Teach Kids to Program

Problem
Much of the hype about children learning on the Internet focuses on information--information delivery (distance education), information retrieval (net surfing), and information sharing. While these are useful applications, some of the most innovative uses of the net with kids have nothing to do with information, but instead use the net as a context for collaborative learning. MOOSE Crossing is a text-based virtual reality environment (or "MUD") designed to give kids 8 to 13 a meaningful context for reading, writing, and computer programming. Kids on MOOSE Crossing learn by building the virtual world, creating new places, and objects that have behaviors. They are learning creative writing and object-oriented programming in their spare time for fun.

The philosophy of education behind this project, "constructionism," advocates learning by working on personally meaningful projects. While the emphasis is on learning by doing and learning from peers, kids need scaffolding to support their learning experiences. In this project, you will write a tutorial to teach kids a new programming concept.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Register for a character on MOOSE Crossing by following the instructions here. Connect to MOOSE Crossing from a Macintosh using MacMOOSE. (The Java version is not yet finished.)
2. Once connected, type "help tutorial" to see the existing tutorials. Do the three-part dog tutorial. (Hint: use the help option from the MOOSE menu to view your tutorial in a separate window.)
3. Read the "remote" tutorial. This was done by a 7100 student, Jim Davies, last year. It's an excellent example of what I'm looking for. From the tutorial list, glance at a few that are marked "advanced" in difficulty. These are nice work, but are NOT what I'm looking for.
4. Have a look around MOOSE Crossing. Examine some of the children's objects. Read help messages to clarify things.
5. Do the background reading. (See below.)
6. Make an object or two of your own.
7. Write your own tutorial, teaching kids how to make your object. It should introduce a new concept not covered in one of the other tutorials. I suggest you email me your idea or make an appointment to meet with me before you start. Pay close attention to the style of your writing. MOOSE tutorials are written in first person, in a chatty, friendly style. Minimize the use of big words. Some suggestions for tutorial topics are:
   • Use of string constants in script argument specifications (for example: on tickle this "with"/"using" "feather"). See "help argument" for background info for this and the next two project suggestions.
   • The difference between more and less specific object-matching argument types ("person", "this", and "here" versus "object").
   • The difference between local argument matching ("person", "here") and global ("any_person", "room").
   • Extremely simple "if" statements. Some of the complicated tutorials handle conditionals, but there's nothing at the easy level.
   • "For" loops.
   • "While" loops, and what to do if one accidentally keeps going and going. (This is a more challenging project.)
   • Using the time in programs (See "help time").
   • Inputting things from the user ("input" versus "input_lines").
   • Asking questions ("yes_or_no", "question").
8. Mail Elizabeth Edwards (lizzie@cc.gatech.edu) asking to give you a place in the help system to put your tutorial online. (This is done by creating a property on the help database owned by you, where the name of the property is your tutorial name.)
9. Ask a kid to do your tutorial and give you comments on it. If you really can't find a kid, ask someone else in 7100 to do it.
10. Revise your tutorial based on comments from your tester. Update the online version.
11. Mail me the name of your tutorial, and that you're ready for me to review it. I will send you comments.
12. Revise your tutorial based on my comments, and update the online version.

• Community Support for Constructionist Learning
• Pianos, Not Stereos: Creating Computational Construction Kits

• Text of your tutorial.
• A 2500-word report (about 5 pages). Longer is OK, but not necessary. Address the following items:
  • How you chose the topic of your tutorial, and what you hope kids will learn from it.
  • How you revised your tutorial based on feedback from kids. Did anything surprise you about their feedback?
  • Is there anything you would change about the MOOSE language to make it easier for kids, or a better learning tool?