BibSonomy publications for /user/yish/programmingMon Jan 09 22:47:45 CET 2012Interactive Learning Environments5487-501Programming-languages as a conceptual framework for teaching mathematics.192011constructionism education learning logo mathematics programming Formal mathematical methods remain, for most high school students, mysterious, artificial and not a part of their regular intuitive thinking. The authors develop some themes that could lead to a radically new approach. According to this thesis, the teaching of programming languages as a regular part of academic progress can contribute effectively to reduce formal barriers. This education can also be used to enable pupils to access an accurate understanding of some key mathematical concepts. In the field of heuristic knowledge for technical problem solving, experience of programming is no less valuable: it lends itself to promote a discussion of relations between formal procedures and the comprehension of intuitive problem solving and provides examples for the development of heuristic precepts (formulating a plan, subdividing the complexities, etc.). The knowledge gained in programming can also be used for the discussion of concepts and problems of classical mathematics. Finally, it can also facilitate the expansion of mathematical culture to topics in biological and physical sciences, linguistics, etc. The authors describe a programming language called 'Logo' adapted to objectify an enduring framework of mathematical experimentation. The paper reprinted below is the first published paper on the Logo programming language. It was written in 1968 by two of the three Logo language designers and presented at conference in Nice, France, in May 1968. It is important for several reasons. It clearly sets forth the objective of creating a language that is mathematically powerful yet accessible to little ones – easy enough for a third grade child to use for simple tasks. Its effectiveness for motivating students in posing and solving problems argues for Logo's educational power and utility. The heart of the language is set forth in this description of the genesis of Logo and its early form. Logo was designed to provide a conceptual foundation for teaching mathematical and logical ways of thinking in terms of programming ideas and activities. A rich variety of tasks that are interesting to children readily lend themselves to Logo programming. These may be drawn from mathematics, language, art, music, and other domains, in tasks of personal interest to students, often of their own choosing. They include such things as a variety of word games (finding words contained in words, writing words backwards, finding palindromes); question–answering and guessing games (e.g., Buzz, Twenty Questions); building semantic grammars for generating and producing poetry, jokes, or songs; making and breaking secret codes (e.g., substitution ciphers); designing and drawing patterns with a program controlled robot turtle; and developing strategies for a turtle with sensors to circumnavigate objects on an obstacle course. These projects introduce children to formal thinking procedures in the context of playful activities. There are many problems of this sort that children already know and like. A child thinks at first that he understands such problems perfectly because, with a little prodding, he can give a loose verbal description of his procedure. But he finds it impossible to make this description precise and general partly for lack of formal habits of thought and partly for lack of a suitably expressive language. The Logo environment provides students with an effective facility for actively constructing knowledge. Logo was expressly designed to embody the constructivist vision in mathematics, i.e. that learning is an active process of knowledge construction that gives rise to the production of publicly accessible artifacts. Here, they take the form of computer procedures that express the attempted solution of problems and that serve as a tangible means of thinking about and refining those solutions. Program descriptions are open to reflection and discussion, and procedures that fail can be examined, analyzed, and repaired. From the outset, Logo was intended to be a language for learning with ‘no threshold and no ceiling’. Later, when Papert took the Logo design as the basis of the MIT Logo Project, the language entered a period of further development and dissemination. Here, in the original Logo paper, you see the essence of the language and its generative ideas. Good reading!Fri Feb 04 12:21:34 CET 2011International Journal of Continuing Engineering Education and Life-Long Learning (IJCEELL)2214-233Programming as Mathematical Narrative182008KalDesignResearch TEL cerme6 constructionism eLPBookMor gmr haifa-edtech learning maths my myown mythesis narrative polonsky programming selected sequences top This paper describes a narrative-oriented approach to the design and the analysis of a computational system and a set of activities for mathematical learning. Our central contention is that programming can offer a key to resolving the tension between the different representational structures of narrative and mathematical formalism. In the course of describing our approach, we make a distinction between the epistemic-cognitive elements of narrative and the social, cultural and affective elements. We then elaborate the theoretical grounds of the individual epistemic facets of narrative. We propose a link between narrative theories of learning and constructionist traditions, specifically the notion of situated abstraction. This link suggests the possibility of further dialogue between the two academic communities Mon Oct 25 19:44:40 CEST 2010Signs1st mention of 'objects