“Programming is hard and boring”
“programming is hard and boring”
cog
nit
ive
affective
easy
hard
boring exciting
cog
nit
ive
affective
easy
hard
boring exciting
Holy Grail
where we want to be
cog
nit
ive
affective
easy
hard
boring exciting
where we were
compute prime numbers
C++, Emacs
cog
nit
ive
affective
easy
hard
boring exciting
making programming easier
Syntactic Support
Mission Accomplishednot quite
1995:
AgentSheets pioneers drag and drop programming
cog
nit
ive
affective
easy
hard
boring exciting
making programming easier
Syntactic Support
Semantic Support
cog
nit
ive
affective
easy
hard
boring exciting
making programming exciting
sem
an
tic
sup
port
synta
ctic
sup
port
Ownership &
Creativity
Creativity3D Tools
<inflatable icons movie: 15 seconds>
create exciting worlds
<screen dump>
> 10,000 students
45% girls 55% boys
74% boys, 64% girls of
non self-selected students want to continue
some middle schools expose
350 students
per year
results Pedagogy
scaffolding moreless
motivation girls
more
less
motivation boysg
uid
ed
d
iscovery
inqu
iry-
base
d
self
dir
ecte
d
dis
covery
open e
nded e
xp
lora
tion
dir
ect
instr
ucti
on
step-b
y-st
ep
tuto
rials
• http://scalablegamedesign.cs.colorado.edu
• [email protected]
• http://hourofcode.com/ac
• WIRED article on programming, October issue
Thank you!