The Prototype of a Story Book Based Platform for Preschool Programming Education

Authors

  • Chun-Hsiung Tseng Yuan Ze University
  • Jia-Rou Lin
  • Yung-Hui Chen

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18063/bdci.v3i1.1098

Keywords:

KidsCoding, Programming, KidsEducation

Abstract

The importance of learning how to program can never be over-estimated. Even though there are already programming-learning applications for young children, most of the applications in this field are designed for children in the elementary school age or even above. Teaching younger children, for example, preschool kids, how to program appears more challenging. From our survey, it appears that even preschool kids can understand how to do programming and the question is simply which tools to use. Preschool kids usually start their reading from picture books. They learn mathematics, arts, histories, and a lot of knowledge with picture books. The goal of this research is to propose a platform for story tellers, illustrators, and programming education experts to cooperate to build picture books to teach preschool kids how to program. At this very initial stage, the platform is developed as a Web application and hence it can be easily accessed by various devices via Web browsers. The platform consists of a lean story editor, a picture book editor, and a programming concept editor.

Author Biography

Chun-Hsiung Tseng, Yuan Ze University

Chun-Hsiung received his B.S. in computer science from National National ChengChi University, and received both M.S. and Ph.D. in computer science from National Taiwan University. He was a research assistant of Institute of Information Science, Academia Sinica in 2003-2010. He was a faculty member of Department of Computer Information and Network Engineering, Lunghwa University of Science and Technology in 2010-2013. His current position is a faculty member of Department of Communications Engineering, Yuan Ze University. His research interests include big data analysis, crowd intelligence, e-learning systems, and Web information extraction.

References

Aivaloglou, E., & Hermans, F. (2016, August). How kids code and how we know: An exploratory study on the Scratch repository. In Proceedings of the 2016 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (pp. 53-61). ACM.

Bau, D., Bau, D. A., Dawson, M., & Pickens, C. (2015, June). Pencil code: block code for a text world. In Proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 445-448). ACM.

Clements, D. H., & Gullo, D. F. (1984). Effects of computer programming on young children's cognition. Journal of Educational psychology, 76(6), 1051.

Corneliussen, H. G., & Prøitz, L. (2016). Kids Code in a rural village in Norway: Could code clubs be a new arena for increasing girls' digital interest and competence?. Information, Communication & Society, 19(1), 95-110. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2015.1093529

Duncan, C., Bell, T., & Tanimoto, S. (2014, November). Should your 8-year-old learn coding?. In Proceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education (pp. 60-69). ACM.

Duncan, C., Bell, T., & Tanimoto, S. (2014, November). Should your 8-year-old learn coding?. In Proceedings of the 9th Workshop in Primary and Secondary Computing Education (pp. 60-69). ACM.

Fessakis, G., Gouli, E., & Mavroudi, E. (2013). Problem solving by 5-6 years old kindergarten children in a computer programming environment: A case study. Computers & Education, 63, 87-97.

Flannery, L. P., Silverman, B., Kazakoff, E. R., Bers, M. U., Bontá, P., & Resnick, M. (2013, June). Designing ScratchJr: Support for early childhood learning through computer programming. In Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 1-10). ACM.

Manches, A., & Plowman, L. (2017). Computing education in children's early years: A call for debate. British Journal of Educational Technology, 48(1), 191-201.

Martinez, C., Gomez, M. J., & Benotti, L. (2015, June). A comparison of preschool and elementary school children learning computer science concepts through a multilanguage robot programming platform. In Proceedings of the 2015 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (pp. 159-164). ACM.

Papadakis, S., Kalogiannakis, M., & Zaranis, N. (2016). Developing fundamental programming concepts and computational thinking with ScratchJr in preschool education: a case study. International Journal of Mobile Learning and Organisation, 10(3), 187-202.

Pea, R. D. (1987). Logo programming and problem solving.

Prensky, M. (2003). Digital game-based learning. Computers in Entertainment (CIE), 1(1), 21-21.

Price, S., Jewitt, C., & Crescenzi, L. (2015). The role of iPads in pre-school children's mark making development. Computers & Education, 87, 131-141. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2015.04.003

Sáez-López, J. M., Román-González, M., & Vázquez-Cano, E. (2016). Visual programming languages integrated across the curriculum in elementary school: A two year case study using “Scratch” in five schools. Computers & Education, 97, 129-141.

Strawhacker, A., & Bers, M. U. (2015). “I want my robot to look for food”: Comparing Kindergartner’s programming comprehension using tangible, graphic, and hybrid user interfaces. International Journal of Technology and Design Education, 25(3), 293-319.

Sullivan, A. A., Bers, M. U., & Mihm, C. (2017). Imagining, Playing, and Coding with KIBO: Using Robotics to Foster Computational Thinking in Young Children. Siu-cheung KONG The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 110.

Weintrop, D., & Wilensky, U. (2017). Comparing block-based and text-based programming in high school computer science classrooms. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 18(1), 3.

Werner, L., Denner, J., & Campe, S. (2015). Children programming games: A strategy for measuring computational learning. ACM Transactions on Computing Education (TOCE), 14(4), 24. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2677091.

Downloads

Published

2019-12-05

Issue

Vol 3, No 1 (Published)

Section

Original Research Articles

License

Authors contributing to Whioce Publishing Pte. Ltd. agree to publish their articles under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 International License, allowing third parties to share their work (copy, distribute, transmit) and to adapt it, under the condition that the authors are given credit, that the work is not used for commercial purposes, and that in the event of reuse or distribution, the terms of this license are made clear.