Alice in Cyberland

Not too long ago, my family was listening to a audio booked called "The Last Lecture".  It's the true story of  Randy Pausch and his battle with pancreatic cancer.  The book was a result of Randy's inspirational lecture entitled "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams", which became an Internet sensation and has been viewed by millions of people worldwide. 

While the video is truly wonderful, I think I enjoyed the audio book even more.  In it, we learn more details about Randy's life and personal experiences.  Like for instance, that he was an award-winning teacher and researcher, who worked with technology giants like: Adobe, Google, Electronic Arts (EA), and Walt Disney's Imagineering.  Also, I learned that Randy was a professor of Computer Science  at Carnegie Mellon University and was the pioneer of the Alice project.

The Alice project is very unique.  It's an innovative software program that uses storytelling and interactive game-playing to teach young people computer programing in a 3-D environment.  Alice utilizes "drag and drop" programming, instead of requiring users to learn complex computer code.  Best of all, Alice is free.

Carnegie Mellon University currently offers two versions of Alice.  Both of which are available for Windows and Mac. 

Alice 2.0
Designed for High School & College Students

Storytelling Alice
Designed for Middle School Students

Watch Carnegie Mellon's promotional video to learn more about Alice: