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Towards a Metaphor-Based Tangible Toolkit for Learning Programming Concepts

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Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Designing the Learner and Teacher Experience (HCII 2022)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNCS,volume 13328))

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Abstract

This paper reports from design research developing a prototype for a metaphor-based tangible toolkit reifying basic programming concepts. We elicit a list of metaphors using expert interviews with computer science lectures and co-design workshops with programming students and professional software developers. We continue to select metaphors most viable for a tangible toolkit and develop an interactive application for the metaphors mapping 3d models to associated programming code. We assess the application with computer science students to understand how they use the application and how they relate manipulations to the 3d models to changes in the programming code. Our application serves as an example how programming concepts can be represented both as metaphors and tangibles. Our findings build a foundation to guide and inform further research in metaphors and tangibles used in computer science education.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    https://www.lego.com/en-gb/themes/mindstorms/about.

  2. 2.

    https://www.gigotoys.com/en/about-gigo/.

  3. 3.

    https://www.makeblock.com/steam-kits/mbot.

  4. 4.

    https://www.arduino.cc/ and https://microbit.org/.

  5. 5.

    https://www.autodesk.com/products/maya.

  6. 6.

    https://unity.com/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IT Department, Østfold University College, Halden, Norway

    Ann-Charlott B. Karlsen, Tore Marius Akerbæk & Susanne Koch Stigberg

Authors
  1. Ann-Charlott B. Karlsen
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  2. Tore Marius Akerbæk
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  3. Susanne Koch Stigberg
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ann-Charlott B. Karlsen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Multimedia and Graphic Art, Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

    Panayiotis Zaphiris

  2. Research Center on Interactive Media, Smart Systems and Emerging Technologies (CYENS), Cyprus University of Technology, Limassol, Cyprus

    Andri Ioannou

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Karlsen, AC.B., Akerbæk, T.M., Stigberg, S.K. (2022). Towards a Metaphor-Based Tangible Toolkit for Learning Programming Concepts. In: Zaphiris, P., Ioannou, A. (eds) Learning and Collaboration Technologies. Designing the Learner and Teacher Experience. HCII 2022. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 13328. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05657-4_6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-05657-4_6

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-05657-4

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