Extensible Visual Programming Model for Modular Systems Targeting Novices

This paper presents a visual programming model with its entire flow starting from the visual program creation to the execution of the program on the target system. The introduced visual programming model is developed targeting modular hardware systems where the module specific execution of tasks is offloaded to the respective module. This model can be used on systems like robot kits and other module based programmable systems where modules have self-sufficient processing power, specially targeting STEM education. The nature of the target system and the message passing model of task execution have given this model the qualities like simplicity and extensibility. The generated executable consists of instructions that can be executed by the interpreter-like execution engine that resides in the central processing unit of the target system. This also gives the ability to directly execute instructions on the system without going through the traditional program translation process.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

Yasura Vithana

Hashini Senaratne

Conference

Publication date: July 2017

Publication date (Print): July 2017

Pages: 1-5

Affiliations

[0001]University of Moratuwa

Moratuwa, 10400, Sri Lanka

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2017.26

SO-VID: e43c14c0-75f6-47ce-a0e7-77d4a9bf7b53

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 31st International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference (HCI 2017)

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 31

Conference location: Sunderland, UK

Conference date: 3 - 6 July 2017

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: digital make-believe, with delegates considering our expansive

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2017.26

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

references

I. Kalas 2013 Integration of ICT in Early Childhood Education The World Conference on Computers in Education Poland 2-5 July 2013 217 225
T. J. KennedyR. L. Odell 2014 Engaging Students in STEM Education Science Education International 25 3 246 258
B. VanderborghtC. CiocciC. VandeveldeJ. Saldien 2013 Overview of Technologies for Building Robots in the Classroom The International Conf on Robotics in Education, Lodz, Poland 2013 122 130
J. A. Ejiwale 2013 Barriers to Successful Implementation of STEM Education Journal of Education and Learning 7 2
H. SenaratneP. GunatilakaU. GunaratnaY. VithanaC. de SilvaP. Fernando 2014 SiFEB - A Simple, Interactive and Extensible Robot Playmate for Kids 4th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence with Applications in Engineering and Technology, Malaysia 3-5 Dec 2014 143 148 IEEE
T. W. PriceT. Barnes 2015 Comparing Textual and Block Interfaces in a Novice Programming Environment The eleventh annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research, Nebraska, USA 9-13 July 2015 91 99 ACM, New York, USA
I. UttingS. CooperM. KollingJ. MaloneyM. Resnick 2010 Alice, Greenfoot, and Scratch - A Discussion. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 10 4
J. MaloneyM. ResnickN. RuskB. SilvermanE. Eastmond 2010 The Scratch Programming Language and Environment. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 10 4
P. MellodgeI. Russell 2013 Using the Arduino Platform to Enhance Student Learning Experiences The 18th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, England, UK 1-3 July 2013 338338 ACM, New York, USA
M. A. RubioC. M. HierroA. P. Pablo 2013 Using Arduino to Enhance Computer Programming Courses in Science and Engineering The EDULEARN13 Conference, Barcelona, Spain 1-3 July 2013 1527 1533
T. SapounidisS. Demetriadis 2013 Tangible versus graphical user interfaces for robot programming: exploring cross-age children's preferences Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 17 8 1775 1786
M. S. HornR. Jacob 2007 Tangible programming in the classroom with tern CHI '07 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, San Jose, California, USA 27 April 3 May 2007 1965 1970
Y. S. SefidgarP. AgarwalM. Cakmak 2017 Situated Tangible Robot Programming The 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Vienna, Austria 6-9 March 2017 473 482 ACM, New York, USA
M. B. MacLaurin 2011 The design of kodu: a tiny visual programming language for children on the Xbox 360 38th annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages, Austin 26-28 January 2011 241 246 ACM, New York, USA
J. MattilaA. Väätänen 2006 UbiPlay: an interactive playground and visual programming tools for children Conference on Interaction design and children, Tampere, Finland 7-9 June 2006 129 136
P. T. CoxS. Gauvin 2011 Controlled Dataflow Visual Programming Languages The 2011 Visual Information Communication -International Symposium, Hong Kong, China 4-5 August 2011 ACM, New York, USA
T. Griffin 2010 The Art of Lego Mindstorms NXT-G Programming 1st San Francisco
B. JostM. KetterlR. BuddeT. Leimbach 2014 Graphical Programming Environments for Educational Robots: Open Roberta - Yet another One? IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia 10-12 December 2014 381 386 IEEE
M. ResnickJ. MaloneyA. MonroyhernándezN. RuskE. EastmondK. BrennanA. MillnerE. RosenbaumJ. SilverB. SilvermanY. Kafai 2009 Scratch: programming for all.Communications of the ACM 52 11 60 67 ACM, New York, USA
A. MillnerE. Baafi 2011 Modkit: Blending and Extending Approachable Platforms for Creating Computer Programs and Interactive Objects The 10th International Conf. on Interaction Design and Children, Ann Arbor, USA 20-23 June 2011 2 5 ACM, New York, USA

