Caitlin Kelleher
Randy Pausch
Abstract
Using the Storytelling Alice programming environment to create computer-animated movies inspires middle school girls' interest in learning to program computers.
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Index Terms
- Using storytelling to motivate programming
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Reviews
Susan M. Merritt
This very important and readable paper addresses important propositions, including: we must increase the number of students studying computer science (CS) in the US. We cannot possibly consider this increase a success if we double the number of students majoring in CS, while further reducing the percentage of CS majors who are women. Therefore, we must find a way to increase the number of female students studying CS. The Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) found that between 2000 and 2005, the number of first-year college students listing CS as their probable major dropped by 70 percent in the US. (This is not a surprise to those of us who are in colleges and universities.) Moreover, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) indicates that 65 percent of all jobs between 2004 and 2014 will be in information technology (IT). But, more important, CS and IT are essential to a broad (perhaps complete) spectrum of fields, including business, medicine, media, education, science, and engineering. We must increase the number of students studying CS in the US. Doubling the number of students majoring in CS is not a success when the percentage of CS majors who are women is reducing. Right now, it is reported by the 2005 Taulbee survey that 84.9 percent of bachelor's degrees in the US in CS were awarded to men. One factor that is believed to be significant in the loss of CS undergraduates is that the first course, generally a programming course, is perceived as boring (at best), or, as the authors say, uninspiring. The applications are typically computing specific, such as sorting a list of numbers or searching for a single number. (While some of us enjoy this, it is easy to see that it might not capture the imagination of the modern teenager.) An approach that seemed to some to have promise was to introduce computer gaming (that is, the creation of video games) into the first course, or into the curriculum in general. The authors indicate that between 2000 and 2005, the number of computer-gaming major programs in North America grew from 12 to 100. An interesting fact, reported in 2006 by Electronic Gaming Monthly , is that 92 percent of students who are serious gamers are male. A marketing study provided by Netshelter found, through a Web site survey, that serious gamers are 97.5 percent male. And, thus, the proposition here: we cannot possibly consider this a success. More than ever before, as we are challenged to meet the diverse needs of a global economy-one in which women participate in the economy in ever greater numbers throughout the world-we cannot possibly consider it a success if we increase the number of CS majors but further decrease the number of women. This paper is an important description of a successful experiment using the Storytelling Alice programming environment, which introduces computer programming to middle-school girls as a means to the end of creating animated movies. The goal is to inspire the girls (aged 11 to 15, from diverse backgrounds, and chosen from among Pittsburgh Girl Scout groups), and to engage them successfully in programming. Storytelling Alice, which will become part of Alice 3.0, is an object-oriented (OO) programming language, based on Alice 2.0, or Generic Alice. It was created at Carnegie Mellon University, and enables beginning programmers to create three-dimensional (3D) virtual worlds. Generic Alice was developed in response to the assumption that learning to program is a difficult endeavor. Users program by dragging and dropping code elements, thus removing the possibility of making syntax errors-mistakes can be seen as they occur. Other programming concepts, such as looping, conditionals, methods, parameters, variables, arrays, and recursion, are learned relatively easily in the environment. The girls guided the improvements to Generic Alice; they described and narrated what they wanted to build in their computer-animated movies. The paper describes three major changes to the Alice system: the addition of high-level animations and support for creating multiple scenes, that is, richer movies; a library of 3D characters and scenery to help spark story ideas; and a story-based tutorial, presented through an interaction technique called stencils, that is spatially overlaid on top of the running application, and that moderates the complexity and enables better storytelling. In 2003, the ACM K-12 Task Force Curriculum Committee released a model curriculum for K-12 students. It suggested that ninth- and tenth-grade students be introduced to five programming concepts: variables and data; managing complexity through OO design; procedures and parameters; sequences, conditionals, and loops; and tools for expressing design. The authors state that most of these are naturally introduced through storytelling. They found that girls using Storytelling Alice were more motivated to program, found the opportunity for self expression, had the opportunity to think through issues encountered in real life, and were able to work with friends and classmates. The authors conclude with the critical summary proposition: while we must increase the number of CS students, we will not be successful unless we find ways to increase that number with gender (and certainly ethnic) diversity. Only then will we educate the computer scientists so urgently needed in our global world. Online Computing Reviews Service
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