Is Embodied Interaction Beneficial When Learning Programming?

Proceedings of the 13th international conference on Intelligent user interfaces, 2008

We describe an innovative educational system designed to, firstly, motivate young people to engage with computational concepts and secondly, provide them with tools to do so in an embodied manner. The interface is designed as a "magic mirror" in which users can, through augmented reality technology, take on the role of a character and control the character's movements via their own movements. They are able to record movements, and using a Wii Remote as a mouse and pointing device, organise these movements into sequences. We are now working on ways in which the recorded movements can be manipulated in ways that foster computational thinking.

quick overview. In Richard Gunstone (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Science Education. Springer (2014)

International Conference of Learning Sciences, 2018

In this preliminary report, we propose a previously unidentified role that instructors' gestures may play in helping students evaluate existing computer code. We find that instructors use gesture to animate processes encoded in the static inscriptions of computer programs in order to make invisible, dynamic phenomena perceptible to students. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of the embodied instructional work of teaching programming.

Interacting with Computers, 2009

In the design of interactive systems, developers sometimes need to engage in various ways of physical performance in order to communicate ideas and to test out properties of the system to be realised. External resources such as sketches, as well as bodily action, often play important parts in such processes, and several methods and tools that explicitly address such aspects of interaction design have recently been developed. This combined with the growing range of pervasive, ubiquitous, and tangible technologies add up to a complex web of physicality within the practice of designing interactive systems. We illustrate this dimension of systems development through three cases which in different ways address the design of systems where embodied performance is important. The first case shows how building a physical sport simulator emphasises a shift in activity between programming and debugging. The second case shows a build-once run-once scenario, where the fine-tuning and control of the run-time activity gets turned into an act of in situ performance by the programmers. The third example illustrates the explorative and experiential nature of programming and debugging systems for specialised and autonomous interaction devices. This multitude in approaches in existing programming settings reveals an expanded perspective of what practices of interaction design consist of, emphasising the interlinking between design, programming, and performance with the system that is being developed.

2017

This paper describes Tica, an environment designed to explore the differences between tangible and screen based interfaces when teaching programming to children aged 5–7 years. Tica comprises several components: a tangible programming language and a screen based equivalent, an Android app to interpret the programming languages and record data, and a physical robot that can be programmed using either the tangible or screen-based language. Tica was designed using a learner-centred approach, with a specific focus on the needs and abilities of the target user group. Once implemented, an initial pilot study was carried out with 14 adults. Although participants using the screen-based interface completed problems more quickly than those using the tangible interface, participants using the tangible interface reported a higher level of enjoyment. Next steps include a more extensive study with the target population as well as some refinements to the Tica environment.

2019

In this paper, we introduce the project Filigree Robotics, which is a collaboration between an architect, a ceramic craftsperson, and a programmer. The focus is to examine and discuss how skills and embodied knowledge in different professional disciplines can be shared and applicable to one another in a collaborative practice. In the project, we aim to develop a computational tool that holds all the knowledge necessary to materialise a ceramic design that meets the architecture desired. It is necessary that the individual experiential knowledge, which each member has gained through practice, is shared and communicated in and through collaboration, and embodied in the output. For that purpose, the visual programming interface Grasshopper has provided our platform and environment for the collaboration. In the paper, we examine three phases within the collaboration. The first phase develops a common ground within the collaboration, reflected as the very genesis of shape in 3D printing ...

This paper consists of two parts: the first is a developing theory of three modes of thinking: embodied/proceptual/formal. The second part builds on long-established material from Tall (2000).

Proceedings of the 2011 annual conference extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems - CHI EA '11, 2011

For over ten years researchers in human-computer interaction (HCI) have explored an embodied perspective that seeks to describe and explain the fundamental role played by the physical body in how we experience, interact with and understand computation in the world we live in. Recently, such a perspective has been used to discuss human actions and interactions with a range of computational applications including tangibles, mobiles, wearables, tabletops and interactive environments. This workshop aims to enable participants to critically explore the different approaches to incorporating an embodied perspective in HCI research, and to develop a shared set of understandings and identification of differences, similarities and synergies between our research approaches.

Proceedings of the 2011 Iconference, 2011

This paper presents results from a video-based analysis of nonprogrammers' use of a new platform for end-user programming, the 3D Avatar Programming System (3DAPS). We use microethnographic analytic methods to understand how learning about programming occurs. We discuss how the management of internal and external cognitive representations of 3D movement information leverages existing, embodied knowledge to unravel less familiar knowledge-that of programmatic instruction. In other words, the 3D movement serves as the language of translation between the representations to support learning. We also examine how shared code is used as an educational resource in a learning environment without a teacher.

ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 2018

While recent work has begun to evaluate the efficacy of educational programming games, many common design decisions in these games (e.g., single player gameplay using touchpad or mouse) have not been explored for learning outcomes. For instance, alternative design approaches such as collaborative play and embodied interaction with tangibles may also provide important benefits to learners. To better understand how these design decisions impact learning and related factors, we created an educational programming game that allows for systematically varying input method and mode of play. In this paper, we describe design rationale for mouse and tangible versions of our game, and report a 2x2 factorial experiment comparing efficacy of mouse and tangible input methods with individual and collaborative modes of play. Results indicate tangibles have a greater positive impact on learning, situational interest, enjoyment, and programming self-beliefs. We also found collaborative play helps further reduce programming anxiety over individual play.