2012 12th IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies
Exploring children preferences regarding tangible and graphical tools for introductory programming Evaluating the PROTEAS kit
Theodosios Sapounidis
Stavros Demetriadis
Department of Informatics Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Thessaloniki, Greece
[email protected]
Department of Informatics Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Thessaloniki, Greece
[email protected]
graphical and tangible programming languages, two isomorphic subsystems were used by 27 pupils (7-8 years old) in order to accomplish programming tasks. Apart from the presentation of PROTEAS kit and the innovations that it introduces, the main contribution of this paper is the investigation of three assumptions related to tangible interfaces. First, that tangible interfaces are more familiar to users and thus have positive impact to user enjoyment [4]. Second, that tangible interfaces facilitate easier accessibility for children and, consequently, lower the age limit for participation [5]. And, third, that tangibles are more natural and appropriate for collaborative activities [4, 5].
Abstract— This paper investigates children preferences regarding tangible and graphical tools for introductory programming. The study makes use of the PROTEAS (PROgramming TangiblE Activity System) kit, an ensemble including one graphical and two tangible programming tools. The kit was designed to operate as a user friendly introductory programming tool even for children of pre-school age. Using the tangible programming tool of PROTEAS children can develop their code by arranging real cube-shaped blocks that represent simple programming commands. Alternatively they may create programs by dragging programming commands with mouse in an isomorphic graphical computer environment. In our study, 27 children (7-8 years old) used both tangible and graphical tools to program the actions of a LEGO robot. Using questionnaires we evaluated children’s first sight preference, enjoyment and easiness in the use of the two interfaces. Moreover, we measured children’s preference in relation to the type of activity, team or stand alone play. The results showed that the tangible subsystem was selected for team play was easier to be used and simultaneously more enjoyable than the graphical one.
II.
The work of Fitzmaurice et al. [6] introduced the essence of graspable interfaces and building on this, Ishii and Ulmer [7] presented the tangible user interfaces (TUIs) which were the interfaces that “augment the real physical world by coupling digital information to every day physical objects and environments”. Since then tangible user interfaces became an interesting research field for many scientists. The incorporation of TUIs led to systems that were used in various applications [8]. Typically these systems ware designed for novice users and applied in fields, such as mathematics [9], learning of dynamic concepts [10], logistics [11], music [12], programming [13, 14] etc. Since the first days of Logo, researchers like Radian Perlman [15] tried to change the traditional programming space which was a computer with keyboard. Perlman, at the MIT, in the late 70’s created the Tortis – Slot machine which was the first tangible programming language. With slot machine it was then possible for preschoolers to program the turtle. Suzuki and Kato in 90’s created the first active tangible programming language which was the AlgoBlocks [16]. The AlgoBlocks system was a collection of cubes that could be connected to each other in order to form a program code. Each cube corresponded to a command and the trainees aimed at guiding a submarine that was depicted on a CRT screen with tangible Logo-like commands. The high scientific interest led to the creation of many tangible languages like Tangible Programming Brick by McNerney [15], Electronic Blocks by Wyeth and Purchase, [13]
Keywords- Programming System; Tangible programming; Graphical programming; Education;
I.
INTRODUCTION
Tangibles in general are physical objects that either incorporate electronics devices or they are using electronic equipment in order to provide ways for innovative play and learning for children or novice [1]. Developers use this play activity to support knowledge construction in various domains [2, 3]. In order to contribute to the on going research on tangible user interfaces we developed PROTEAS kit. PROTEAS is a general purpose software and hardware that was designed to make programming concepts more accessible to children and novice. Moreover, the tool was designed to be easily portable and adequate for use in real classrooms. In this paper we make a short description of the related work on Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs). We then present the PROTEAS subsystems that were used in our study. Finally, we report our research method and the preliminary findings of our first research with PROTEAS kit. For the purpose of this research, that was a comparison between 978-0-7695-4702-2/12 $26.00 © 2012 IEEE DOI 10.1109/ICALT.2012.48
BACKGROUND
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Consequently, command and parameter cubs are independent units that can communicate, interact and respond to external actions. Passive systems are based mostly on image recognition and RFIDs. Although, active systems are considered to be more expensive, there are some advantages in comparison to passive systems. Active systems and especially T_ProRob does not require stable environmental conditions or any particular surface to work on. This makes T_ProRob easily portable and appropriate for use in a classroom. It can be freely manipulated by users without constrains and additional information for instance in image recognition systems during scanning process hands or heads can interfere with camera recording. Moreover, because T_ProRob has embedded electronics can interact with users on the interface something which is quite difficult with passive technologies. With T_ProRob users can program the NXT to perform actions like move one step forward – backward turn right – left. Actions like turn on/off the light, make sound, make a delay etc. are also supported. In addition, users can have loops and conditional statements. Finally, a special cube, where a user can save his/her program code and reuse it later, completes the commands set. T_ProRob contains smaller cubes which are the parameters. All parameters can be connected to the commands and so the commands change their function. For instance, instead of moving backwards one step a user can connect on the command the 3 parameter and this way the command will be, move backwards 3 steps. The parameters that concern the conditional statements deal with touch, light, ultrasonic and sound sensors. The entire system is based on Microchip PIC18F2620 and PIC18F4550 microcontrollers. As far as functionality is concerned, the user connects on the basis (master box) the commands that represent his/her program code. For the execution process the run button, which is located on the master box, has to be pressed. The master box communicates with the blocks and reads the overall program. Then the master box is communicating with a computer using Bluetooth or RS 232. This computer records in a Database information about the program. Once the computer finishes the recording process, it sends the program to the NXT robot using Bluetooth so as to run it. All communications are bidirectional and this way master box and command blocks are informed about the program execution with the NXT robot. In this way the robot can, for example, inform the ‘if’ command block, about the result of a test. Then, the block informs the user by turning on the correspondent LED indication.
