Project Title (tentative): pARt Blocks
Computer programming is a demanding task requiring users to understand the syntax of a programming language, logic flows, and complex abstract concepts. We developed two applications to assist children in grasping the mentioned concepts. This is a project from a Bachelor’s thesis, and is now being continued as a Master’s project.
According to a background study, Visual Programming Languages (VPLs), Augmented Reality (AR) or physical interfaces make it easier for children to learn to code. Block-based programming (used in VPLs) reduces the cognitive burden and eliminates numerous syntax errors. AR makes the experience immersive and more enjoyable for the users. Previous research has also shown that children retain more information when more of their senses are engaged, and the tangible interfaces help to achieve this. Therefore, we have compared the standard method of teaching youngsters to code, which involves a VPL, to a novel method that incorporates the aforementioned technologies (augmented reality via head-mounted display and physical coding blocks).
By utilizing the applications, we attempt to instruct the students in the following learning objectives: events, loops, and conditional assignments. Each application has programming blocks, a programming field, and a game field to accomplish this. The objective is to link the blocks to solve a specified task and visualize the program’s execution on the game field.
Publications:
- K. Trajkovska, J. A. Deja, M. Weerasinghe. pARt blocks: Programming in AR with tangible blocks. In Poster Presentations of the 9th ACM Celebration of Women in Computing womENcourage, 2022, pp. 1–2. doi:10.13140/RG.2.2.10986.59846
- K. Trajkovska, K. Čopič Pucihar, M. Kljun, J. A. Deja, and M. Weerasinghe. pARt Blocks: Programming with Physical Tangible Blocks and AR, in: Proceedings of the 7th Human Computer Interaction Slovenia (HCI SI), 2022, pp. 1–25. doi: (in press)