Strawbies: explorations in tangible programming

In this demo we present Strawbies, a realtime tangible programming game designed for children ages 5 to 10. Strawbies is played by constructing physical programs out of wooden tiles in front of an iPad. This interaction is made possible with the use of an Osmo play system that includes a mirror to reflect images in front of the iPad through the front-facing camera. We combined this system with the TopCodes computer vision library for fast and reliable image recognition. Here we describe a set of principles that guided our iterative design process along with an overview of testing sessions with children that informed our most recent instantiation of Strawbies.

[1]  Eric Rosenbaum,et al.  Scratch: programming for all , 2009, Commun. ACM.

[2]  Mitchel Resnick,et al.  Designing ScratchJr: support for early childhood learning through computer programming , 2013, IDC.

[3]  Marina Umaschi Bers,et al.  Tangible interaction and learning: the case for a hybrid approach , 2012, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[4]  Michael S. Horn,et al.  Translating Roberto to Omar: computational literacy, stickerbooks, and cultural forms , 2013, IDC.

[5]  Peta Wyeth,et al.  How Young Children Learn to Program With Sensor, Action, and Logic Blocks , 2008 .

[6]  Seymour Papert,et al.  Mindstorms: Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas , 1981 .

[7]  Allison Druin,et al.  Tools for children to create physical interactive storyrooms , 2004, CIE.

[8]  Michael S. Horn.  The role of cultural forms in tangible interaction design , 2013, TEI '13.

[9]  David Weintrop,et al.  Robobuilder: a computational thinking game (abstract only) , 2013, SIGCSE '13.

[10]  Arnan Sipitakiat,et al.  Robo-Blocks: designing debugging abilities in a tangible programming system for early primary school children , 2012, IDC '12.

[11]  Ian Oakley,et al.  The digital dream lab: tabletop puzzle blocks for exploring programmatic concepts , 2013, TEI '13.

[12]  P. Twining.  Oversold and underused: computers in the classroom , 2002 .

[13]  Paulo Blikstein,et al.  Dr. Wagon: a 'stretchable' toolkit for tangible computer programming , 2013, IDC.

[14]  DemetriadisStavros,et al.  Tangible versus graphical user interfaces for robot programming , 2013 .

[15]  Timothy S. McNerney.  From turtles to Tangible Programming Bricks: explorations in physical language design , 2004, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.

[16]  Glen Bull,et al.  Children, Computers, and Powerful Ideas. , 2005 .

[17]  Andrea A. diSessa,et al.  Changing Minds: Computers, Learning, and Literacy , 2000 .

[18]  湯淺 太一,et al.  20世紀の名著名論:Seymour Papert: Mindstorms:Children Computers and Powerful Ideas Basic Books New York 1980 , 2005 .

[19]  Mark D. Gross,et al.  The robot is the program: interacting with roBlocks , 2008, Tangible and Embedded Interaction.

[20]  Stavros N. Demetriadis,et al.  Tangible versus graphical user interfaces for robot programming: exploring cross-age children’s preferences , 2013, Personal and Ubiquitous Computing.