research-article

.NET gadgeteer: a new platform for K-12 computer science education

Authors:

Scarlet Schwiderski-Grosche,

Kerry Hammil,

Steven JohnstonAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '13: Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 391 - 396

https://doi.org/10.1145/2445196.2445315

Published: 06 March 2013 Publication History

Get Access

Abstract

In this paper we present the features of a new physical device prototyping platform called Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer along with our initial experiences using it to teach computer science in high schools. Gadgeteer makes it easy for newcomers to electronics and computing to plug together modules with varied functionality and to program the resulting system's behavior. We believe the platform is particularly suited to teaching modern programming concepts such as object-oriented, event-based programming and it could be a timely addition to established teaching tools given the current interest in improving high school computer science education in some regions. We have run a number of pilot studies in the US and in the UK with students of varying age and ability. Our results indicate that the tangible and expressive nature of Gadgeteer helps to engage and motivate a diverse set of students. We were also pleasantly surprised by the level of polish and sophistication of the devices which were built. We hope to further explore the potential of Gadgeteer for teaching in future work and we encourage others to build on our experiences.

References

[1]

Ben-Ari, M. Constructivism in Computer Science Education. In proceedings of the 29th SIGCSE Technical Symposium, ACM. 1998.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[2]

T. Brinda, H. Puhlmann and C. Schulte. Bridging ICT & CS - Educational Standards for Computer Science in Lower Secondary Education. In Proceedings of ITICSE, July 2009.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[3]

T. Crick and S. Sentance. Computing At School: Stimulating Computing Education in the UK. In Proceedings of the 11th Koli Calling International Conference on Computing Education Research, pages 122--123, ACM, 2011.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[4]

O. Hazzan, J. Gal-Ezer and L. Blum. A Model for High School Computer Science Education: The Four Key Elements That Make It! In Proceedings of the 39th SIGCSE Technical Symposium, pages 281--285. ACM, 2008.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[5]

A. Millner and E. Baafi. Modkit: Blending and Extending Approachable Platforms for Creating Computer Programs and Interactive Objects, In Proceedings of the 2011 ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[6]

S. Papert. Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas. Basic Books, 1993. 92053249.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[7]

M. Richards, M. Petre and A. K. Bandara. Starting with UbiComp: Using the Senseboard to Introduce Computing. In Proceedings of the 43rd SIGCSE Technical Symposium, pages 583--588, ACM, 2012.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[8]

The Royal Society. Shut Down or Restart? The Way Forward for Computing in UK Schools. Technical Report, January 2012 DES2448, The Royal Society, 2012.

Google Scholar

[9]

S. Sentance. Changes Afoot in the UK. CSTA Voice, Volume 8 Issue 3. July 2012. Available at: http://csta.acm.org/Communications/sub/CSTAVoice.html

Google Scholar

[10]

S. Sentence and S. Schwiderski-Grosche, Challenge and Creativity: Using .NET Gadgeteer in Schools, In Proceedings of the 7th Workshop on Primary and Secondary Computing Education, WIPCSE 2012.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[11]

N. Villar, J. Scott and S. Hodges. Prototyping with Microsoft .NET Gadgeteer. In Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, TEI '11, pages 377--380. ACM.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[12]

N. Villar, et al., .NET Gadgeteer: A Platform for Custom Devices. In Proceedings of Pervasive 2012, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

Digital Library

Google Scholar

[13]

C. Wilson, L. A. Sudol, C. Stephenson and M. Stehlik. Running on Empty: The Failure to Teach K-12 Computer Science in the Digital Age. Technical Report CSTA. 2010.

Google Scholar

[14]

J. Wing "Computational Thinking", Communications of the ACM, March 2006

Digital Library

Google Scholar

Cited By

View all

Beheshti MShah SZhang HBarnett MHira A(2024)Affordances of Technology for Sustainability-Oriented K–12 Informal Engineering EducationSustainability10.3390/su1616671916:16(6719)Online publication date: 6-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/su16166719
Swensen HSollid PPajchel KBrevik B(2024)10. Unyttige roboter: Teknologi som inngang til programmering for naturfaglærerstudenterFra forskningsfronten til klasserommet10.18261/9788215069548-24-10(209-234)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215069548-24-10
Hartley KRubegni EUnderwood LFinney JBall THodges SDe Halleux PDevine JAnderson EMoskal M(2024)Meet MicroCode: a Live and Portable Programming Tool for the BBC micro:bitProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3656995(355-370)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628516.3656995
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

.NET gadgeteer: a new platform for K-12 computer science education
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
2. Software and its engineering
  1. Software notations and tools
    1. Development frameworks and environments
      1. Integrated and visual development environments

Recommendations

Where Are We Now?: Results from a National Study of Computer Science Teachers and Teaching
SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

The National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education has provided nationally representative data about the status of K-12 science and mathematics education periodically over the past 40 years. In 2018, the sixth iteration of the study, the study's ...
CSTA K-12 CS Standards for All (Abstract Only)
SIGCSE '17: Proceedings of the 2017 ACM SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Computer Science education in the K-12 school system is in the forefront of education news. Schools, districts, and states are looking for guidance in developing and delivering standards-based computer science curriculum in K-12 schools, and many are ...
Building Computer Science K-12 PLCs in Rural Communities
SIGCSE '19: Proceedings of the 50th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

Computer science is in increasing demand at the K-12 level. However, due to a lack of qualified educators, numerous programs (e.g., Google's CS4HS, NSF's CSForAll) have been created to train teachers and increase student access to computer science. ...

