ABSTRACT
Several programming environments have been constructed to facilitate novice programming at K-12 and CS0/CS1 levels. The environments can be roughly divided into those using visual or textual programming. This paper presents a K-12 game programming course concept based on textual programming. The concept is based on an easy-to-use C# library, called Jypeli, built on top of Microsoft XNA Framework. The library tries to maintain advantages of visual programming and avoid challenges of textual programming. In particular, the library helps beginners to program their first games in a short period of time and without a heavy syntactic load. The course concept and an initial evaluation consisting of student feedback and a literature rationale are presented.
- L. W. Anderson, D. R. Krathwohl, P. W. Airasian, K. A. Cruikshank, R. E. Mayer, P. R. Pintrich, J. Raths, and M. C. Wittrock. A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A Revision of Bloom's Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Abridged Edition. Allyn & Bacon, second edition, 2000.Google Scholar
- M. Ben-Ari. Constructivism in computer science education. Journal of Computers in Mathematics and Science Teaching, 20(1):45--73, 2001. Google ScholarDigital Library
- J. Bruner. The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31(1):21--32, 1961.Google Scholar
- J. S. Bruner. Early social interaction and language development. In H. R. Schaffer, editor, Studies in Mother-Child Interaction, pages 271--289. Academic Press, London, 1977.Google Scholar
- W. Dann and S. Cooper. Education: Alice 3: Concrete to abstract. Commun. ACM, 52(8):27--29, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- S. Fincher, S. Cooper, M. Kölling, and J. Maloney. Comparing Alice, Greenfoot & Scratch. In SIGCSE '10: Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, pages 192--193, New York, NY, USA, 2010. ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- R. Garlick and E. C. Cankaya. Using Alice in CS1: A quantitative experiment. In ITiCSE '10: Proceedings of the fifteenth annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, pages 165--168, New York, NY, USA, 2010. ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- G. Kacmarcik and S. G. Kacmarcik. Introducing computer programming via gameboy advance homebrew. In SIGCSE '09: Proceedings of the 40th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, pages 281--285, New York, NY, USA, 2009. ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- C. Kelleher and R. Pausch. Lowering the barriers to programming: A taxonomy of programming environments and languages for novice programmers. ACM Comput. Surv., 37(2):83--137, 2005. Google ScholarDigital Library
- C. Kelleher and R. Pausch. Using storytelling to motivate programming. Commun. ACM, 50(7):58--64, 2007. Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. Knobelsdorf and R. Romeike. Creativity as a pathway to computer science. SIGCSE Bull., 40(3):286--290, 2008. Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. Kölling and J. Rosenberg. Objects first with Java and BlueJ (seminar session). SIGCSE Bull., 32(1):429, 2000. Google ScholarDigital Library
- V. Lappalainen, J. Itkonen, V. Isomöttönen, and S. Kollanus. Comtest: A tool to impart TDD and unit testing to introductory level programming. In ITiCSE '10: Proceedings of the fifteenth annual conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education, pages 63--67, New York, NY, USA, 2010. ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- C. M. Lewis. How programming environment shapes perception, learning and goals: Logo vs. Scratch. In SIGCSE '10: Proceedings of the 41st ACM technical symposium on Computer science education, pages 346--350, New York, NY, USA, 2010. ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- M. L. Maehr. Meaning and motivation: Toward a theory of personal investment. In R. E. Ames and C. Ames, editors, Research on Motivation in Learning, volume 1, pages 115--144. Academic Press, Orlando, Florida, 1984.Google Scholar
- Microsoft. Next generation of games starts with XNA, https://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/mar04/03--24xnalaunchpr.m%spx, retrieved September 2nd 2010, 2004.Google Scholar
- B. Moskal, D. Lurie, and S. Cooper. Evaluating the effectiveness of a new instructional approach. In SIGCSE '04: Proceedings of the 35th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education, pages 75--79, New York, NY, USA, 2004. ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- P. Mullins, D. Whitfield, and M. Conlon. Using Alice 2.0 as a first language. J. Comput. Small Coll., 24(3):136--143, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. Powers, S. Ecott, and L. M. Hirshfield. Through the looking glass: Teaching CS0 with Alice. SIGCSE Bull., 39(1):213--217, 2007. Google ScholarDigital Library
- A. J. Sánchez-Ruiz and L. A. Jamba. FunFonts: Introducing 4th and 5th graders to programming using Squeak. In ACM-SE 46: Proceedings of the 46th Annual Southeast Regional Conference on XX, pages 24--29, New York, NY, USA, 2008. ACM. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. Sung. Computer games and traditional CS courses. Commun. ACM, 52(12):74--78, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- K. Sung, M. Panitz, C. Hillyard, R. Angotti, D. Goldstein, and J. Nordlinger. Game-themed programming assignment modules: A pathway for gradual integration of gaming context into existing introductory programming courses. IEEE Transactions on Education, 2010. To appear. Google ScholarDigital Library
- L. S. Vygotsky. Mind and society: The Development of Higher Mental Processes. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1978.Google Scholar
- T.-C. Wang, W.-H. Mei, S.-L. Lin, S.-K. Chiu, and J.-C. Lin. Teaching programming concepts to high school students with Alice. In Frontiers in Education Conference, 2009. FIE '09. 39th IEEE, pages 1--6, 2009. Google ScholarDigital Library
- T. Wright and A. Cockburn. Evaluation of two textual programming notations for children. In AUIC '05: Proceedings of the Sixth Australasian conference on User interface, pages 55--62, Darlinghurst, Australia, 2005. Australian Computer Society, Inc. Google ScholarDigital Library
Index Terms
- K-12 game programming course concept using textual programming
Recommendations
Experience with an industry-driven capstone course on game programming: extended abstract
Game programming classes have been offered at the University of North Texas continuously since 1993. The classes are project based, and feature collaborative coursework with art majors in UNT's School of Visual Arts. We discuss the design that enables ...
Life two years after a game programming course: longitudinal viewpoints on K-12 outreach
SIGCSE '12: Proceedings of the 43rd ACM technical symposium on Computer Science EducationIn our faculty we have run week-long K-12 game programming courses now for three summers. In this paper we investigate what programming-related activities students do after they take a course, and what factors in the students' background relate to post-...
Experience with an industry-driven capstone course on game programming: extended abstract
SIGCSE '05: Proceedings of the 36th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science educationGame programming classes have been offered at the University of North Texas continuously since 1993. The classes are project based, and feature collaborative coursework with art majors in UNT's School of Visual Arts. We discuss the design that enables ...
Comments