Programming fundamentals and innovation taught through windows media player skin creation

Authors:
Todd Shurn
Affiliations:
Howard University, Washington, DC
Venue:
Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education
Year:
2006

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Abstract

Windows Media Player user interface "skin" creation has proven an extremely effective method to reinforce practical object oriented programming techniques. Skin creation motivated non-engineers, women and even high school students to learn XML, and Jscript scripting language. Non-computer science students were especially excited when their custom media player user interface operated as intended. Many students demonstrated their skin to potential employers as evidence of their creativity and programming prowess.This paper discusses how skin programming is related to the object oriented paradigm and may be used as an exemplary collegiate interdisciplinary design project. Examples illustrate how skin creation can emphasize design principles, fundamental programming concepts, and group software development. Software innovation is advanced via novel windows media player skins incorporating recently released features to provide an enhanced user interface for a target domain.