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] I. Kalas 2013 Integration of ICT in Early Childhood Education The World Conference on Computers in Education Poland 2-5 July 2013 217 225

[2] T. J. KennedyR. L. Odell 2014 Engaging Students in STEM Education Science Education International 25 3 246 258

[3] B. VanderborghtC. CiocciC. VandeveldeJ. Saldien 2013 Overview of Technologies for Building Robots in the Classroom The International Conf on Robotics in Education, Lodz, Poland 2013 122 130

[4] J. A. Ejiwale 2013 Barriers to Successful Implementation of STEM Education Journal of Education and Learning 7 2

[5] H. SenaratneP. GunatilakaU. GunaratnaY. VithanaC. de SilvaP. Fernando 2014 SiFEB - A Simple, Interactive and Extensible Robot Playmate for Kids 4th International Conference on Artificial Intelligence with Applications in Engineering and Technology, Malaysia 3-5 Dec 2014 143 148 IEEE

[6] T. W. PriceT. Barnes 2015 Comparing Textual and Block Interfaces in a Novice Programming Environment The eleventh annual International Conference on International Computing Education Research, Nebraska, USA 9-13 July 2015 91 99 ACM, New York, USA

[7] I. UttingS. CooperM. KollingJ. MaloneyM. Resnick 2010 Alice, Greenfoot, and Scratch - A Discussion. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 10 4

[8] J. MaloneyM. ResnickN. RuskB. SilvermanE. Eastmond 2010 The Scratch Programming Language and Environment. ACM Transactions on Computing Education 10 4

[9] P. MellodgeI. Russell 2013 Using the Arduino Platform to Enhance Student Learning Experiences The 18th ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education, England, UK 1-3 July 2013 338338 ACM, New York, USA

[10] M. A. RubioC. M. HierroA. P. Pablo 2013 Using Arduino to Enhance Computer Programming Courses in Science and Engineering The EDULEARN13 Conference, Barcelona, Spain 1-3 July 2013 1527 1533

[11] T. SapounidisS. Demetriadis 2013 Tangible versus graphical user interfaces for robot programming: exploring cross-age children's preferences Personal and Ubiquitous Computing 17 8 1775 1786

[12] M. S. HornR. Jacob 2007 Tangible programming in the classroom with tern CHI '07 Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems, San Jose, California, USA 27 April 3 May 2007 1965 1970

[13] Y. S. SefidgarP. AgarwalM. Cakmak 2017 Situated Tangible Robot Programming The 2017 ACM/IEEE International Conference on Human-Robot Interaction, Vienna, Austria 6-9 March 2017 473 482 ACM, New York, USA

[14] M. B. MacLaurin 2011 The design of kodu: a tiny visual programming language for children on the Xbox 360 38th annual ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT symposium on Principles of programming languages, Austin 26-28 January 2011 241 246 ACM, New York, USA

[15] J. MattilaA. Väätänen 2006 UbiPlay: an interactive playground and visual programming tools for children Conference on Interaction design and children, Tampere, Finland 7-9 June 2006 129 136

[16] P. T. CoxS. Gauvin 2011 Controlled Dataflow Visual Programming Languages The 2011 Visual Information Communication -International Symposium, Hong Kong, China 4-5 August 2011 ACM, New York, USA

[17] T. Griffin 2010 The Art of Lego Mindstorms NXT-G Programming 1st San Francisco

[18] B. JostM. KetterlR. BuddeT. Leimbach 2014 Graphical Programming Environments for Educational Robots: Open Roberta - Yet another One? IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia 10-12 December 2014 381 386 IEEE

[19] M. ResnickJ. MaloneyA. MonroyhernándezN. RuskE. EastmondK. BrennanA. MillnerE. RosenbaumJ. SilverB. SilvermanY. Kafai 2009 Scratch: programming for all.Communications of the ACM 52 11 60 67 ACM, New York, USA

[20] A. MillnerE. Baafi 2011 Modkit: Blending and Extending Approachable Platforms for Creating Computer Programs and Interactive Objects The 10th International Conf. on Interaction Design and Children, Ann Arbor, USA 20-23 June 2011 2 5 ACM, New York, USA

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