Marian Petre and I have written a paper, to be presented at VL/ HCC 2007, which sets out to describe what kids *actually* want to program, as opposed to what adults think would be good for them.
Anyone who wants a preview, I'm sure Marian won't mind if I offer preview copies to anyone who emails me. Alan > Hi all > > We had a discussion regarding this at PPIG 2007 in Joensuu. In my > opinion there is too much emphasis on Lego Mindstorms and introducing > kids to programming using robots. I was at a meeting once where someone > professed that if you aren't interested in Mindstorms or robots you > won't be interested in programming, now there was an open mind! Why > don't we introduce kids to stuff outside of lego and robots e.g. using > mobile phone metaphors (things a large number of them are all into, in > Ireland anyway) - moving cursor around the screen or predictive texting > or a sports metaphor of moving a football player from the corner flag to > the centre circle. We seem to persist with robots and lego ad nauseam > without wondering if there is anything else out there that can get the > basics of programming across to children. Describing something that > worked for me is fine, but assuming it's going to work for others or > it's the only way it can work for others is not. I have no doubt that > lego and robots will work very well for a good number of children but > shouldn't we begin to experiment with other things. I have looked at a > lot of research material in novice programming and the same stuff > appears again and again. Isn't it time we tried something new? Why don't > we examine this on an inductive basis where we ask students what they > are interested in and let these interests form the basis for programming > metaphors. > > Regards > > Enda > > Dr. Enda Dunican > Lecturer in Computing, > Dept. of Computing and Networking, > Institute of Technology Carlow, > Kilkenny Road, > Carlow, > Ireland. > (Tel: 1-353-(0)59-9170508 > + Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > PPIG Discuss List (discuss@ppig.org) > Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss > Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce > PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/ > -- Alan Blackwell Computer Laboratory, University of Cambridge http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/afb21/ Phone: +44 (0) 1223 334418 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PPIG Discuss List (discuss@ppig.org) Discuss admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/discuss Announce admin: http://limitlessmail.net/mailman/listinfo/announce PPIG Discuss archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/discuss%40ppig.org/
