Dolittle: an object-oriented language for K12 education
Susumu Kanemune, Yasushi Kuno · 2005
We introduce Dolittle, an object-oriented (O-O) programming language suitable for K12 education. One of the authors developed a LOGO interpreter named Logob in 1990 and it was used in many schools in Japan. However, today's software is largely dependent on object-orientation, and modern software elements such as GUI components or animated graphics, which we consider mandatory to attract children's interests, are difficult to use without O-O. Therefore we have developed Dolittle in year 2000. Dolittle adopts prototypebased O-O (as in Self or JavaScript), so children can use O-O without learning complex constructs like class or inheritance. To ease children's learning, Dolittle programs can be expressed in multiple localized languages, e.g. Japanese, Korean, English, and so on. In this paper, we describe outline of the language, along with our experiences in elementary, junior-high and high school classrooms. Finally, we introduce two applications of Dolittle that we are currently working on: distributed programming in a junior high school and collaboration programming between some countries.