Setting the scene: Scaffolding stories to benefit middle school students learning to program

  • Jordana Kerr
  • , Mary Chou
  • , Reilly Ellis
  • , Caitlin Kelleher

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Research suggests that storytelling can motivate middle school students to explore computer programming. However, difficulties finding and realizing story ideas can decrease time actually spent on programming. In this paper, we present guidelines for constructing story scenes that reliably inspire ideas for novice programmers creating stories. To evaluate the impact of pre-built scenes with strategic design constraints on early programming behavior and attitudes, we conducted a between-subjects study comparing participants who used pre-built scenes and participants who crafted their own scenes. The results suggest that story starter scenes enable novice users to explore programming in the environment sooner, allow users to add and modify significantly more novel programming constructs during the length of the study, and maintain motivation for learning to program via storytelling.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings - 2013 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2013
Pages95-98
Number of pages4
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013
Event2013 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2013 - San Jose, CA, United States
Duration: Sep 15 2013Sep 19 2013

Publication series

NameProceedings of IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing, VL/HCC
ISSN (Print)1943-6092
ISSN (Electronic)1943-6106

Conference

Conference2013 IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human Centric Computing, VL/HCC 2013
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Jose, CA
Period09/15/1309/19/13

Keywords

  • programming for children
  • storytelling support

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