By Daniela Capistrano / current.com / @dcap
At this year's Games for Change Festival, industry leaders in game design, ed-tech and more came together to discuss how gaming can be an effective tool to change the world. One of the dominant themes expressed at the festival and by those following along on Twitter was lowering the bar to coding literacy.
With the war on women, our failing educational systems, the economy and immigration occupying much of news coverage today, coding literacy may seem like a topic reserved for the privileged elite. But the truth is that the key component of institutionalized oppression is keeping those oppressed ignorant about how systems work.
If the headline didn't give it away, I'm a big fan of "The Matrix." The biggest lesson the film offers is that if you don't know how the Matrix functions, you can't change it (or destroy it).
And in our world, if you don't know how to make things, you can't fix them and must rely on others — who often don't factor in your needs and concerns — to handle it for you. The recession has taught us how well that works.
There was a period of time in our history when literacy — reading and writing — was a privilege, not a right. If a U.S. state suddenly stopped teaching reading and writing in its public schools, the world would freak out, let alone millions of educators, activists and parents.
We can't beat the Matrix if we don't know how it works. It's time for everyone to unplug and learn how the sausage is made.
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