Abstract
The last ten years have seen a proliferation of introductory programming environments designed for learners across the K-12 spectrum. These environments include visual blockbased tools, text-based languages designed for novices, and, increasingly, hybrid environments that blend features of block-based and text-based programming. This paper presents results from a quasi-experimental study investigating the affordances of a hybrid block/text programming environment relative to comparable blockbased and textual versions in an introductory high school computer science class. The analysis reveals the hybrid environment demonstrates characteristics of both ancestors while outperforming the block-based and text-based versions in certain dimensions. This paper contributes to our understanding of the design of introductory programming environments and the design challenge of creating and evaluating novel representations for learning.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | IDC 2017 - Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children |
| Publisher | Association for Computing Machinery, Inc |
| Pages | 183-192 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 9781450349215 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 27 2017 |
| Event | 16th International ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2017 - Stanford, United States Duration: Jun 27 2017 → Jun 30 2017 |
Other
| Other | 16th International ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children, IDC 2017 |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| City | Stanford |
| Period | 6/27/17 → 6/30/17 |
Keywords
- Block-based programming
- Design
- K-12 education
- Programming environments
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Software
- Education
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Developmental and Educational Psychology