Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Computational Thinking through Modeling and Programming in 3D
TL;DR: The differences between 2D and 3D regarding three concepts connecting computer graphics to computer science education: ownership, spatial thinking, and syntonicity are discussed.
Abstract: 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.
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05 Jul 2017
TL;DR: The journey to overcome first syntactic, then semantic, and most recently pragmatic, obstacles in computer science education is described.
Abstract: 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.
54 citations
Cites background from "Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Comp..."
...AgentCubes [10, 32-35], featuring innovative 3D end-user modeling approaches empowering kids to create their own 3D worlds, includes sophisticated parallel execution and animation models for blocks programming....
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...The following sections outline approaches that have been explored to move blocks programming beyond syntax in AgentSheets [18, 22, 40, 82-85] and AgentCubes [10, 32-35]....
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01 Sep 2016
TL;DR: 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.
Abstract: 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.
45 citations
Cites background or methods from "Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Comp..."
...Similarly, Conversational Programming [38] in AgentSheets [2] and AgentCubes online [12] extends the notion of live programming [11]....
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...” While the need to deal with accidental complexity, resulting in the need to write elaborate programs to solve even simple problems, is certainly not the only reason people are not interested in programming, addressing affective challenges [12] is an important factor in making programming more popular....
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...For example, in the AgentCubes online [12] end-user programming tool, users can place objects, called agents, in a 3-D grid structured environment....
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...Though there are many examples of tools that enable Computational Thinking, we will present brief examples from our research including AgentCubes online [12] and the Scalable Game Design Project [3]....
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TL;DR: A thorough search in electronic databases revealed 96 studies on computational thinking which were published between 2006 and 2016 as discussed by the authors, which were exposed to a quantitative content analysis through using an article control form developed by the researchers.
Abstract: 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.
38 citations
Cites background from "Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Comp..."
...Study findings included elements that improved CT skills such as programming instruction (Olabe et al., 2015; Pellas & Peroutseas, 2016; Perez & Roig-Vila, 2015; Repenning et al., 2014; Wang, Wang, & Liu, 2014), robotics (Bers, 2010; Sullivan & Heffernan, 2016) and computer programs (Ioannidou, Repenning, & Webb, 2009; MorenoLeón, Robles, & Román-González, 2015; Repenning et al....
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...…included elements that improved CT skills such as programming instruction (Olabe et al., 2015; Pellas & Peroutseas, 2016; Perez & Roig-Vila, 2015; Repenning et al., 2014; Wang, Wang, & Liu, 2014), robotics (Bers, 2010; Sullivan & Heffernan, 2016) and computer programs (Ioannidou, Repenning, &…...
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21 Nov 2019
TL;DR: This study examined how computational thinking has been used to teach problem-solving skills and programming education in the recent past and pointed out how CT approach can be explored for designing a smart learning environment to support students in learning computer programming.
Abstract: 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.
34 citations
Cites methods from "Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Comp..."
...[24] employed the concept of designing 3D computer graphics as a CT approach in the teaching of computer science education....
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08 Apr 2019
TL;DR: 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 and using a professional tool with an embedded physics engine provided additional attraction for teenagers.
Abstract: 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.
27 citations
Cites background from "Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Comp..."
...Video game development feeds well into ICT-literacy and computational thinking [5] and comes along with high motivation, engagement and increased learning [6-8]....
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References
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Book•
01 Jan 1980
TL;DR: The gears of my childhood as discussed by the authors were a source of inspiration for many of the ideas we use in our own work, such as the notion of assimilation of knowledge into a new model.
Abstract: The Gears of My Childhood
Before I was two years old I had developed an intense involvement with automobiles. The names of car parts made up a very substantial portion of my vocabulary: I was particularly proud of knowing about the parts of the transmission system, the gearbox, and most especially the differential. It was, of course, many years later before I understood how gears work; but once I did, playing with gears became a favorite pastime. I loved rotating circular objects against one another in gearlike motions and, naturally, my first "erector set" project was a crude gear system.
I became adept at turning wheels in my head and at making chains of cause and effect: "This one turns this way so that must turn that way so . . . " I found particular pleasure in such systems as the differential gear, which does not follow a simple linear chain of causality since the motion in the transmission shaft can be distributed in many different ways to the two wheels depending on what resistance they encounter. I remember quite vividly my excitement at discovering that a system could be lawful and completely comprehensible without being rigidly deterministic.
I believe that working with differentials did more for my mathematical development than anything I was taught in elementary school. Gears, serving as models, carried many otherwise abstract ideas into my head. I clearly remember two examples from school math. I saw multiplication tables as gears, and my first brush with equations in two variables (e.g., 3x + 4y = 10) immediately evoked the differential. By the time I had made a mental gear model of the relation between x and y, figuring how many teeth each gear needed, the equation had become a comfortable friend.
Many years later when I read Piaget this incident served me as a model for his notion of assimilation, except I was immediately struck by the fact that his discussion does not do full justice to his own idea. He talks almost entirely about cognitive aspects of assimilation. But there is also an affective component. Assimilating equations to gears certainly is a powerful way to bring old knowledge to bear on a new object. But it does more as well. I am sure that such assimilations helped to endow mathematics, for me, with a positive affective tone that can be traced back to my infantile experiences with cars. I believe Piaget really agrees. As I came to know him personally I understood that his neglect of the affective comes more from a modest sense that little is known about it than from an arrogant sense of its irrelevance. But let me return to my childhood.
