Abstract
The use of physical computing devices as teaching tools presents several challenges for educators and learners. Most introductory programming environments help to learn programming by removing the possibility of syntax errors, usually by using a visual programming language. However, understanding syntax is just one aspect of the learning process. One of the most challenging tasks for students is to build a correct mental model of the underlying machine model and its execution dynamics. Additionally, visual programming languages present issues when transitioning to text-based languages. In this paper we present Physical Bits, a web-based programming environment for educational robotics that attempts to solve these issues by providing a live programming experience using both visual and textual programming languages.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Feurzeig, W., Papert, S., Bloom, M., Grant, R., Solomon, C.J.: Programming-languages as a conceptual framework for teaching mathematics. ACM SIGCUE Outlook 4(2), 13–17 (1970)
Kay, A.C.: The early history of Smalltalk. In: History of Programming Languages---II, pp. 511–598. Association for Computing Machinery, New York (1996)
Meerbaum-Salant, O., Armoni, M., Ben-Ari, M.: Habits of programming in scratch. In: ITiCSE 2011 Proceedings of the 16th Annual Joint Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, pp. 168–172 (2011)
Weintrop, D., Wilensky, U.: To block or not to block, that is the question: students’ perceptions of blocks-based programming. In: Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 199–208 (2015)
Kelleher, C., Pausch, R.: Lowering the barriers to programming: a taxonomy of programming environments and languages for novice programmers. ACM Comput. Surv. (CSUR) 37(2), 83–137 (2005)
Lodi, M., Malchiodi, D., Monga, M., Morpurgo, A., Spieler, B.: Constructionist attempts at supporting the learning of computer programming: a survey. Olympiads Inf. Int. J. Vilnius Univ. Int. Olympiad Inf., 19–121 (2019)
Rein, P., Ramson, S., Lincke, J., Hirschfeld, R., Pape, T.: Exploratory and live, programming and coding: a literature study comparing perspectives on liveness. Art Sci. Eng. Program. 3(1) (2019)
Cabrera, L., Maloney, J., Weintrop, D.: Programs in the palm of your hand: how live programming shapes children's interactions with physical computing devices. In: Proceedings of the 18th ACM International Conference on Interaction Design and Children, pp. 227–236 (2019)
Moors, L., Luxton-Reilly, A., Denny, P.: Transitioning from block-based to text-based programming languages. In: 2018 International Conference on Learning and Teaching in Computing and Engineering (LaTICE), pp. 57–64 (2018)
Powers, K., Ecott, S., Hirshfield, L.: Through the looking glass: teaching CS0 with Alice. ACM SIGCSE Bull. 39(1), 213–217 (2007)
Grupo de Investigación en Robótica Autónoma del CAETI (GIRA), Physical Etoys (2010). https://tecnodacta.com.ar/gira/projects/physical-etoys/, Accessed 15 Junio 2017
Kim, S.H., Jeon, J.W.: Programming LEGO mindstorms NXT with visual programming. In: 2007 International Conference on Control, Automation and Systems, pp. 2468–2472 (2007)
Citilab, About S4A (2015). https://s4a.cat/, Accessed 15 Junio 2017
Pina, A., Iñaki, C.: Primary level young makers programming & making electronics with Snap4Arduino. In: Educational Robotics in the Makers Era, pp. 20–33 (2017)
XOD. https://xod.io/, Accessed 24 Jan 2020
Ardublock|A Graphical Programming Language for Arduino. https://blog.ardublock.com/, Accessed 15 Junio 2017
Microsoft. https://makecode.microbit.org/, https://makecode.microbit.org/, Accessed 24 Jan 2020
Arduino, Arduino Playground - Structure. https://playground.arduino.cc/ArduinoNotebookTraduccion/Structure, Accessed 23 Julio 2017
Rojas, A.: Reporte Robótica Educativa. Universidad Nacional de La Pampa (UNLPam) (2017)
Educabot. https://educabot.org/, Accessed 13 Dec 2019
Totem, TotemDUINO|Totemmaker.net, Totemmaker.net. https://totemmaker.net/product/totemduino-arduino/, Accessed 13 Dec 2019
Smith, J., Nair, R.: Virtual Machines: Versatile Platforms for Systems and Processes. Morgan Kaufmann Publishers Inc, San Francisco (2005)
Ingalls, D.: The evolution of smalltalk: from smalltalk-72 through squeak. In: Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages (PACMPL), vol. 4, no. HOPL (2020)
Hickey, R.: A history of clojure. In: Proceedings of the ACM on Programming Languages (PACMPL), vol. 4, no. HOPL (2020)
Fraser, N.: Ten things we've learned from blockly. In: Proceedings of the 2015 IEEE Blocks and Beyond Workshop (Blocks and Beyond), pp. 49–50 (2015)
Resnick, M.: MultiLogo: a study of children and concurrent programming. Interact. Learn. Environ. 1(3), 153–170 (1990)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Moran, R., Teragni, M., Zabala, G. (2021). Physical Bits: A Live Programming Environment for Educational Robotics. In: Lepuschitz, W., Merdan, M., Koppensteiner, G., Balogh, R., Obdržálek, D. (eds) Robotics in Education. RiE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1316. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67411-3_26
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67411-3_26
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-67410-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-67411-3
eBook Packages: Intelligent Technologies and RoboticsIntelligent Technologies and Robotics (R0)