easily than at present.
I hope ngos and software developers can both think of such better ways to educate the newer generation and take away the dread of a specialised occupation by building even better games and user interfaces. Such games taken at a young stage could easily launch a child into a career and give them a headstart. Parents would also like to see children doing something constructive even while playing computer games.
Besides several offshoots of such games can take place such as easily designing a place of residence etc (profession of architect, civil engineer, structural engineer, interior designer, landscape artist, GIS planners etc etc) There is a lot of scope in this idea for people in the game/educational software business.
Kush
-------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Fsf-friends] city planning--application software Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 16:34:14 -0400 From: Kush be_a_sport@rogers.com Reply-To: Principal Support List of FSF-India fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in To: Principal Support List of FSF-India fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in CC: Anil Laul anillaul@vsnl.com, karmayog karmayog@yahoogroups.com
Hi all,
Is there any site which rates open source application softwares in various categories? e.g. I was trying to find applications under town planning etc and I found only one working application software which has not been improved after 2004 or so.(looks like the development has stopped)
The application is known as http://lincity.sourceforge.net/ and after playing it in ubuntu one can see it is entry level and not like the commercial simcity game. Still town planning is a very specialised occupation and it will become increasingly relevant as more and more parts of India get urbanised.
Allowing such FREE tools in the hands of youngsters and the youth will only lead to better plans, debates, creativity and decision making as town planning impacts so many areas for a better quality of life. Its time we start thinking strategically on key applications such as these to make India and the world a better place.
Maybe then such imaginative scenarios can be added to real gis maps etc. http://www.freemap.in/ is an effort in that direction (for the city of mumbai) but it leaves much to be desired as the data used is faulty or outdated.
Kush
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Kush wrote:
I hope ngos and software developers can both think of such better ways to educate the newer generation and take away the dread of a specialised occupation by building even better games and user interfaces. Such games taken at a young stage could easily launch a child into a career and give them a headstart. Parents would also like to see children doing something constructive even while playing computer games.
(I seem to have missed this e-mail in a sudden flood of traffic from mailing-lists over last week.)
Not that this has anything to do with this list, but why try to force play to be more than just fun? Even seemingly "non-constructive" play offers children creative release, and emotional and cognitive development on various fronts. I am not sure if regimented play activities aiming to give children a "head-start toward their career" will really have the positive effect you are aiming for. In fact, I could argue to a contrary.
But I won't, for I am obviously not a child-psychologist.
Harish
Excess of anything is bad.
We would not be forcing the children to one sort of path to follow but town planning games would be one of the many games they would play, to increase their level of exposure to various future career paths in case they decide to take it later on in life.
Also by game playing, people learn faster as they are in a relaxed state and not under tension to perform-- one can find one's aptitude or interests more easily when there is choice and no obligation to follow any particular path.
Another advantage to catch people young is to remove the fear of complexity/speciality of town planning among a wider subsection of society since in present and previous generations, people have refused to participate in governance because of the perception that they have no knowledge of a complex field.
We would have to think of the dangers of regimentation by ALWAYS being AWARE of excessive pedagoguery but simple exposure to new things and concepts of learning would not cause regimentation unless it degenerates into an extreme and parents or teachers put pressure on children to follow a particular path as is the case with medical or engg or management learning today in India.
Kush
Harish Narayanan wrote:
Kush wrote:
I hope ngos and software developers can both think of such better ways to educate the newer generation and take away the dread of a specialised occupation by building even better games and user interfaces. Such games taken at a young stage could easily launch a child into a career and give them a headstart. Parents would also like to see children doing something constructive even while playing computer games.
(I seem to have missed this e-mail in a sudden flood of traffic from mailing-lists over last week.)
Not that this has anything to do with this list, but why try to force play to be more than just fun? Even seemingly "non-constructive" play offers children creative release, and emotional and cognitive development on various fronts. I am not sure if regimented play activities aiming to give children a "head-start toward their career" will really have the positive effect you are aiming for. In fact, I could argue to a contrary.
But I won't, for I am obviously not a child-psychologist.
Harish
Fsf-friends mailing list Fsf-friends@mm.gnu.org.in http://mm.gnu.org.in/mailman/listinfo/fsf-friends
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Harish Narayanan -
Kush