A Computer Game To Teach Programming.

Abstract

This paper will appear in the Proceedings of the National Educational Computing Conference 1999 Keywords: learning computer programming, interactive tutorials, animated programming ######### ToonTalk is an animated interactive world inside of which one can construct a very large range of computer programs. These programs are not constructed by typing text or arranging icons but by taking actions in this world. Robots can be trained, birds can be given messages to deliver, and so on. ToonTalk has been described at NECC95 [Kah95] as well as [Kah96a and Kah96b]. This paper describes the design and preliminary testing of an interactive puzzle game that functions as a ToonTalk tutorial. Children are presented with a series of interactive puzzles in a game-like narrative context. The puzzles gradually introduce programming constructs and techniques. Each puzzle presents the player with a very limited selection of ToonTalk objects. Even some very young children