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

SIGCSE '13: Proceeding of the 44th ACM technical symposium on Computer science education

March 2013

818 pages

ISBN:9781450318686

DOI:10.1145/2445196

Conference Chairs:
Tracy Camp
Colorado School of Mines
,
Paul Tymann
Rochester Institute of Technology
,
Program Chairs:
J. D. Dougherty
Haverford College
,
Kris Nagel
Georgia Gwinnett College

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 06 March 2013

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Research-article

Conference

SIGCSE '13

Sponsor:

SIGCSE

SIGCSE '13: The 44th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

March 6 - 9, 2013

Colorado, Denver, USA

Acceptance Rates

SIGCSE '13 Paper Acceptance Rate 111 of 293 submissions, 38%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

Upcoming Conference

SIGCSE TS 2025

Sponsor:
sigcse

The 56th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education

February 26 - March 1, 2025

Pittsburgh , PA , USA

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

24
Total Citations
View Citations
351
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)22
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)1

Reflects downloads up to 02 Feb 2025

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

Beheshti MShah SZhang HBarnett MHira A(2024)Affordances of Technology for Sustainability-Oriented K–12 Informal Engineering EducationSustainability10.3390/su1616671916:16(6719)Online publication date: 6-Aug-2024
https://doi.org/10.3390/su16166719
Swensen HSollid PPajchel KBrevik B(2024)10. Unyttige roboter: Teknologi som inngang til programmering for naturfaglærerstudenterFra forskningsfronten til klasserommet10.18261/9788215069548-24-10(209-234)Online publication date: 7-Nov-2024
https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215069548-24-10
Hartley KRubegni EUnderwood LFinney JBall THodges SDe Halleux PDevine JAnderson EMoskal M(2024)Meet MicroCode: a Live and Portable Programming Tool for the BBC micro:bitProceedings of the 23rd Annual ACM Interaction Design and Children Conference10.1145/3628516.3656995(355-370)Online publication date: 17-Jun-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3628516.3656995
Lambrichts MRamakers RHodges SDevine JUnderwood LFinney J(2023)CircuitGlueProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/35962657:2(1-30)Online publication date: 12-Jun-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3596265
Mukashev DRanasinghe NNittala A(2023)TactTongue: Prototyping ElectroTactile Stimulations on the TongueProceedings of the 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3586183.3606829(1-14)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3586183.3606829
Bianchi AHodges SCuartielles DOh HLambrichts MRoudaut A(2023)Beyond prototyping boards: future paradigms for electronics toolkitsExtended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544549.3573792(1-6)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544549.3573792
Mikkonen J(2022)What Properties Should A Computer-Aided UX Design Tool for Physical Computing Have?Adjunct Proceedings of the 2022 Nordic Human-Computer Interaction Conference10.1145/3547522.3547675(1-5)Online publication date: 8-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3547522.3547675
Potluri VThompson JDevine JLee BMorsi NDe Halleux PHodges SMankoff J(2022)PSST: Enabling Blind or Visually Impaired Developers to Author Sonifications of Streaming Sensor DataProceedings of the 35th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3526113.3545700(1-13)Online publication date: 29-Oct-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3526113.3545700
Zhu JSnowden JVerdejo JChen EZhang PGhaednia HSchwab JMueller S(2021)EIT-kit: An Electrical Impedance Tomography Toolkit for Health and Motion SensingThe 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3472749.3474758(400-413)Online publication date: 10-Oct-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3472749.3474758
Lambrichts MRamakers RHodges SCoppers SDevine J(2021)A Survey and Taxonomy of Electronics Toolkits for Interactive and Ubiquitous Device PrototypingProceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies10.1145/34635235:2(1-24)Online publication date: 24-Jun-2021
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3463523
Show More Cited By

View Options

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

PDF

eReader

View online with eReader.

eReader

Abstract

References

Cited By

Index Terms

Recommendations

Where Are We Now?: Results from a National Study of Computer Science Teachers and Teaching

CSTA K-12 CS Standards for All (Abstract Only)

Building Computer Science K-12 PLCs in Rural Communities

Comments

Information

Published In

Sponsors

Publisher

Publication History

Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Conference

Acceptance Rates

Upcoming Conference

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Login options

Full Access

View options

PDF

eReader

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media

Affiliations