to think with'1128--157Epistemological Pluralism: Styles and Voices within the Computer Culture161990Logo constructionism learning objectstothinkwith programming styles The prevailing image of the computer represents it as a logical machine and computer programming as a technical, mathematical activity. Both the popular and technical culture have constructed computation as the ultimate embodiment of the abstract and formal. Yet the computer’s intellectual personality has another side: our research finds diversity in the practice of computing that is denied by its social construction. When we looked closely at programmers in action we saw formal and abstract approaches; but we also saw highly successful programmers in relationships with their material that are more reminiscent of a painter than a logician. They use concrete and personal approaches to knowledge that are far from the cultural stereotypes of formal mathematics.’Thu Aug 05 08:40:19 CEST 2010Journal of Visual Languages and Computing5574-597Towards a specification of the ToonTalk language192008Action-based Animated Children Concurrent Virtual constructionism education mythesis programming toontalk weblabs ToonTalk is a child-oriented programming language whose environment is an animated virtual world, with objects that children can pick up and use as in a game, such as birds, trucks, and robots, providing direct child-oriented metaphors for programming constructs. Actions performed by a programmer’s avatar with these objects are both code and coding. ToonTalk is a powerful system, not just a ‘‘toy’’ system: it is based upon concurrent constraint programming languages, and programs written in languages such as Flat Guarded Horn Clauses and Flat Concurrent Prolog can be straightforwardly constructed in ToonTalk. However, there is not a specification of ToonTalk, for ready implementation in other environments. We propose that the ToonTalk language lies not in the animations displayed by the current environment, but on the actions performed by the programmer with virtual world objects; we present a description and analysis of the methods the ToonTalk language provides to programmers for expressing programs.Mon Dec 28 20:46:15 CET 2009Teaching from Different Perspectives2003design elp-feasst learning patterns pedagogical pedagogicalpatterns programming roundanddeep teaching This pattern language in progress proposes some successful techniques to assist with teaching and learning. For professional educators, these patterns may seem obvious, even trivial, because they have used them so often. But for those newer to teaching, they offer a way for experienced teachers to pass on their experiences. But experienced teachers could also benefit from these patterns. Educators face new challenges regularly, particularly in fast-moving subject areas, and the experience captured in these patterns may help identify solutions for these new challenges.Sat Nov 28 18:02:49 CET 2009New York, NY, USAACM SIGCSE Bulletin1127-131Teaching recursion in a procedural environment---how much should we emphasize the computing model?311999computerscience education learning programming recursion teaching Recursion is a powerful and essential computational problem solving tool, but the concept of recursion is difficult to comprehend. Students that master the conventional programming construct of iteration in procedural programming environments, find it hard to utilize recursion.This study started as a test of CS College students' utilization of recursion. It was conducted after they have completed CS1, where they studied recursion with the C programming language. The test revealed that students adhere to the iterative pattern of "forward accumulation", due to their confidence with the iteration construct, but lack of trust of the recursion mechanism. These results motivated us to get more insight into the nature of recursion difficulties and ways to overcome them.In this paper we describe the difficulties we observed, and present a declarative, abstract, approach that contributed to overcome them. We question the emphasis that should be put on the basic computing model when presenting recursion, and argue for emphasis on the declarative approach for teaching recursion formulation in a procedural programming environment.Mon Oct 26 20:54:06 CET 2009Communications of the ACM 1160-67Scratch: Programming for All522009MIT constionism education educationalprogramming haifa-games-course language learning papert postviva programming scratch software When Moshe Y. Vardi, Editor-in-Chief of Communications, invited us to submit an article, he recalled how he first learned about Scratch: "A colleague of mine (CS faculty)," he said, "told me how she tried to get her 10-year-old daughter interested in programming, and the only thing that appealed to her was Scratch." That's what we were hoping for when we set out to develop Scratch six years ago. We wanted to develop an approach to programming that would appeal to people who hadn't previously imagined themselves as programmers. We wanted to make it easy for everyone, of all ages, backgrounds, and interests, to program their own interactive stories, games, animations, and simulations, and share their creations with one another.Tue Aug 25 11:52:15 CEST 2009Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education367-371Programming by choice: urban youth learning programming with scratch2008constructionism education programming scratch This paper describes Scratch, a visual, block-based programming language designed to facilitate media manipulation for novice programmers. We report on the Scratch programming experiences of urban youth ages 8-18 at a Computer Clubhouse 'an after school center' over an 18-month period. Our