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A TUI-based Programming Tool for Children

Published: 22 June 2015 Publication History

Abstract

TanPro-Kit 2.0 is a programming tool for children aged 6 to 8, which is based on tangible user interface (TUI). It consists of programming blocks and a LED pad. The pad presents visual and audible feedback according to the arrangement of programming blocks with which children construct programs to play a maze game. Based on TanPro-Kit, we expanded three important programming concepts: parameters, Boolean logic and branch, and improved the system to support two-dimensional connection, which aims to make the program structure clearer. To realize these new features, we added three kinds of programming blocks accordingly, improved the process of block sequence in Arduino, and modified the infrared and wireless communications of the Single-Chip Microcomputer (SCM). A lab-based user study with 15 children was conducted, and the results show that the children can use the system to complete tasks easily and have a basic understanding of the related programming concepts.

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Cited By

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  • (2021)Introductory programming and young learners with visual disabilities: a reviewUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-021-00830-2Online publication date: 13-Aug-2021
  • (2016)From Patchwork to AppliquéProceedings of the TEI '16: Tenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/2839462.2839473(236-244)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2016

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  1. A TUI-based Programming Tool for Children

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      cover image ACM Conferences
      ITiCSE '15: Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education
      June 2015
      370 pages
      ISBN:9781450334402
      DOI:10.1145/2729094
      Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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      Published: 22 June 2015

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      Author Tags

      1. children
      2. learning
      3. programming languages
      4. tangible user interfaces

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      ITiCSE '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 54 of 124 submissions, 44%;
      Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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      View all
      • (2021)Introductory programming and young learners with visual disabilities: a reviewUniversal Access in the Information Society10.1007/s10209-021-00830-2Online publication date: 13-Aug-2021
      • (2016)From Patchwork to AppliquéProceedings of the TEI '16: Tenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction10.1145/2839462.2839473(236-244)Online publication date: 14-Feb-2016

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