EA pledges support for educational programming software

Software giant Electronic arts has pledged its support for the continued improvements to Carnegie Mellon University's Alice programming software, which is used to teach US students the basics of computer programming.

Using an intuitive drag-and-drop GUI interface in place of compiling and executing lines of code, Alice is used in more than 100 schools across the US to "provide the best possible first exposure to programming for students ranging from middle school to college students."

According to numerous studies funded by the National Science Foundation, students using Alice gain improved retention and performance in college-level computer science courses, and Electronic Arts will be working with the university in an effort to combat the tendency towards disinterest in the subject, by helping to make the program more visually stimulating and robust.

McKinley Technology High School, in Washington, DC - established by the government as a model tech-focused high school with over 300 students using Alice in their daily studies - will host the official unveiling of the new version of Alice, on March 10th.