The blocks programming community has been preoccupied with identifying syntactic obstacles that keep novices from learning to program. Unfortunately, this focus is now holding back research from systematically investigating various technological affordances that can make programming more accessible. Employing approaches from program analysis, program visualization, and real-time interfaces can push blocks programming beyond syntax towards the support of semantics and even pragmatics. Syntactic support could be compared to checking spelling and grammar in word processing. Spell checking is relatively simple to implement and immediately useful, but provides essentially no support to create meaningful text. Over the last 25 years, I have worked to empower students to create their own games, simulations, and robots. In this time I have explored, combined, and evaluated a number of programming paradigms. Every paradigm including data flow, programming by example, and programming through analogies brings its own set of affordances and obstacles. Twenty years ago, AgentSheets combined four key affordances of blocks programming, and since then has evolved into a highly accessible Computational Thinking Tool. This article describes the journey to overcome first syntactic, then semantic, and most recently pragmatic, obstacles in computer science education.

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Moving Beyond Syntax: Lessons from 20 Years of Blocks Programing in AgentSheets

Computational Thinking is an essential skill for all students in the 21st Century. A fundamental question is how can we create computer affordances to empower novice teachers and students, in a variety of STEM and art disciplines, to think computationally while avoiding difficult overhead emerging from traditional coding? Over the last 20 years we have iteratively developed tools that aim to support computational thinking. As these tools evolved a philosophy emerged to support Computational Thinking by joining human abilities with computer affordances. Chief among these findings is that supporting Computational Thinking is much more than making coding accessible. Computational Thinking Tools aim to minimize coding overhead by supporting users through three fundamental stages of the Computational Thinking development cycle: problem formulation, solution expression, and solution execution/evaluation.

Computational thinking tools

The current study aimed to review studies on computational thinking (CT) indexed in Web of Science (WOS) and ERIC databases. A thorough search in electronic databases revealed 96 studies on computational thinking which were published between 2006 and 2016. Studies were exposed to a quantitative content analysis through using an article control form developed by the researchers. Studies were summarized under several themes including the research purpose, design, methodology, sampling characteristics, data analysis, and main findings. The findings were reported using descriptive statistics to see the trends. It was observed that there was an increase in the number of CT studies in recent years, and these were mainly conducted in the field of computer sciences. In addition, CT studies were mostly published in journals in the field of Education and Instructional Technologies. Theoretical paradigm and literature review design were preferred more in previous studies. The most commonly used sampling method was the purposive sampling. It was also revealed that samples of previous CT studies were generally pre-college students. Written data collection tools and quantitative analysis were mostly used in reviewed papers. Findings mainly focused on CT skills. Based on current findings, recommendations and implications for further researches were provided.

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Publication Trends over 10 Years of Computational Thinking Research.

This study examined how computational thinking (CT) has been used to teach problem-solving skills and programming education in the recent past. This study specifically (i) identified articles that discussed CT approach for programming education at higher education institutions (HEIs), (ii) classified the different CT approaches and tools employed for programming education at HEIs, (iii) synthesised and discussed results that are reported by relevant studies that utilized CT for teaching programming at HEIs. A systematic literature review methodology was adopted in this study. Out of 161 articles retrieved, 33 of them that met the inclusion criteria were reviewed. Our study revealed that the use of CT at HEIs for programming education began in 2010; many studies did not specify the context of use, but the use of CT is found to be gaining grounds in many contexts, especially the developed countries; course design approach was mostly employed by educators to introduce CT at HEIs for programming education. Furthermore, this study pointed out how CT approach can be explored for designing a smart learning environment to support students in learning computer programming.

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A Systematic Review of Computational Thinking Approach for Programming Education in Higher Education Institutions

Learning how to code by creating video games promises high motivation, engagement and fun for the students. In this study, the Unity Game Development Environment, a widely spread tool for professional game developers, was employed for teaching secondary school students to develop their own video games. The research design for the game development activities followed a Design-Based Research approach. The learning design was based on situated learning accompanied by a mix of tutorials, teacher explanations and support & collaboration amongst the students. The results of the first iteration of Design-Based Research confirmed the hypotheses that video game development was fascinating and engaging for the majority of young learners. Using a professional tool with an embedded physics engine provided additional attraction for teenagers. From the first cycle of game development we learned that dealing with the complexity of the development environment in a systematic way, time management, advanced teachers’ competencies in handling the environment, and providing well balanced learning materials are crucial to successfully employ a professional tool like Unity in secondary education. Besides improved materials and a stepwise process of adding complexity e.g. by starting with developing mini-games, the most important change for the second cycle is to significantly extend the time allocated for game development. This seems justified due to the vast spectrum of skills and competences students tend to acquire when collaborating on complex and exciting issues like developing games.

Engaging Students in Computer Science Education through Game Development with Unity

Visual programming in 3D sounds much more appealing than programming in 2D, but what are its benefits? Here, University of Colorado Boulder educators discuss the differences between 2D and 3D regarding three concepts connecting computer graphics to computer science education: ownership, spatial thinking, and syntonicity.

Muyang Song

Papers

Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Computational Thinking through Modeling and Programming in 3D