Got 'em scared to drop like soap in jail

Poker faces with the aces under
Face one up, to take over, the break's over

The passing of the 9/11 tragedy's anniversary led me to recall an article I read a few weeks ago aroudn the time of the Hurricane Katrina anniversary about a computer game for real-life crises. It paints an interesting case study of the potential benefits of a private-public partnership that is for the greater good. In this case,

...game developer BreakAway Games Ltd. released the final version of Incident Commander free of charge to municipal emergency departments, part of an agreement with the Justice Department, which invested $350,000 in game development. BreakAway Games put in the remaining $1.5 million toward the development. Most cities do not have the budget for real-world emergency exercises..

But much like how we try to match students up with real-world projects and job opportunities that mirror the real-world as much as possible, it's still a crapshoot. You win some and you lose some. But practice sure does help. So now, the school district is moving forward with plans to create a TV station, which had its logo designed by one ours. I had the chance to visit a school-based TV production set today and on one hand, it was amazing to see what they had. Yet, to know right off the bat that all those VHS-based gadgets on the shelves must be outdated in some way made it quite clear that even when you're one step ahead of the game, someone else is up ahead of you and may have even 'lapped' you a few times just for safe measure.

But then, I recall a meeting in the subrubs about two weeks ago when game development came up as a novel approach to get more students interested and enticed into the IT field. A fundamental understanding of basic programming concepts will be essential to any techie of substance in the future and regardless of what any standardized test may say, that shT ain't just common knowledge. And it damn sure ain't being taught across the board. So we're trying to think of other new ways of approaching old topics and unique topics that have an immediate 'gotcha' factor to lure otherwise disinterested and unengaged teens. First test: The Mayor's Youth Summit this Friday.

We celebrate this, while you sitting back screaming you hate this
-Team ROC, "Celebration"