analyses of 536 Scratch projects collected during this time documents the learning of key programming concepts even in the absence of instructional interventions or experienced mentors. We discuss the motivations of urban youth who choose to program in Scratch rather than using one of the many other software packages available to them and the implications for introducing programming at after school settings in underserved communities.Tue Aug 25 11:36:26 CEST 2009Interdisciplinary Journal of E-Learning and Learning Objects263-274Children's Participation Patterns in Online Communities: An Analysis of Israeli Learners in the Scratch Online Community2009Israel MIT collaboration community constructionism education elearning haifa-games-course participation programming scratch Online participation and content contribution are pillars of the Internet revolution and are core activities for younger generations online. This study investigated participation patterns, users' contributions and gratification mechanisms, as well as the gender differences of Israeli learners in the Scratch online community. The findings showed that: (1) Participation patterns reveal two distinct participation types - "project creators" and "social participators", suggesting different users' needs. (2) Community members gratified "project creators" and "social participators" for their investment – using several forms of community feedback. Gratification at the user level was given both to "project creators" and "social participators" – community members added them as friends. The majority of the variance associated with community feedback was explained by seven predictors. However, gratification at the project level was different for the two participation types - active "project creators" received less feedback on their projects, while active "social participators" received more. Project feedback positively correlated with social participation investment, but negatively correlated with project creation investment. A possible explanation is that community members primarily left feedback to their friends. (3) No gender differences were found in participation patterns or in project complexity, suggesting that Scratch provides similar opportunities to both genders in programming, learning, and participation.Mon Jul 20 19:32:36 CEST 2009Object-oriented Design Knowledge: Principles, Heuristics, and Best Practices105-142Design patterns as laws of quality2006designpatterns eLPBookMor empirical evaluation object-oriented programming quality Fri Dec 12 13:13:21 CET 2008IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS853-860Software Design Patterns for Information Visualization2006Design WLEFormativeEAssessment designpatterns engineering information object-oriented patternlanguagenetwork patterns programming software visualization Despite a diversity of software architectures supporting information visualization, it is often difficult to identify, evaluate, and re-apply the design solutions implemented within such frameworks. One popular and effective approach for addressing such difficulties is to capture successful solutions in design patterns, abstract descriptions of interacting software components that can be customized to solve design problems within a particular context. Based upon a review of existing frameworks and our own experiences building visualization software, we present a series of design patterns for the domain of information visualization. We discuss the structure, context of use, and interrelations of patterns spanning data representation, graphics, and interaction. By representing design knowledge in a reusable form, these patterns can be used to facilitate software design, implementation, and evaluation, and improve developer education and communication.Fri May 30 05:55:14 CEST 2008Journal of Computer Assisted Learning2114-136Exploring the mathematics of motion through construction and collaboration222006PlanetMakingStuffTogether communication computer constructionism game ijtme2006 learning lunarlander mathematics mathgamespatterns modelling mythesis programming science weblabs webreports In this paper we give a detailed account of the design principles and construction of activities underlying a model-based approach to learning about the relationships between position, velocity and acceleration, and corresponding kinematics graphs. In these activities, students controlled the movement of objects in a programming environment, recording the motion data and plotting corresponding position-time and velocity-time graphs. They shared their findings on a specially-designed web-based collaboration system, and posted cross-site challenges to which others could react. We present learning episodes that provide evidence of students making discoveries about the relationships between different representations of motion. We conjecture that these discoveries arose from their activity in building models of motion and their participation in classroom and online community.Fri May 30 05:54:46 CEST 2008New York, NYSIGCUE Outlook213-17Programming-languages as a conceptual framework for teaching mathematics41970constructionism history learning logo mathematics microworlds mythesis programming Fri May 30 05:54:28 CEST 2008Washington, DC, USAC5 '04: Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Creating, Connecting and Collaborating through Computing104-109Scratch: A Sneak Preview2004Scratch collaboration construction constructionism education learning logo mythesis programming Fri May 30 05:51:51 CEST 2008New York, NYIDC '04: Proceeding of the 2004 conference on Interaction design and children141-142The child-engineering of arithmetic in ToonTalk2004KalDesignResearch children constructionism education learning logo