GameBlocks by Andrew [17] and finally, Quetzal – Tern by Horn, Crouser and Bers. [18] Most of the tangible programming languages have been developed and proposed for early programming activities without, however, having been systematically evaluated in relation to other equivalent types of interface. It is interesting to note that only Tern has been evaluated in real classroom in order to identify to what extend do children understand specific programming concepts. Moreover, with Tern it was examined if it was possible for children to program without direct adult assistance. It is clear that despite the various designing efforts there has been limited research focusing on the social and cognitive advantages of using this type of tools [4, 19]. Moreover, the hypothetical advantages of using a tangible system have been incompletely studied [5, 20, 21]. III.
PROTEAS PROGRAMMING SPACE
PROTEAS kit aims to support introductory programming activities. The platform consists of two tangible programming languages and one graphical. The tangible languages are T_Butterfly and T_ProRob that can be used in a complementary manner [22]. Users, interacting with T_Butterfly subsystem can program in order to lead a Virtual butterfly in a maze. Moreover, using the T_ProRob subsystem users program a Lego NXT Robot. Finally, PROTEAS kit contains V_ProRob subsystem which is the graphical equivalent of the tangible T_ProRob. For the purpose of our study only T_ProRob and V_ProRob were used and in the following we make a short presentation of these tools. A. T_ProRob T_ProRob (Photo 1) is an active tangible programming language where each cubic command and parameter has embedded electronics.
B. V_ProRob V_ProRob subsystem has the same commands parameters with those offered by the tangible T_ProRob.
Photo 1
Creation of a program with T_ProRob
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alone in the activities. All children volunteered to the activity as part of the every day lesson. All children were fluent Greek speakers. Also, all children had attended a school computer course and consequently they all were familiar with using the mouse. B. Setting The experiment was conducted in a classroom offered by the school for this specific purpose. The two systems (tangible and virtual) were equally accessible to all children. The interview and the questionnaire answering were conducted in the same classroom, always in visual contact with the two systems. Photo 2
Creation of a program with V_ProRob
C. Procedure The duration of the activity lasted about 1 hour and 15 minutes for each dyad. The children, guided by the researcher, first filled out the questionnaires about their age, gender, familiarity with computers and computer programming knowledge. Then, the NXT Lego robot was presented and the researcher asked them which of the two systems (tangible or graphical) they would prefer to use in order to program the robot. Applying a simple programming scenario (with only few commands) we started showing the children the way they could use the two systems. The programming scenario was the same for all dyads and was presented simultaneously in both systems. This means that we implemented successively each command in the two systems, following a counterbalanced process, to rule out any possible sequence effect. After the end of the presentation we asked the children to tell us which system they enjoyed the most. We then gave the children two simple missions that the NXT robot had to accomplish and asked them to create the respective two programs using only one interface (randomly selected). Next, we asked children to program two more, of similar difficulty level, robot missions using the other interface. So, the children had the chance to create instructions sequences and interact with both systems. This process lasted approximately 30 minutes. Half of the dyads started programming using the graphical interface and the other half used the tangible. At the end of this activity the researcher asked each child which of the two systems enjoyed the most. Then, the two children were free to perform robot programming two more times using each system successively. Then the researcher took away each child at a different table, handed the questionnaire and instructions on how to answer it. Finally, children were also asked to justify their answers and this was recorded on a separate form.
The subsystem (Photo 2) is a graphical isomorphic equivalent of T_ProRob. It accumulates the specific features and the capabilities of T_ProRob. For instance, V_ProRob informs the users about tests and errors on the icons of the commands and parameters the same way that has been done with T_ProRob. It offers to the users a reliable alternative to program the NXT with a simple and easy graphical environment via a mouse. IV.
COMPARATIVE STUDY
The research was conducted in June 2011 at the first Experimental Elementary School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece (Photo 3).
Photo 3
Creation of a program with T_ProRob
A. Participants Twenty seven (7-8 years old) children participated in the experiment (11 were girls and 16 boys). Children were randomly assigned to work in dyads. One child participated
D. Measurments
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In all cases the difference is statistically significant (significance main effect based on binomial and 2 tests was calculated at the p
