Moving to Learn: Exploring the Impact of Physical Embodiment in Educational Programming Games

There has been increasing attention paid to the necessity of Computational Thinking (CT) and CS education in recent years. To address this need, a broad spectrum of animation programming environments and games have been created to engage learners. However, most of these tools are designed for the touchpad/mouse and keyboard, and few have been evaluated to assess their efficacy in developing CT/programming skills. This is problematic when trying to understand the validity of such designs for CS education, and whether there are alternative approaches that may prove more effective. My dissertation work helps address this problem. After creating a framework based on a meta-review that carefully dissects embodiment strategies in learning games, I am building and evaluating tangible and augmented reality versions of a CT game. I plan to examine how these different forms of physical interaction help to facilitate and enhance meaning-making during the learning process, and whether/how they improve related learning factors such as self-belief and enjoyment.