Visual and Textual Programming Languages: A Systematic Review of the Literature

It is well documented, and has been the topic of much research, that Computer Science courses tend to have higher than average drop out rates at third level. This is a problem that needs to be addressed with urgency but also caution. The required number of Computer Science graduates is growing every year but the number of graduates is not meeting this demand and one way that this problem can be alleviated is to encourage students at an early age towards studying Computer Science courses. This paper presents a systematic literature review on the role of visual and textual programming languages when learning to program, particularly as a first programming language. The approach is systematic, in that a structured search of electronic resources has been conducted, and the results are presented and quantitatively analysed. This study will give insight into whether or not the current approaches to teaching young learners programming are viable, and examines what we can do to increase the interest and retention of these students as they progress through their education.Comment: 18 pages (including 2 bibliography pages), 3 figure

Pirate plunder: game-based computational thinking using scratch blocks

Policy makers worldwide argue that children should be taught how technology works, and that the ‘computational thinking’ skills developed through programming are useful in a wider context. This is causing an increased focus on computer science in primary and secondary education. Block-based programming tools, like Scratch, have become ubiquitous in primary education (5 to 11-years-old) throughout the UK. However, Scratch users often struggle to detect and correct ‘code smells’ (bad programming practices) such as duplicated blocks and large scripts, which can lead to programs that are difficult to understand. These ‘smells’ are caused by a lack of abstraction and decomposition in programs; skills that play a key role in computational thinking. In Scratch, repeats (loops), custom blocks (procedures) and clones (instances) can be used to correct these smells. Yet, custom blocks and clones are rarely taught to children under 11-years-old. We describe the design of a novel educational block-based programming game, Pirate Plunder, which aims to teach these skills to children aged 9-11. Players use Scratch blocks to navigate around a grid, collect items and interact with obstacles. Blocks are explained in ‘tutorials’; the player then completes a series of ‘challenges’ before attempting the next tutorial. A set of Scratch blocks, including repeats, custom blocks and clones, are introduced in a linear difficulty progression. There are two versions of Pirate Plunder; one that uses a debugging-first approach, where the player is given a program that is incomplete or incorrect, and one where each level begins with an empty program. The game design has been developed through iterative playtesting. The observations made during this process have influenced key design decisions such as Scratch integration, difficulty progression and reward system. In future, we will evaluate Pirate Plunder against a traditional Scratch curriculum and compare the debugging-first and non-debugging versions in a series of studies

Development of the City Public Service Model on the Basis of Integrated Transport Flow Indicators

The problem of modeling public services based on architectural and planning decisions is considered, the role of traffic in the formation of a model of city services is analyzed. An integrated criterion for the quality of public services is proposed. A method has been developed for determining segmented public services taking into account the transport areas of the city, which will make it possible to evenly disperse public service centers. The basis is a socio-planning organization, as a material-spatial system containing anthropogenic and natural components – the territory and institutions where the functional processes that take place in the urban planning environment take place. The described model has certain versatility, and is simultaneously suitable for characterizing various categories of service institutions. Thus, the task of optimizing the quality of public services in the city is reduced to a mathematical model for which, by setting the basic design criteria, the optimal result can be obtained.On the basis of a questionnaire survey and analysis of statistical data, calculation of traffic intensity, the demand and supply of the level of public services фre studied. The structural elements of this model: population, territory, transport and service institutions, are in dialectical interaction, which is described by the mathematical model in this study. The model is based on the calculation of the minimum population in the service area, which allows to have i-th type establishments using the social potential method, as well as a graph-analytical method in determining the optimal location of service institutions in the city.As a result of the research, a conceptual model of public services for cities is built, a layout of supermarkets in the territory of Uzhhorod and distribution of service areas of these institutions is proposed. This optimization will ensure uniform domestic servicing of the territory, optimal performance indicators of service establishments and minimum average service radii of points