mathematics mythesis programming toontalk weblabs Fri May 30 05:51:17 CEST 2008New York, NYCHI '96: Conference companion on Human factors in computing systems11-12StarLogo: An Environment for Decentralized Modeling and Decentralized Thinking.1996constructionism education educationalprogramming languages logo modeling mythesis programming starlogo Fri May 30 05:45:39 CEST 2008New York, NYCHI '95: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on Human factors in computing systems27-34KidSim: end user programming of simulations1995constructionism educationalprogramming kidsim mythesis programming stagecast Fri May 30 05:38:12 CEST 2008Cognition and Instruction2171-209Thinking like a wolf, a sheep or a firefly: Learning biology through constructing and testing computational theories—an embodied modeling approach242004biology distributed educationalprogramming learning logo modelling mythesis netlogo programming Biological phenomena can be investigated at multiple levels, from the molecular to the cellular to the organismic to the ecological. In typical biology instruction, these levels have been segregated. Yet, it is by examining the connections between such levels that many phenomena in biology, and complex systems in general, are best explained. We describe a computation-based approach that enables students to investigate the connections between different biological levels. Using agent-based, embodied modeling tools, students model the micro-rules underlying a biological phenomenon, and observe the resultant aggregate dynamics. We describe two cases in which this approach was employed. In both cases, students frame hypotheses, construct multi-agent models that incorporate these hypotheses, and test these by running their models and observing the outcomes. Contrasting these cases against traditionally employed, classical equations-based approaches, we argue that the embodied modeling approach connects more directly to students’ experience, enables extended investigations as well as deeper understanding, and enables “advanced” topics to be productively introduced into the high school curriculum.Fri May 30 05:01:38 CEST 2008Proposal to National Science Foundation, http://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/scratch-proposal.pdfA Networked, Media-Rich Programming Environment to Enhance Technological Fluency at After-School Centers in Economically-Disadvantaged Communities2003clubhouse collaboration collaborative components computer constructionism educationalprogramming learning modelling modulat mythesis programming scratch sharing The MIT Media Laboratory and UCLA propose to develop and study a new networked, mediarich programming environment, designed specifically to enhance the development of technological fluency at after-school centers in economically-disadvantaged communities. This project will build on our research team’s previous experience and success in two areas: the development of innovative programming environments for youth, and development of innovative informal-learning centers for inner-city youth. Our team’s research on “programmable bricks” has been commercialized as LEGO MindStorms, used by millions of youth around the world. Members of our research team co-founded the Computer Clubhouse project, a network of afterschool learning centers for youth from economically-disadvantaged communities. The Clubhouse network has expanded to 75 sites in 14 countries, with 20,000 youth members, and it received the prestigious Peter Drucker Award for Nonprofit Innovation.Fri May 30 04:55:10 CEST 2008The Construction of Meanings In and For a Stochastic Domain of Abstractionunpublished Phd thesis1988Boxer ChanceMaker Logo Noss Richard abstraction construction constructionism designexperiments designresearch eLPBookMor meanings mythesis probability programming stochastic This study takes as its focus young children's intuitive knowledge of randomness. Previous work in this field has studied the misconceptions that people, especially adults, hold in making judgements of chance (see, for example, the work of Kahneman & Tversky and Konold). In contrast, I study how primitive meanings for randomness form a basis for new meanings, a process which the misconceptions approach fails to illuminate. The guiding principle for this study is that the observation of students' evolving thought in a carefully designed computer-based domain will provide a better understanding of how the specific features of the domain shape and are shaped by activities within it. There are, then, two deeply connected strands to this thesis: the study of children's evolving meanings for randomness as expressed in a computer-based microworld, and the articulation of design principles which encapsulate pedagogic meanings for that microworld. More specifically, the thesis aims to shed light upon the answers to four crucial questions: Meanings for the domain What do formalisms of stochastic behaviour look like in a domain of abstraction? What structures in the domain for stochastic abstraction optimise the articulation of intuitions and the construction of new meanings? Meanings in the domain What articulations of informal intuitions of stochastic behaviour do we observe? How do the structures of the domain support the forging of situated meanings? The study uses an iterative design methodology, which cycles between the design of computer-based tools and the observation of children, between the ages of 9 and 11 years, as they use these tools. The thesis identifies initial meanings for the behaviour of various stochastic phenomena and traces how new pieces of knowledge, especially relating to long term random behaviour, emerge through the forging of connections between the internal and external resources.