Kodu as first programming language in primary school
Urška Glastovec · PeFprints (University of Ljubljana) · 2012
In this thesis we present the programming environment Kodu Game Lab, which is intended for primary school pupils in learning introductory programming. With this programming environment pupils learn the basics of programming and algorithmic thinking. We performed an empirical study with the aim of checking the adequacy of the environment for introduction to programming. We also presented Kodu Game Lab to pupils in the third triad in selected primary school. Pupils with making their own games and animations, through problem-based learning, learn basic programming concepts such as objects, variables, and conditional sentences. Visual programming languages are getting more and more popular for the beginnings of programming. To pupils are easier to understand, since they are programming with the manipulation of visual objects. So they can gradually get used to the complexity of programming and algorithmic thinking. Visual programming environments provide not only learning but also having fun. In the visual programming pupils also do not need any knowledge of programming language syntax. Therefore, we summarize some of their general features and characteristics, before we focused on Kodu Game Lab.