The ixiQuarks: merging code and GUI in one creative space

This paper reports on ixiQuarks; an environment of instruments and effects that is built on top of the audio programming language SuperCollider. The rationale of these instruments is to explore alternative ways of designing musical interaction in screen-based software, and investigate how semiotics in interface design affects the musical output. The ixiQuarks are part of external libraries available to SuperCollider through the Quarks system. They are software instruments based on a non- realist design ideology that rejects the simulation of acoustic instruments or music hardware and focuses on experimentation at the level of musical interaction. In this environment we try to merge the graphical with the textual in the same instruments, allowing the user to reprogram and change parts of them in runtime. After a short introduction to SuperCollider and the Quark system, we will describe the ixiQuarks and the philosophical basis of their design. We conclude by looking at how they can be seen as epistemic tools that influence the musician in a complex hermeneutic circle of interpretation and signification

Exploring Trends in Middle School Students\u27 Computational Thinking in the Online Scratch Community: A Pilot Study

Teaching computational thinking has been a focus of recent efforts to broaden the reach of computer science (CS) education for today’s students who live and work in a world that is heavily influenced by computing principles. Computational thinking (CT) essentially means thinking like a computer scientist by using principles and concepts learned in CS as part of our daily lives. Not only is CT essential for the development of computer applications, but it can also be used to support problem solving across all disciplines. Computational thinking involves solving problems by drawing from skills fundamental to CS such as decomposition, pattern recognition, abstraction, and algorithm design. The present study examined how Dr. Scratch, a CT assessment tool, functions as an assessment for computational thinking. This study compared strengths and weaknesses of the CT skills of 360 seventh- and eighth-grade students who were engaged in a Scratch programming environment through the use of Dr. Scratch. The data were collected from a publicly available dataset available on the Scratch website. The Mann-Whitney U analysis revealed that there were specific similarities and differences between the seventh- and eighth-grade CT skills. The findings also highlight affordances and constraints of Dr. Scratch as a CT tool and address the challenges of analyzing Scratch projects from young Scratch learners. Recommendations are offered to researchers and educators about how they might use Scratch data to help improve students’ CT skills

Assessing Learning Through the Arts

Within the past several decades, the emphasis in public education nationwide has steadily moved away from arts-rich and creativity based learning toward more standardized, test-based learning. In recent years, budget cuts and the "No Child Left Behind Act" have pushed the education climate even further toward high-stakes testing, narrowing curriculum. In line with this, Washington State has enacted the Washington Assessment of Student Learning standards, shifting local schools' priorities toward meeting test-based standards. At the same time, public education in Washington state faced significant budget cuts. By 2005, Washington ranked 42nd in the nation in public education spending.Public schools have had to cut many rich program offerings including in-school arts classes. In 2005, nearly 60 percent of Washington State principals reported one hour or less of music instruction per week in their schools. Worse yet, 60 percent of Seattle Public School elementary schools offered no visual arts program that same year.During this time, several existing organizations in King County and countless more practitioners were growing to meet a new demand for the arts gap through diverse, innovative programming both in and out of the school day. Seattle's nonprofit arts education organizations were natural advocates for more creative learning opportunities but remained somewhat disconnected from each other, lacking a cohesive, persuasive message to more effectively advocate for arts education. In response to these challenges, among others, seven of these regional nonprofit youth arts education organizations formed the Seattle Arts Education Consortium (Consortium), a collaborative, two-year project, in the summer of 2005.Reflecting on the work of the last two years, the Consortium offers several key findings and lessons learned related to both the process and the product. These findings may be an excellent resource to any group starting a similar process and especially for arts education programs hoping to elevate the rigor and public understanding of their programs' impacts. This report will also be useful to foundations interested in encouraging collaborations among their grantees.The sections that follow include descriptions of the process, outcomes and findings for each project activity including: Evaluation Planning & Implementation, Professional Development for Teaching Artists, Arts Education Communications & Messaging as well as What's Next for the Consortium