Murmel Code
DEVELOPED IN SOLID TEAMWORK w/ ELVIRA SCHNEIDER AND WOLFGANG ALBRECHT.
Many of the core concepts of programming are difficult to grasp, even for students of programming classes. These difficulties increase the barrier to work creatively with computers by programming them and therefore leaves programming and computerbased innovation to a small, skilled group of ‘nerds’. To allow a wider group of people to overcome above mentioned difficulties, we are suggesting tangible artefacts for pre-school kids allowing them to explore core concepts of programming through an open and playful manner. In-sito observation of pre-school kids interacting with these artefacts and structured interview before and after the interaction phase indicates that these artefacts are easing the understanding of core-concepts of programming.
Through several iteration cycles, it was possible on the one hand to include children's reactions early in the development process, to confirm or to revise assumptions, and to develop the further structure.
Insightful was the childrens' rapid initiation of alternative utility models in the flow of the game, which we as "developers" had not anticipated - or expected in a more complicated way for later iterations.