Vviewpoints
DOI: 10.1145/2160718.2160729
education
Programming Goes
Back to School
EDUCATIoNAl ProGrAMMING eNVIroNMeNTS have tried to broaden the participation of women and minorities in computer science education
by making programming more exciting
and accessible. Starting in 1991, our
research at the University of Colorado
with AgentSheets explored the idea of
supporting students with game design
and simulation building through drag-and-drop interfaces. Early on, AgentSheets enabled students to build and
share their creations through the Web4
and more recently AgentCubes3 is exploring the idea of 3D fluency through
gentle slope 3D. Others followed with
slightly different aims. For instance,
Alice explored the idea of storytelling
and Scratch the idea of animation.
However, the point of this column is
not to compare programming environments but to explore why programming is still not used in public schools,
and particularly middle schools, in
spite of these tools.
While the broadening participation situation at the high school level
still looks bleak1 it is much worse at
the middle school level.
5 To the degree
that programming is found at middle
schools at all, it is usually offered as after-school programs. Middle school is
an essential period of life during which
students, especially girls and minority students, make decisive but often-unfortunate career decisions such as
“science is not for me.” How can we
shift middle school computer science
the ability to create
a playable game is
essential if students
are to reach a
profound, personally
changing “Wow, i can
do this” realization.
education from isolated after-school
efforts to a systemic model in which
computer science is integrated into
the school curriculum and taught in
required classes at districtwide levels?
Our Scalable Game Design Initiative,
with over 8,000 participants, is showing
great initial promise and is formulating a new approach in various settings
that include inner city, remote rural,
and Native American communities. But
before I describe our strategies and results, I will begin with a story.
Six years ago one of our teachers de-
cided to use AgentSheets to introduce
game design as a programming activ-
ity in his regular computer education
class. Previously, his class was limited
to topics such as keyboarding and Pow-
erPoint. When I visited his class for the
first time, I was truly surprised. I im-
mediately noticed a completely differ-
ent participant composition. Instead
of the typical single girl found in the
computer club, about 50% of the stu-
dents were female—there was also a
large percentage of minority students.
I asked students if they liked the game
design activity. They did. However,
many also indicated they would never
have gone to a Friday afternoon com-
puter club to do programming. One
student summarized her perception
of computer science as “hard and bor-
ing.” The basically universal excite-
ment about game design in a required
class suggested a strategy to simulta-
neously increase the exposure of stu-
dent interest in computer science and
broaden participation.
