I’m currently working on a project designed to make high school students more aware of the roles that IT in general and CS in particular play as societal agents of change. Lists like this help highlight those changes and make my job a little easier.

It’s about CS. Go make your own list.

Pure hyperbole. Or gross simplification. In the example cited, the team that created the environment where video gamer apply their visual analysis and orientation skills to protein structure analysis was lead by two two PhDs. It is false to draw the conclusion there is “such a thing as too much education” based on this example. It is more accurate to say that deep knowledge, education and creativity enabled Dr. Baker to have the insight that it may be possible to harness the abilities of population of people with a set of skills different from that of the usual protein research scientist. And enabled Dr Popović to translate the all the complexities of modeling protein structures into a scientifically accurate – and fun – “game” that enabled those gamers to contribute meaningfully, in a manner not possible by the brute application of rules and computation power. WIthout the PhDs setting the stage, these teenage gamers would likely be contributing nothing of value to the advancement of science.

That being said, it is a very very cool tool, more so if it actually influences some young teens to pursue the study of science.

A decade ago, my mobile could (and routinely did) purchase coke from vending machines, pay for parking tickets and text to anywhere on Earth. I wasn’t in the United States though, which is the point of my comment. The list is very US-centric. I’m sure our Japanese mates are laughing at your list as well.

WOW! Is there data to support this? Please share! This could have very important implications on our strategies for promoting science education!