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Playing with metaphors: a methodology to design video games for learning abstract programming concepts

Authors:

Jeisson Hidalgo-Céspedes,

Gabriela Marín-Raventós,

Vladimir Lara-VillagránAuthors Info & Claims

ITiCSE '14: Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Innovation & technology in computer science education

Page 348

https://doi.org/10.1145/2591708.2602661

Published: 21 June 2014 Publication History

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Abstract

Learning to program a computer is a difficult task for many Computer Science students. Constructivism theory states that learning is unavoidably done through association of new concepts with existing ones. In order to learn abstract programming concepts, like memory indirection and execution threads, students must build them upon life experience concepts. We hypothesize that easing the association process by using metaphors, and letting students program them directly through video games, can foster learning of abstract concepts. We propose a methodology to design video games under this principle, and provide an example using metaphors for difficult abstract programming concepts.

References

[1]

Bogoyavlensky, D.N. and Menchinskaya, N.A. 201 La psicología del aprendizaje desde 1900 a 1960. Psicología y pedagogía. Ediciones Akal. 119--188.

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[2]

Foriék, M. and Steinová, M. 2012. Metaphors and analogies for teaching algorithms. SIGCSE '12, 15.

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Waguespack, L.J. 1989. Visual metaphors for teaching programming concepts. ACM SIGCSE Bulletin, 141--145.

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Cited By

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Sotoudeh MThakur AKell SVerna D(2020)Analogy-making as a Core primitive in the software engineering toolboxProceedings of the 2020 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software10.1145/3426428.3426918(101-121)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3426428.3426918
de Deus WBarbosa E(2020)An Exploratory Study on the Availability of Open Educational Resources to Support the Teaching and Learning of Programming2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274202(1-9)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274202

Index Terms

Playing with metaphors: a methodology to design video games for learning abstract programming concepts
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

ITiCSE '14: Proceedings of the 2014 conference on Innovation & technology in computer science education

June 2014

378 pages

ISBN:9781450328333

DOI:10.1145/2591708

Conference Chairs:
Åsa Cajander
Uppsala University, Sweden
,
Mats Daniels
Uppsala University, Sweden
,
Program Chairs:
Tony Clear
Auckland University of Technology, NZ
,
Arnold Pears
Uppsala University, Sweden

Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all 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 third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the Owner/Author.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 21 June 2014

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ITICSE '14

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Bilkent University
SIGCSE

ITICSE '14: Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education Conference 2014

June 21 - 25, 2014

Uppsala, Sweden

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ITiCSE '14 Paper Acceptance Rate 36 of 164 submissions, 22%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 552 of 1,613 submissions, 34%

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Sotoudeh MThakur AKell SVerna D(2020)Analogy-making as a Core primitive in the software engineering toolboxProceedings of the 2020 ACM SIGPLAN International Symposium on New Ideas, New Paradigms, and Reflections on Programming and Software10.1145/3426428.3426918(101-121)Online publication date: 18-Nov-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3426428.3426918
de Deus WBarbosa E(2020)An Exploratory Study on the Availability of Open Educational Resources to Support the Teaching and Learning of Programming2020 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274202(1-9)Online publication date: 21-Oct-2020
https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE44824.2020.9274202

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Recommendations

Using game design mechanics as metaphors to enhance learning of introductory programming concepts

Allegories for learning abstract programming concepts

Animation Metaphors for Object-Oriented Concepts