How preschool children used a behaviour-based programming tool

Authors:
Mikael Kindborg;Per Sökjer
Affiliations:
Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden;Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
Venue:
Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Interaction design and children
Year:
2007

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Abstract

This paper presents a study of how five-year-old preschool children used a behaviour-based visual programming toolkit called Magic Words. The system represents behaviours with contextual word pads that are placed on graphical characters. The purpose of the study was to see how the children would use the tool when playing with it in an open-ended way. Our conclusion is that behaviour-based programming with contextual signs has a high level of directness, but support is needed to learn behaviours that do not give instant feedback.