ITR: Universal Access to Programming--A Cross-Generation Learning Community

EIA-0081102

Rosson, Mary

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

ITR: Universal Access to Programming-- A Cross-Generational Learning

Community

Issues of lifelong learning can be addressed by informal education--

voluntary and self-directed learning activities taking place in diverse

settings (often outside traditional classrooms) that incorporate a variety

of learning methods and are motivated by intrinsic interests such as

curiosity, completion of a task itself, or social interaction. The

voluntary and self-directed nature of these informal activities make them

ideal for reaching populations outside traditional education settings.

With respect to informal education on programming, modern visual simulation

environments have many features that make them appealing. This research

will investigate the effectiveness of a state-of-the-art simulation

programming environment as support for informal education of a diverse

population of end-user programmers within the context of an ongoing

research project on community network infrastructure. Key research

objectives include:

* Characterization of the programming literacy gained through visual

simulation programming and a determination of how this knowledge and its

accusation is mediated by the maturity and background of end users.

* Analysis of the role of the existing local community as a learning

community in building and maintaining the programming skills of end users

of varying ages and roles.

* Prototyping and evaluating a framework for cumulating and sharing the

artifacts and practices of end-user programming within the learning

community.