One day I was surprised to discover that some adults---even most adults---did not understand or even care about the magic of the gears. I no longer think much about gears, but I have never turned away from the questions that started with that discovery: How could what was so simple for me be incomprehensible to other people? My proud father suggested "being clever" as an explanation. But I was painfully aware that some people who could not understand the differential could easily do things I found much more difficult. Slowly I began to formulate what I still consider the fundamental fact about learning: Anything is easy if you can assimilate it to your collection of models. If you can't, anything can be painfully difficult. Here too I was developing a way of thinking that would be resonant with Piaget's. The understanding of learning must be genetic. It must refer to the genesis of knowledge. What an individual can learn, and how he learns it, depends on what models he has available. This raises, recursively, the question of how he learned these models. Thus the "laws of learning" must be about how intellectual structures grow out of one another and about how, in the process, they acquire both logical and emotional form.
This book is an exercise in an applied genetic epistemology expanded beyond Piaget's cognitive emphasis to include a concern with the affective. It develops a new perspective for education research focused on creating the conditions under which intellectual models will take root. For the last two decades this is what I have been trying to do. And in doing so I find myself frequently reminded of several aspects of my encounter with the differential gear. First, I remember that no one told me to learn about differential gears. Second, I remember that there was feeling, love, as well as understanding in my relationship with gears. Third, I remember that my first encounter with them was in my second year. If any "scientific" educational psychologist had tried to "measure" the effects of this encounter, he would probably have failed. It had profound consequences but, I conjecture, only very many years later. A "pre- and post-" test at age two would have missed them.
Piaget's work gave me a new framework for looking at the gears of my childhood. The gear can be used to illustrate many powerful "advanced" mathematical ideas, such as groups or relative motion. But it does more than this. As well as connecting with the formal knowledge of mathematics, it also connects with the "body knowledge," the sensorimotor schemata of a child. You can be the gear, you can understand how it turns by projecting yourself into its place and turning with it. It is this double relationship---both abstract and sensory---that gives the gear the power to carry powerful mathematics into the mind. In a terminology I shall develop in later chapters, the gear acts here as a transitional object.
A modern-day Montessori might propose, if convinced by my story, to create a gear set for children. Thus every child might have the experience I had. But to hope for this would be to miss the essence of the story. I fell in love with the gears. This is something that cannot be reduced to purely "cognitive" terms. Something very personal happened, and one cannot assume that it would be repeated for other children in exactly the same form.
My thesis could be summarized as: What the gears cannot do the computer might. The computer is the Proteus of machines. Its essence is its universality, its power to simulate. Because it can take on a thousand forms and can serve a thousand functions, it can appeal to a thousand tastes. This book is the result of my own attempts over the past decade to turn computers into instruments flexible enough so that many children can each create for themselves something like what the gears were for me.
6,780 citations
29 Feb 2012
TL;DR: The Scalable Game Design project is introduced, different scaffolding approaches are discussed, data connecting gender specific motivational levels with scaffolded approaches is presented and data suggesting strong gender effects based on classroom scaffolding approach is presented.
Abstract: A fundamental challenge to computer science education is the difficulty of broadening participation of women and underserved communities. The idea of game design and game programming as an activity to introduce children at an early age to computational thinking in a motivational way is quickly gaining momentum. A pedagogical approach called Project First has allowed the Scalable Game Design project to reach a large group of middle schools students including a large percentage of female (45%) and underrepresented (48%) students. With over 4000 students in inner city, remote rural, and Native American communities Scalable Game Design has investigated the impact on students' interest level of pedagogical approaches employed by teachers such as mediation and scaffolding. Findings suggest strong gender effects based on classroom scaffolding approaches. For instance, girls are substantially less likely to be motivated through scaffolding based on direct instruction. Conversely, guided discovery scaffolding approaches are highly motivating to the point where they can even overcome other negative predictors such as small girls to boys class participation ratios. This paper introduces the project, discusses different scaffolding approaches and presents data connecting gender specific motivational levels with scaffolding approaches.
65 citations
"Beyond Minecraft: Facilitating Comp..." refers background in this paper
...” More generally, we found such ownership essential to broaden student participation.(2) The big appeal of a simple 2D depiction editor is that it has a low threshold for engaging in creative endeavors....
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TL;DR: This formal user study shows that with Incremental 3D, the gradual approach to transition from 2D to 3D authoring, middle school students can build sophisticated 3D games including 3D models, animations, and programming.
Abstract: 3D game development can be an enticing way to attract K-12 students to computer science, but designing and programming 3D games is far from trivial. Students need to achieve a certain level of 3D fluency in modeling, animation, and programming to be able to create compelling 3D content. The combination of innovative end-user development tools and standards-based curriculum that promotes IT fluency by shifting the pedagogical focus from programming to design, can address motivational aspects without sacrificing principled educational goals. The AgentCubes 3D game-authoring environment raises the ceiling of end-user development without raising the threshold. Our formal user study shows that with Incremental 3D, the gradual approach to transition from 2D to 3D authoring, middle school students can build sophisticated 3D games including 3D models, animations, and programming.
62 citations
29 Oct 2013
TL;DR: This paper describes conversational programming through design principles and use cases as a way to harness the computing power to inspect program meaning through a combination of partial program execution and semantic program annotation.
Abstract: Our powerful computers help very little in debugging the program we have so we can change it into the program we want. We introduce Conversational Programming as a way to harness our computing power to inspect program meaning through a combination of partial program execution and semantic program annotation. A programmer in our approach interactively selects highly autonomous "agents" in a program world as conversation topics and then changes the world to explore the potential behaviors of a selected agent in different scenarios. In this way, the programmer proactively knows how their code affects program execution as they explore various contexts. This paper describes conversational programming through design principles and use cases.
14 citations