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CodeSpells: bridging educational language features with industry-standard languages

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Wyatt SnyderAuthors Info & Claims

Koli Calling '14: Proceedings of the 14th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research

Pages 05 - 14

https://doi.org/10.1145/2674683.2674684

Published: 20 November 2014 Publication History

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Abstract

K-12 Computer Science Education has been an increasingly popular topic worldwide. Additionally, with K-12 standardized testing moving online, students are being required to improve their computer skills, which, among other factors, has also motivated the discussion to add computer science to the core curriculum [6, 8, 35, 22]. Educational programming languages, such as Scratch [25] and Alice [11], have a set of features that foster their use with younger students [27] such as drag-and-drop, limited API, and visual output. Given that novices can be introduced to such educational languages with a basic understanding of computer science concepts, industry-standard programming languages like Java can now be introduced to younger students.

This paper re-introduces CodeSpells [14, 13, 15], a 3D immersive video game that is unique in that it attempts to engage students in introductory computing concepts in similar ways to Scratch/Alice, but using Java, while providing them a metaphor of wizardry that attempts to mimic the culture of computer science.

CodeSpells has been shown to engage students in confidently writing Java code, but it has yet been shown to result in students being able to write Java code, or begin to become computer scientists. In this paper, we show the results of an 8-week study conducted on 55 9-10 year old students across two different schools. Throughout the study, students not only played CodeSpells, but also used a guided workbook to explore Java code outside of the CodeSpells virtual environment. Through both immersive interactions and the guided workbook, students demonstrated their understanding of introductory computing concepts and their ability to program in Java, both on the computer, and on paper.

References

[1]

R. K. Atkinson, S. J. Derry, A. Renkl, and D. Wortham. Learning from examples: Instructional principles from the worked examples research. Review of Educational Research, 70(2):181--214, 2000.

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