We are currently studying how people can effectively learn programming languages by analyzing the languages themselves in an attempt to identify, test, and mitigate built-assumptions that may limit or hinder the learning process at early ages. To date, much of our work has focused on Scratch, a blocks-based programming environment built to be accessible to minors, and Pencil Code, an environment that provides blocks-based and text representations of production languages, and in which users can switch between blocks and text modes in real time. We are working on this project with Dr. Christina Gardner-McCune and the Engage Learning laboratory at UF.
The Team
Jeremiah Blanchard
Dr. Lisa Anthony
Dr. Christina Gardner-McCune
Bridging Publications
Refereed Conference Papers
1. Blanchard, J., Gardner-McCune, C., and Anthony, L. 2019. Effects of Code Representation on Student Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Programming. Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages & Human-Centric Computing (VL/HCC’2019), Memphis, TN, USA, October 14-18, 2019, Pages 127-131. [PDF]
2. J. Blanchard, C. Gardner-McCune, L. Anthony. 2016. Hybrid environments: a bridge from blocks to text. In Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on International Computing Education Research (ICER2017). ACM Press, New York, NY. 295-296.
Refereed Conference Posters
3. Blanchard, J., Gardner-McCune, C., Anthony, L. 2018. How Perceptions of Programming Differ in Children with and without Prior Experience. Proceedings of the ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE’2018), Baltimore, Maryland, February 21 – 24, 2018, pages 1099-1099. [PDF]
Refereed Workshop Papers
4. J. Blanchard, C. Gardner-McCune, L. Anthony. 2015. Bridging Educational Programming and Production Languages. Paper for the “Every Child a Coder” workshop, ACM Conference on Interaction and Design and Children (IDC’2015), Boston, MA, 21 June 2015. [PDF]
Theses
5. Blanchard, J.J. 2020. Building Bridges: Dual-Modality Instruction and Introductory Programming Coursework. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Computer and Information Science and Engineering, University of Florida. May 2020. [PDF]